Your nonprofit exists to change your community for the better. Whether you’re part of a public hospital, a wildlife conservation group, or a food bank, you want nothing more than to expand your impact from one year to the next. However, accomplishing more doesn’t necessarily mean doing more. Be more effective in your fundraising and volunteer efforts with a nonprofit strategic plan
By developing a clear strategic plan for your nonprofit, you can ensure that your organization continues carrying out its mission without spreading itself too thin. Setting focused, measurable goals allows your team to make confident and data-driven decisions that align with your overarching purpose. In this guide, we’ll share some tips for crafting strategic goals and walk through common types you can include in your next strategic plan.
There is no definitive set of goals or priorities that your nonprofit needs to outline in its strategic plan. After all, every organization differs in terms of how it operates, which resources it has, and what it’s trying to achieve in the long term.
To design goals that are tailored specifically to your nonprofit’s situation and needs, start with these steps:
Review your past finances, key performance indicators (KPIs), major changes, and recent challenges. Then, take a look at similar organizations to get a better idea of how they run programs and what strategies they employ. Gathering this context can help you narrow down your priorities for the near future.
By reaching out to your staff, donors, volunteers, and other community members, you can factor their concerns and suggestions into your goal-setting. Laridae’s strategic planning guide recommends enlisting a third-party expert to conduct online surveys, focus groups, town hall meetings, and one-on-one interviews to allow for more open and honest communication from your stakeholders.
SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. Your strategic plan’s goals should be clear and ambitious, but reasonable at the same time. By adding concrete deadlines, you ensure that your team can measure its progress along the way and make adjustments as needed to get the results you want.
Remember that unlocking truly actionable insights for your goal-setting requires having accurate and organized data to reference. Maintain data hygiene by using standard data entry formats across your nonprofit and auditing your database at least once a year to identify strategic improvements that take your impact to the next level.
Some common types of goals your nonprofit might include in its strategic plan are:
As time goes on, your nonprofit might spot more and more community needs cropping up in its focus area. As a result, your team may feel compelled to take on new initiatives or expand your programs beyond their original scope. While these activities can be a common part of any organization’s growth, you need to ensure that they’re all directly aligned with your mission.
Strategic planning provides an ideal opportunity for your leadership team and board members to re-examine your mission, vision, and values. In doing so, they can clarify whether your nonprofit’s current pursuits are aligned with the impact you’re trying to create and adapt your approach accordingly. For example, your team might decide that it needs to produce a new set of communication materials that articulate your mission and outline your desired outcomes more clearly.
Your nonprofit’s success depends on the involvement of an entire community—your staff, volunteers, donors, board members, and more. To get the word out about your cause and secure more long-term support, you might set goals to:
To assess your performance, keep track of metrics such as your outreach event attendance, social media followers, newsletter opt-ins, or website traffic.
To set your nonprofit up for long-term success and sustainability, you must establish a strong foundation with your staff and internal processes. If you’ve determined that you need to build capacity and increase efficiency in your organization, you might commit to:
As you put your strategic plan into action, you can use skill assessments and KPIs such as training completion rates or employee retention rates to determine whether your efforts are paying off.
For many nonprofits, their programs and services are some of the most direct ways for them to make a difference in the lives of those they serve. If this applies to your organization, you might use your strategic plan to plot out your next programmatic priorities, whether you want to launch a new program or enhance the quality of your existing services.
Your nonprofit, for example, could decide to put a new framework in place for evaluating the effectiveness of your programs using participant feedback and additional metrics. Or, you might determine that you need to reallocate your existing resources to make your services more accessible to people in your community.
The Communications Network has found that, over the past few years, racial diversity across nonprofit staff, senior leadership, and board members has been trending upward. Additionally, more organizations are beginning to speak out on current events and issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
As DEI becomes more and more of a priority in the nonprofit sector, your organization might set goals related to implementing diverse hiring practices and providing inclusive training to staff members. You could also focus on improving access to your services by updating your website with accessibility best practices and adding multilingual support to your programs.
To maintain and expand your nonprofit’s impact, you need to ensure that your team always has the resources it needs to carry out its essential activities. To improve your financial health and develop more stable revenue streams to rely on, you might include some of the following goals in your strategic plan:
As you pursue new fundraising opportunities, keep an eye on metrics such as your fundraising return on investment (ROI) and the number of gifts secured to identify which strategies are resonating most with your donors.
By harnessing the power of your nonprofit’s community, you can accomplish more together. With this in mind, one of your strategic priorities might involve building mutually beneficial partnerships with local businesses and organizations. According to 360MatchPro, common types of support corporate partners could provide include:
When seeking these partnerships, be sure to find companies that have similar values to your nonprofit. Doing so ensures that you can both work toward a shared vision and goals, no matter what format the partnership takes.
Grant funding is critical for nonprofit growth. Along with planned and major gifts, grants provide a significant portion of the revenue your organization needs to complete large-scale projects, launch new programs, and develop a strong financial foundation for the future.
Finding grant opportunities that match your nonprofit’s needs takes time and effort. Submitting well-crafted applications also demands careful attention. However, Your work continues even after a grantmaker awards funding to your organization! You also have to manage the grant properly to make the most of it.
To help you get started, this guide will review four best practices for nonprofit grant management, including how to:
Besides helping your organization allocate grant funding internally, grant management is essential to comply with funder requirements. Grantmakers see grants as investments in good causes, so they want to know that the nonprofits they award funding to will handle it in the best possible way to further their missions. That being said, let’s dive in!
Since grant management has a reputation for being complex, it’s best to start considering your post-award activities as soon as you find a grant that aligns with your needs. If your organization isn’t currently equipped to manage it, you should either take the necessary steps to create a management system or look for other opportunities if that isn’t possible.
Jitasa, recommends developing a grant management system early for each opportunity. This approach lets your nonprofit address common challenges proactively. These include:
As you manage multiple grants, you'll have a solid foundation for recording and reporting. You can adjust this system as needed for each grant's specific requirements.
The biggest part of setting up a grant management system is choosing a software solution to centralize your process. Double the Donation’s nonprofit software guide recommends looking for the following features in your grant management platform:
Your nonprofit should also consider looking for a cloud-based solution. These platforms store your data on internet servers rather than on specific devices, allowing anyone at your organization to work on grant management from anywhere while still maintaining data security.
In addition to the features above, it’s helpful if your nonprofit’s grant management solution integrates with your accounting software. This way, you can more easily track the monetary progress of your grant for both funder reporting and internal financial management purposes.
However, grants aren’t all recorded the same way. There are three main types, each with its own process:
Unconditional grants, as their name implies, allow your organization to receive all of the funding at once and spend it at your discretion. To help you get a head start on financial planning, you should record an unconditional grant in full as soon as you’re notified that you’ve secured it, even if the money takes a few weeks to arrive.
Grants with contingencies are provided in installments as your nonprofit demonstrates to the grantmaker that you’re fulfilling the conditions they’ve specified. For example, if you’re using a grant to fund a community program, the funder might only agree to continue paying out the grant as long as you have at least 20 participants in the program. Since funding is less certain with these grants, record the first installment when you’re awarded the grant and each subsequent installment as you receive the funds.
Reimbursable grants require your organization to spend the money on an initiative up front before the funder pays back the costs you’ve incurred. You likely won’t know exactly how much the grant will be worth until the funding comes, so you should wait to record it until then. However, you should keep a detailed record of your grant-related expenditures to ensure you’re reimbursed for the correct amount.
When you apply for a grant, take note of which category it falls into so you know how to record the funding if and when it comes in. If the grant type is unclear or you have any other questions about recording, consult your nonprofit accountant.
As previously mentioned, the main reason to develop a solid grant management process is so you can report back to the funder. To prepare these reports effectively, be sure to:
Proper reporting instills confidence in grantmakers that your nonprofit can manage their funding effectively. This boosts your chances of receiving more grants in the future.
If your nonprofit manages its grants well, you’ll have more financial flexibility to innovate in your service delivery approaches and make a larger impact on your community. Transparency in your grant management processes boosts your nonprofit’s reputation. It shows that your organization is reliable and committed to fulfilling its mission. This may catch the attention of new funders and supporters, leading to even more funding in the future!
Imagine you’re launching a capital campaign to fund a new building for your organization. You work with your team to determine your goals and create a dedicated fundraising plan.
The campaign seems destined for success, but when the time comes, you can’t quite reach your fundraising target. What could you have done differently to ensure your campaign was successful?
A fundraising feasibility study, also known as a planning and feasibility study, helps prevent this disconnect between your fundraising plan and givers’ willingness and ability to contribute. In this guide, we’ll review what a fundraising feasibility study is, how it works, and signs that your nonprofit needs to conduct one.
According to Averill Fundraising Solutions, a fundraising feasibility study “helps your nonprofit determine if a capital campaign or other large project is feasible, and if so, how best to execute it.” At the end of your fundraising feasibility study, you should be able to kick off your campaign or identify the additional steps you need to take before you get started.
It’s best to work with a fundraising consultant who’s an expert at conducting feasibility studies. This individual can interview your stakeholders and determine whether they’d support your proposed project or capital campaign.
When you conduct a fundraising feasibility study, you’ll not only figure out whether you’re ready to launch your campaign, but you’ll also be able to create an effective fundraising strategy that aligns with stakeholder interests and preferences.
Now that you understand a little more about fundraising feasibility studies, let’s dive into the steps that make up the process.
While you can technically conduct your feasibility study in-house, hiring an expert is best. Relying on a fundraising consultant allows you to access their insider tips that come from years of working with nonprofits on similar projects. Plus, your consultant can be more objective throughout the process since they're an external party.
A nonprofit consultant firm can help your fundraising team by:
When you hire the right consultant, you’ll have a dedicated partner guiding you through every step of the fundraising feasibility process to ensure your campaign is successful.
Work with your consultant to determine your organization’s fundraising strengths and weaknesses. That way, they’ll have a foundational understanding of how likely your campaign is to succeed based on your past efforts.
Together, you’ll compile relevant information from your CRM, website, and other resources, such as:
With all of this data in one place, you can create a central document that summarizes your organization’s fundraising past to project the attainability of your future campaign.
Next, your fundraising consultant will identify and interview potential campaign stakeholders. These interviewees should have a connection to your cause and demonstrate a willingness to support your organization.
Common interview candidates include:
After narrowing down the list of stakeholders, your consultant will ask each candidate a series of questions to assess their willingness and ability to contribute to the proposed project. These questions may include:
Asking open-ended questions allows interviewees to openly share their thoughts and enables your team to gather as much data as possible.
Look over stakeholder feedback and your consultant’s recommendations. Double the Donation’s fundraising feasibility study guide explains that there are three potential outcomes of your study:
While it may be disappointing to find that your campaign proposal isn’t in tip-top shape, it’s better to feel a little discouraged now than after launching a project that didn’t live up to your expectations. No matter the results of your study, make sure to share them with your board members so you can take the necessary next steps.
Once you receive your study results, you may be able to immediately move forward with your fundraising plan and launch your campaign. However, if your consultant recommends adjusting your plan, your next actions may include looking for additional giving prospects, lowering your fundraising target, or lengthening your campaign timeline.
It’s also possible that your consultant suggests pivoting your strategy in a more significant way. In this case, your next steps may look like:
Whether you’re launching your campaign or going back to the drawing board, thank your consultant for their time and dedication to helping you make an informed decision about your campaign’s future.
Still trying to determine whether your organization could benefit from a fundraising feasibility study? Here are some signs that you should start looking for a fundraising consultant and embark on a study of your own:
No matter what your campaign concerns are, it’s always useful to get an outside expert’s opinion about your proposed project to incorporate an unbiased perspective into your planning process.
A capital campaign is a large undertaking that requires a lot of time and resources. Don’t let all that effort go to waste on an unviable campaign. By conducting a fundraising feasibility study, you can be confident that your campaign is set up for success, allowing you to focus on fundraising as opposed to worrying about the outcome of your project.
Written by Bob Happy
Bob Happy brings nearly 35 years of experience providing expert leadership and direction to clients across the not-for-profit sector to his current role as President of Averill Solutions. Before forming Averill Solutions, Bob served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the nation’s largest fundraising firm. He has mentored hundreds of professional fundraising practitioners and many have joined him at Averill Fundraising Solutions.
