Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations: A Practical Guide for Dynamic Times, 3rd Edition

Section TwoStrategic Analysis

In Steps 4–8, we look individually at the five core content dimensions of strategic planning: environmental scan, theory of change and program portfolio, business model, organization capacity, and leadership. In addition to conducting the analysis in each of these dimensions, one of the central roles of the strategic planning committee is to connect the dots among these different dimensions as the work unfolds.

The strategic planning committee as a group is responsible for getting these five steps completed. In practice, a significant amount of work is required outside of the regular strategic planning committee meetings. Another option that works well is to assign each of the five dimensions to one or two members of the strategic planning committee. The point person or people for each dimension are encouraged to enlist the support of staff and/or board members who are not on the committee. For instance, you might tap the chief financial officer or the board treasurer for the money discussion, if one or the other is not on the strategic planning committee. This adds capacity for the task and helps involve other key leaders.

Step 5: Theory of Change and Program Portfolio theory of change and program portfolio requires the greatest amount of work followed by Step 6: Business Model. The level of work required is typically much less for each of the ...