Your strategic plan is coming to an end and you are facing the prospect of creating a new one. After initial discussions, you find that some board or staff think that the expiring strategic plan is still relevant and why not refresh it instead of starting again? Sound familiar? Sound tempting? Here are the questions we ask to help an organization decide if refreshing their expiring strategic plan is the right course of action.
Read more »Planning
Strategic Layers in Planning
It is easy to get confused or distracted by all the jargon used in strategic planning: goals, tactics, strategies, directions, objectives, issues, activities, etc. No matter what terms you use, the information in a nonprofit strategic plan is often organized in layers. Understanding the purpose of these layers reduces the importance of their names, clarifies
Read more »Rescuing Outcomes from Measurement
Measurable outcomes is a phrase we hear a lot in nonprofit management. It comes from the practice of outcomes management or performance management – i.e. “What gets measured gets done” – and gets used a lot in planning, grant writing, and evaluation. We want measurable outcomes because they help us set achievable goals (think SMART
Read more »Understanding Nonprofit Strategic Planning
In this full-day workshop, participants will learn the essential questions and components of strategic planning and its implementation, discuss the different purposes and types of strategic planning, and consider who should be involved.
Read more »Creating Mission and Vision Statements from a Theory of Change
Writing or updating mission and vision statements can be a frustrating “design by committee” process. A theory of change can help an organization focus on the right ideas to include in their mission and vision statements.
Read more »Mission, Vision, and Values Examples
Writing a mission, vision, and value statement for your organization is hard. Read our article and resource Revising Mission Statements: What good? For Whom? Then come back and take a look at this collection of mission, vision, and value statements for inspiration. We’ve picked organizations that have interesting mission and vision statements (and included value statements when available). See our comments after each one.
Read more »Revising Mission Statements: What good? For whom?
Updating your organization’s mission statement is important, mundane, rewarding, and painful all at the same time. These are the resources we use to help organizations understand, assess, and update their mission statements.
Read more »Mission-Based Decision Making
In this workshop, we explore practical tools that organizations can use to facilitate discussions about mission and mission-based decision making: including six degrees of mission separation, strategy screen, mission/money matrix, and hedgehog theory.
Read more »Leading with Theory of Change
A theory of change is a powerful tool that helps an organization articulate the connection between its mission and its programs, using the language of outcomes. In this workshop, we explore what a theory of change is, how an organization can use a theory of change, and the implications of a theory of change for staff and board leadership.
Read more »Demystifying Theory of Change
Recently I wrote a free e-Study about theory of change for the Hubert Project at the Humphrey Institute (University of Minnesota). Theory of Change is one of those terms that can elicit groans from nonprofit practitioners. Who has time to think about theories? And the word “change” makes people sweat a little. But, every organization I’ve worked with
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