SERVICES
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning is critical for nonprofit leaders — it often means the difference between real impact and spinning wheels or between effective stewardship of resources and wasting money. Yet 49% of nonprofits don’t have a clear strategic plan for how their organization is going to fulfill their mission. Why? Effective strategic planning requires a 30,000 ft. view of an organization that can be hard for leaders in the weeds every day to see. It takes time to run the sort of dynamic strategic planning process where every person owns the results.
I guide organizations and leadership teams through a collaborative strategic planning process that engages key stakeholders from the beginning and builds ownership and buy-in across the organization. We’ll start with a big picture view of your organization’s impact in the world, build actionable goals and priorities to get there, identify key metrics and measurements, and create concrete work plans and timelines. The result is a team that knows where the organization is going, how you’ll get there, and how they personally contribute.
Goals and OKRs
Clear and transparent goals aren’t just important for impact, they help organizational transparency, equity, and employee engagement. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are one framework for building team and organizational goals that work together and add up to the organization’s mission and vision. OKRs are by their nature collaborative and transparent, two common values of organizations seeking to make the world better.
I support teams in creating or refining goals or OKRs, both as part of a bigger strategic planning process or separately. We’ll work collaboratively to build a set of goals and OKRs that add up to real impact, are specific and measurable, and set teams up to succeed.
Managing for Success
Clear goals and a plan for how to hit them is only half the battle. The other half is managing for that success. Organizations succeed when they have a clear strategic plan being executed by happy, engaged employees. That often means breaking down silos and improving team communication, creating a culture of accountability and transparency, and coaching managers.
We’ll identify the existing structural, cultural, resource, or personnel barriers to hitting your organizational or team goals and work together to address them. Some of the ways I have supported organizations have included:
Organizational design and re-org change management
Meetings audits
Internal communication systems
Executive decision-making and transparency
Project management and accountability
Measurement and Evaluation
At a mission-driven organization, the metric is the mission. How an organization frames and defines measurement and evaluation becomes the impact they have in the world, making measurement critical to mission. Yet many nonprofits seek to measure that which is notoriously hard to quantify — culture change, empowerment, agency, access.
I support organizations to build or refine metrics, measurement, and evaluation systems focused on real impact. Together, we’ll define impact and set goals, identify metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), establish benchmarks, find the right monitoring and evaluation tools and systems, and use the results to make data-driven decisions.
New Projects and Startups
Have an idea for something great but not quite sure how to make it reality? Building momentum and concrete strategies for a brand new project— either within an existing organization or outside one— is tough. Getting support is often the first step in making dreams reality.
Whether you’re starting a new project at an existing organization or striking out on your own, we’ll work together to translate your vision into a concrete and actionable strategy. I’ll walk you through a collaborative process where we frame your mission and vision, define your impact, set your goals and strategy, and create a work plan and timeline to launch your project.