strategic plan
Good Old-Fashioned Survey
Each year, a non-profit will create a strategic plan that is responsive to the needs of clients, members, and stakeholders. But, how do you know what those needs are? You ask, and here’s how. Throughout its operating year, a non-profit will offer all different kinds of programs and...
The Strategic Plan IS a Non-Profit’s Road Map for the Year
The new calendar year has us all writing new year’s resolutions, spending some time reflecting on the past year, and making plans for the new year. We spend time in the office supply store sorting through planners and deciding the system we want to use to map out our goals for the coming year....
Create a Program Evaluation to Gather Useable Information
Evaluation, measurement, KPIs and assessment are all part of the work of a non-profit. Feedback is collected to help determine if the organization is meeting its strategic priorities. But that flow from strategic plan to program to feedback and back around, can feel overwhelming and the creation...
The Impact of a Non-Profit’s Vision and Mission Statements
When a non-profit first starts up, a handful of strategic documents are created to chart the course for the road it will travel over the years. Each year after that, the non-profit will hold a strategic planning session to examine the needs of clients/stakeholders/members and adjust the...
The Board Works for the Stakeholders
The nominations committee is hard at work looking for new board members. But there are differing opinions. Some committee members want to look for accountants, and lawyers, and doctors to try and build a board of business professionals. Other committee members want to look to the...
One Metric Your Non-profit Should Track
Maybe you’ve heard the term key performance indicators. Did it make your head spin? Maybe you looked at all the outcomes in your non-profit’s strategic plan and THAT made your head spin. Non-profits need to track stats but when the organization is small, or there is a long history of doing the...
Easily Create Evaluations Questions for Your Non-Profit Programs
Does this sound familiar? You’ve got a great program that’s about to wrap up. Maybe this is a program you’ve offered a few times over the years. You start wondering if the program was successful. You collect a few pieces of information about the program, such as participation numbers,...
Two For One
Isn’t it nice when you can find two uses for one piece of information? Executive Director life is busy. Any chance I can find to save a little time, is a win for me. This week I completed operational planning with my team and found a reporting overlap I wanted to share. Maybe it will help you...
Got Data
Usually, my team completes the reports on day-to-day programs and, while I monitor, I don’t really do much with the data until I’m ready to report progress at a board meeting or year end. We’ve been a little busy lately, so I’ve had a few workshops that I administered, and that meant I...
Is Your Strategic Plan a Little Dusty?
Have you ever wondered how a non-profit’s strategic plan ties into its operations plan? Where does the information come from? How does it all tie together? Would it surprise you to learn that a non-profit’s strategic plan and operations plan are pieces in the circle of data flowing through...
Governing
This month we’re talking about the four kinds of non-profit documentation every board member should understand and how each one connects to the next. So far, we’ve covered Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws. Now its time to talk Governing Policies. Governing Policies are created and used by...
Planning for Next Year
Last month I wrapped up strategic planning. Last week I wrapped up operations planning. Normally I prep the budget later, on my own, but we got talking and I quickly pulled together a budget plan. We’re going to meet in a few weeks to fine tune everything, but basically, it’s all done. The...
Mapping
I spent the last month writing my year-end report for a major funder. I know - a whole month?? Yeah, it's a big report. There’s so much data that’s required and it takes a lot of planning to ensure everything is collected and reported. As is often the case, an evaluation question was...
The Curmudgeon Factor
Hey folks, I want to share a useful new tool that I learned this summer. I’m calling it the curmudgeon factor. I first learned about this technique when I was trying to brainstorm strategic priorities. It’s hard sometimes to think of all the ways a group wants to make changes in the world....