GTA Consultant Tina Herpe answers questions about why Giving Tree Associates is best positioned to guide you through your strategic planning process:

What is strategic planning?
Strategic planning is a process used to develop an organization’s goals, objectives and activities for a set period of years into the future (usually 3 – 5 years). Staff and volunteer leadership are actively involved in the planning process with input from other key stakeholders.

Should all nonprofits be working from a strategic plan?  If so, why?  
Working from a strategic plan is a best practice for all nonprofits. This plan can be viewed as the blueprint that guides an organization’s growth and development.

What does the strategic planning process entail and how long does it take?
The strategic planning process normally includes:

  • A review of the organization’s history and an assessment of its current programs, fundraising practices, internal systems, board development and staffing (this usually includes feedback from key stakeholders such as program recipients, donors and community leaders).
  • A market analysis or environmental scan to research what nonprofits with similar missions are doing, their funding sources, staffing, etc. This can provide a model for growth and highlight gaps in service delivery that might direct program expansion.
  • Analysis by the nonprofit’s board and staff of ways in which the organization might grow in the coming years. This includes a SWOT analysis (to identify the nonprofit’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats) as well as focused discussions about different aspects of the organization.
  • A review of the organization’s mission and vision statements and, if appropriate, an updating of these statements.
  • The development of goals, objectives and strategies for different areas of the organization as well as identification of the person or committee responsible for overseeing the achievement of each strategy and a deadline for completion.
  • Once the planning process is complete, a strategic plan is written that includes all of this information. This plan is reviewed and voted on by the board. It then becomes a guiding document for the organization’s activities.

This process takes at least four months and can take a year or more for a large organization.

What are the benefits of hiring a consultant to manage the process?

  • A consultant is an objective third party who brings knowledge of nonprofit best practices. This can result in a more robust organizational assessment.
  • Staff, board and key stakeholders may be more comfortable speaking freely about an organization’s challenges to an outside third party. The consultant typically conducts confidential interviews and aggregates responses without individual attribution unless specific permission is granted by the interviewee to share a particular response.
  • Leadership from a consultant during strategic planning discussions frees staff and board members to participate fully in these meetings.
  • Hiring a consultant to manage the strategic planning process allows staff to continue focusing on their jobs.

What happens once the plan is created?
Hopefully the nonprofit will use its newly adopted strategic plan to develop goals, objectives and work plans for each year that the plan covers. A spreadsheet that charts the plan’s strategies can help the nonprofit organize annual action plans.

Why Giving Tree Associates?

  • Giving Tree Associates is well qualified to guide nonprofits through a strategic planning process because of its nonprofit experience, staffing structure and competitive pricing.
  • Giving Tree has four levels of consultants representing a wide range of nonprofit experience, especially with smaller and medium sized nonprofits. This enables Giving Tree to match the services required by a nonprofit with the appropriate Giving Tree consultant, and that consultant has the added bonus of drawing on the expertise of team members.
  • Giving Tree consultants understand the step-by-step guidance that nonprofits require in developing a vision for their future, including the need to build strong internal management and fundraising systems to support programmatic growth.

Learn more about Giving Tree’s Strategic Planning services: 
About Giving Tree’s Strategic Planning Services