Common Pitfalls in Nonprofit Strategic Planning

Have you been doing strategic plans the same way since the beginning of your career? How well have they worked for you?

Nicole Gagliardi has put together a list of common mistakes she sees in nonprofit strategic planning work. If you've been in the sector for a while, many of these will look familiar - I know I've seen many of them throughout my career.

Here are 3 additional problems with strategic planning I'd add to her list.

I see these regularly in my work - and they've fueled my desire to help nonprofits embrace modern approaches to strategy rather than staying stuck in old ways of strategic planning that just don't work:

Lack of understanding or agreement on an organization’s identity & role.

There are lots of ways to support a community and fulfill a mission, but if you fundamentally don't agree on who you are, then you're creating a lot of downstream problems in planning and day-to-day decision-making. I've started emphasizing this area of work more and more with my clients - it makes a huge difference in getting greater value out of all your other planning and specific strategy work (e.g., fundraising, marketing, technology strategies).

Failure to make clear choices about what the organization will and won’t do to achieve its goals.

We like to keep our options open, but this series of interconnected choices about what you will and won't do to achieve your goals is the definition of strategy. If you're not making tradeoffs, then your plan is an exercise in placating the powers that be - not progress for the people you serve.

Writing it for the wrong audience.

Strategy is only successful when the human beings who have to execute it know what they are supposed to do and what it means for the future of their organization. Your number one audience for your strategic plan should be your staff - not your board, not your donors, not your website visitors. If staff can't grasp what's laid out in the plan - it's not going to get done.

What other challenges do you see with traditional approaches to strategic planning in the nonprofit sector? Join the conversation on LinkedIn.