Jackie Jaakola is the Director of EveryCat Health Foundation, the world’s leading nonprofit focused solely on feline health research.
Business leaders engage in some type of strategic planning daily. From deciding how to allocate resources to managing your team and navigating changes in the market, you likely operate from a plan—even if it’s only in your head. Without a clear strategy, leaders risk operating from a reactive stance rather than driving growth and making an impact.
As a leader in the nonprofit sector, the mission you’ve chosen to accept is probably focused on solving a specific type of problem and changing the course of the world. The normal strategy here is to try to get in front of the problem and lay out a path of what can be done to make managing the issue less challenging day-to-day. But I’ve found that in addition to this important daily work, nonprofit leaders also need to take a step back and look at the big picture to extrapolate what solving the problem will entail in the coming years. In my experience, this step requires creating a strategic plan that is driven by your mission—preferably detailing at least five years of activities and goals.
Unfortunately, many nonprofits don’t have this important problem-solving roadmap. In fact, according to a study by The Concord Leadership Group, LLC, 49% of nonprofits are operating without a strategic plan in writing. Based on observations I’ve made during my three decades of experience at nonprofits, there are good reasons for this. Everyone just tends to be so busy raising money or putting out fires that they don’t carve out much time to think about their growth and how to move forward based on their mission.
However, I believe that the time nonprofits—or any business, for that matter—spend creating a strategic plan is time well spent. Not only can having a strategic plan allow you to manage issues (both known and unknown) that are likely to come your way during the coming year, but it can also give you a multi-year blueprint for reaching your mission’s end goal.
Mission Critical
When you start creating a strategic plan, every methodology and goal you incorporate into it should connect back to your mission. What are your values as an organization? What is your vision? How will you bring your vision to fruition? All of these things combined can guide you when writing the strategic plan. When I recently worked to develop a five-year strategic plan for my company, I kept looking at our mission to guarantee that it influenced everything we put into it.
Having the mission in mind can also help as you work with your team. It’s important to have buy-in from all of your key stakeholders, including board members and staff, and leaning on your mutual mission can help you gain their support. There will certainly be differences of opinion about how to execute your goals, but in a sense, your mission can be a mediator.
For example, when we started our latest plan, we had a two-day brainstorming session to work out what the foundation for our strategies would be. Since we’d already agreed on these core beliefs, whenever we weren’t aligned on a specific approach or budget line item, we were able to find consensus when we brought the discussion back to mission as priority.
Mission Control
Although you and your team members will do the heavy lifting when creating a strategic plan, I’ve found it’s a good idea to bring in an outside facilitator to keep you on track throughout the process. From brainstorming sessions to the final result, a facilitator can guide lively discussions and be a fresh pair of eyes that keeps your work in perspective.
And just as you need to keep your mission front and center as you draft your plan, the external facilitator should do the same. Choose someone who is already well-versed in the area you work in, and then bring them up to speed on your organization’s mission, goals and history. This should help them keep you on track so you don’t experience mission drift.
Another outside influence to consider when making your plan is any partners and collaborators your organization works with. As you develop your plan, make sure to factor in any unknowns that may arise so that if the unexpected happens, you can quickly identify mission-aligned partners that can support you. For example, in 2023, there was an outbreak of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus that led to the death of thousands of cats. Our organization wanted to help, but unfortunately, the problem was a lot bigger than us. However, we weren’t left powerless. Since we had addressed leveraging partnerships in our strategic plan, we were able to expedite a response through combined review and funding.
Mission Accomplished
Nonprofit work can be challenging and stressful, so whenever you reach a goal, it’s a good idea to pat yourself on the back and enjoy it. Your strategic plan should contain multiple milestones that you want to reach over the next five-year period, but don’t just busily jump from one goal to another without taking the time to recognize your accomplishments.
Even finishing a strategic plan in and of itself is a triumph worth celebrating. This can be a several-month commitment for your organization—and you’re likely to experience some ups and downs along the way. But as long as you keep your eyes on the mission, you can create a robust document to help you reach your goals.
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