There are many reasons to ensure your mission and vision are still relevant and supported within your organization. Here are a few: You are about to start a strategic planning process You have had a major change in staff or board leadership You are considering a capital campaign You want … [Read more...]
Focusing on Your Mission and Vision
October 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
In the past couple of months I have worked with two organizations as they reconsidered their mission and vision. While the organizations are drastically different from each other, both were doing this process as the first step in strategic planning. I was proud of both organizations for … [Read more...]
Q. What is the value of a formal, quadrennial, strategic planning process?
May 10, 2007 By
A. To put it simply there are concrete benefits to creating a plan. Why? 1 - Creating a plan will engage your board, lay leadership and staff to settle on goals for the next few years. 2 - If you are in an organization where there is an abundance of ideas of what should/could be done but lack … [Read more...]
Q. What is the best way to involve board and staff in a collaborative strategic planning process?
May 10, 2007 By
A. It is essential to the success of any strategic planning process—in fact, any aspect of the organization’s endeavor—to have an effective partnership of lay leadership and staff. As strategic planning process is the opportunity to determine the direction of the agency for the next few years. … [Read more...]
Planning The Plan
March 7, 2007 By
Redundancy jokes aside, do you have a plan for your plan? Whether you are about to embark on a strategic plan, a marketing plan or an operational plan, you will need to develop a clear path—towards a successful strategy that can be implemented. The basics of an overall design are the same, no … [Read more...]
The Mersky, Jaffe & Associates’ Situation Analysis
November 11, 2006 By
In this month’s companion article, Strategic Planning on a Continual Basis, we advocate setting up systems to evaluate your organization on a regular basis. This article will help you consider what you can look for in a SWOT analysis. Those of you who have done any for-profit business training … [Read more...]
Strategic Planning On A Continual Basis
November 11, 2006 By
Recently, I read an article that spoke of a surge of nonprofits that are turning to the traditionally for-profit dashboard (a type of performance management data snapshot). What I took from my reading was not the way in which nonprofits could use this method to set and reach goals or in what ways … [Read more...]
Q & A: Annual Reviews for Nonprofits
March 3, 2006 By
Q. I know that our employees deserve annual reviews and that you recommend board self-assessments, but what other aspects of our organization needs annual evaluations? A. At least once a year you should evaluate your: Mission Statement Strategic Plan Campaign Materials Methodology for … [Read more...]
Do You Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses?
November 1, 2004 By
Or more importantly, do you know your actual strengths and weaknesses vs. what is perceived by those outside your organization? And, which is more important to your planning process – your “reality” or their perception? In fact, it is never “either/or” but always “both/and.” A … [Read more...]
Proper Planning Promotes Possible Positive Performance
November 1, 2004 By
Strategic Planning Planning = effort. Does that sum up your feelings on the subject? For most people, procrastination to avoid that imagined mountain of work is the main reason they do not plan ahead. Want more reasons not to add strategic planning into this month’s (quarter’s/year’s) … [Read more...]