Free · Certificate included

Strategic Planning for Nonprofits

Turn your mission into a clear, fundable plan your whole team can rally around.

38 min Intermediate 7 modules Pass 80%

For: Executive directors and nonprofit managers

What you’ll learn

Translate your mission into measurable goals and SMART objectives
Run a SWOT analysis and build a theory of change for your programs
Prioritize initiatives with limited time, talent, and dollars
Build a roadmap — and a monitoring rhythm — that funders and boards trust

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Course outline

1
Why a strategic plan is worth the trouble
Most nonprofits run on urgency. The grant is due, the event is Saturday, the freezer broke. In that mode it is easy to dismiss strategic planning as a luxury for…
5 min Quiz Interactive
2
Read the terrain: SWOT analysis
Before you decide where to go, you have to know where you stand.
6 min Quiz Interactive
3
Theory of change & the logic model
A SWOT tells you where you stand. A theory of change tells you how you believe your work creates impact. It is the causal story at the heart of your plan: if we do…
7 min Quiz Interactive
4
From mission to goals to SMART objectives
Now you translate direction into commitments.
6 min Quiz Interactive
5
The planning process & who is in the room
A plan written by one person in a back office rarely gets implemented, because no one else owns it.
6 min Quiz Interactive
6
Turning the plan into action
The graveyard of nonprofit strategy is the shelf.
5 min Quiz Interactive
7
Monitoring, KPIs & keeping the plan alive
A plan you never check is a wish. Monitoring is what turns a strategic plan into a management tool. The organizations most effective at implementation, Bridgespan…
5 min Quiz Interactive

Sources & further reading

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