Prioritization is important. Focus your work on the areas that will have the most impact. The ambitiousness of your strategic plan must match your capacity and may require you to let go of some ideas at this time. Creating a focused strategic plan that prioritizes a few areas for action is more useful than a wish list of all the things you would like to do.
A balanced strategic plan addresses both programs and organizational health. Typically, organizations identify no more than 3-5 strategic priorities, which are your broad goal statements driving the change, innovation, and improvements across the planning period (e.g., the next three years). Taking a balanced approach, you might consider distributing strategic priorities across the areas of programs, organizational health and capacity, and fundraising or fiscal health.
Ensure the people responsible for implementing objectives are either directly involved in crafting the action steps and timelines, or at the very least, consulted. This will result in more realistic objectives and greater overall success. Remember, strong objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound, inclusive, and equitable actions (“SMARTIE”). Identify key people or committees to lead development of objectives for each strategic priority.
Craft an aspirational and achievable strategic plan. Your aim is to find the ideal spot for your organization between an unambitious, uninspiring plan and a fantasy, “pie in the sky” plan. Have an explicit conversation about the possible factors that may affect the ambitiousness of your strategic plan. How ambitious your strategic plan is may depend on several factors, including the following items:
- Organizational leadership.
- Organizational culture and past experiences.
- Whether your nonprofit works in a field that goes through rapid change.
- Availability of funding to support growth.
- Other factors in your nonprofit’s operating environment.