If you’ve arrived at this point in strategic planning, you’ve done a lot of the hard work already:

You’ve figured out the values of your organization.
You’ve figured out the vision of the change you’re trying to accomplish.
You’ve determined the mission of your organization—the focus of the board and staff each day.

Congratulations!

Now you’re ready for strategic priorities, which bring the mission of an organization down to earth. They are the buckets that different parts of your work will fit into.

Working with many nonprofit organizations, I have an inside look at just how important these fundamentals are to their overall success. Taking the time to check in periodically and review them to see how the work and strategic plan line up is critical to steering the organization through the years. Any misalignment allows the possibility for many complications, from organizational culture, which often leads to burnout, to stakeholder engagement, which can lead to disrupted relationships, and so much in between.

To make these tasks easier, I like to encourage my clients to create strategic priorities by looking at the buckets of the work they’re currently doing. And then consider, given your learning in the strategic planning process or through your work, in what ways these buckets need to be updated.

For example, Girl Scouts of Northern California describes their process of learning that led to shifts in their strategic plan. Between 2015-2017, strategic priorities included Volunteerism, Girl Experience, Diversity & Inclusion, Community Support, and Financial Health. In their next strategic plan, these priorities were updated to Powerful Programs, Awesome Troops (Welcoming & Worthwhile), Compelling Purpose, and Sustainability. Their background document explains that research and increased organizational focus contributed to the revised priorities. Additionally, Diversity & Inclusion is no longer a separate priority; instead, the intention is for diversity and inclusion to inform all aspects of the Girl Scouts’ work.

You may notice that strategic priorities are not measurable. That’s by design. Strategic priorities are big-picture goals that make the mission statement more tangible. After strategic priorities have been created, a next step is to create measurable objectives within each priority that will inform yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily work.

In creating strategic priorities, a team needs to find the balance between focusing on the program and focusing on strengthening the organization. If you create a strategic plan that only focuses on program goals, it’s too tactical; you need to build alignment on how you’re going to accomplish these goals financially and organizationally. On the other hand, a strategic plan that only focuses on financials and organization building, misses the meaning of the work.

Once the strategic planning team has created strategic priorities, they become more concrete through the creation of measurable objectives. Often, each strategic priority has several measurable objectives that will be tracked over the course of the strategic plan.

Not Business as Usual

As we were finalizing this newsletter for publication, we learned of the death of Daunte Wright, another Black person killed by the police.

White privilege is remaining silent in the face of systemic violence towards people of color. As a white consultant, I am determined to speak up about the grief I feel and to work with others to find solutions, paying attention that those closest to the problems are weighing in on the solutions.

In solidarity, amplifying this message from colleague Christal Cherry and F3, a network of women of color in fundraising,

"F3 recognizes the pain and hurt of those protesting in Minneapolis for the shooting of yet another unarmed black man over a minor offense. We do not condone looting or violence of any type but we understand the rage so many are feeling right now!

We are tired, exhausted, abhorred, angry, suspicious and exasperated. For the love of God, stop killing us!

We pray for the family of young Daunte Wright and kneel in solidarity with the nation over the senseless death of one of our own. Rest in peace, our baby, our young man! We claim you today and will continue to strive to get this right."

This is the fifth part of a five-part series on Strategic Planning:

Part 1: How much can we plan in moments of intense uncertainty?

Part 2: Why values matter more than ever

Part 3: How vision lights the way to a better future

Part 4: How one organization went from identity crisis to focus