Created By: Campbell Lake

May 14, 2025

In today’s complex landscape, even the most mission-driven nonprofits can struggle to make meaningful progress without a clear plan. Strategic planning isn’t just about setting goals—it’s about aligning your vision, operations, and resources to drive long-term impact. A strong plan gives nonprofit leaders confidence in the path ahead and offers donors clarity and conviction about where their support is going.

• Nonprofit Strategic Planning FAQ
• The Strategic Planning Process for Nonprofit Organizations
• Best Practices for Nonprofit Strategic Planning
• Nonprofit Strategic Planning In Action: A Case Study

Nonprofit Strategic Planning FAQ

What is nonprofit strategic planning?

Strategic planning is the process of defining and creating a comprehensive roadmap to achieve organizational goals, set the direction for growth and transformation, or implement ambitious ideas and initiatives. Traditionally, strategic plans lay out a guide for organizations’ actions over a three to five years.

Why is strategic planning for nonprofit organizations important?

Strategic plans are vital to nonprofit success. They provide organizations with a clear action plan for current and future initiatives and serve as a reference document to keep teams on track towards shared goals. In addition to serving as a roadmap, strategic plans also indicate organizational strength and commitment to growth, a quality that will attract donors looking to make a strategic investment in your cause. Strategic plans instill confidence in leadership and stakeholders that the organization has a defined direction forward, backed by data and with buy-in from stakeholders.

When should nonprofits undergo the strategic planning process?

Whether your organization is undergoing a leadership transition, a change in the programming or services that you provide, a mission adjustment, campaign preparation, or simply needs to diversify its revenue, we recommend starting by developing a unified strategic vision and plan. Strategic plans will help you to level set, redefine priorities, shift resources accordingly, and prepare for new opportunities to increase your reach and grow your revenue.

The Strategic Planning Process for Nonprofit Organizations

Just as important as a strategic plan is for setting organizational direction, so too is determining the right approach to the planning process itself. While each nonprofit may tweak its process based on its specific needs or end goals, most strategic planning processes should incorporate the following elements.

Part 1: Setting Your Nonprofit Up for Success

1. Create a Strategic Planning Framework

Before undertaking the planning process, it is crucial to build alignment across your organization about what a successful plan will look like. Ensure your organization facilitates guided discussions between staff, leadership, and board members to come to a consensus around the following:

• Mission, Vision, and Values: These three elements should be the driving force behind the entire strategic planning process. Whether you’re looking to reaffirm or revise them, take the time to review each statement and determine if it still rings true to your organization today, and that it will continue to remain relevant upon the completion of your strategic plan. If changes need to be made, take the time to do so now.
• Key Strategic Issues and Questions: Lay out any challenges or pain point areas you believe the strategic plan should seek to address. By understanding organization-wide perceptions of current problems, long-term vision, non-negotiables, and ambitions for change, you can ensure that the final strategic plan solves for these issues.
• Roles and Responsibilities: The strategic planning process is a group effort that should involve multiple perspectives at every stage. Involve your program, development, and operations staff, board members, and internal and external stakeholders to ensure that the strategic plan touches all corners of your organization. Once you’ve identified all participating parties, establish responsibilities and team structures that ensure work stays on track while still involving as many voices as possible.

2. Engage Stakeholders

Once the strategic planning framework has been established, the next step is to engage stakeholders and gather feedback about your organization’s current state and future direction. Conduct conversations with both internal and external stakeholders (staff, board members, current and prospective donors, community members) to understand your nonprofit’s value add, strengths and weaknesses, and opportunities for enhanced impact. 

These conversations will allow your organization to understand its potential and capacity for growth and identify key gaps that the strategic plan should address. Beyond that, these touchpoints will help you assess stakeholders’ willingness and ability to be active participants in executing the strategic plan itself.

Part 2: Conducting A Strategic Analysis

Now that you have re-established your identity and core values, determined key focus areas, and secured stakeholder participation, the next step is to conduct internal and external analysis. This will give your organization the information needed to make key decisions around strategic direction and priorities. Consider analyzing the following:

1. Landscape Assessment

Assess the landscape in which your nonprofit operates to yield insights, new opportunities, or different tactics your organization may not be currently considering. Use this data to map out your environment and shape a differentiated approach to the work to help you stand out in the marketplace.

2. Programs and Services Assessment

In collaboration with your programmatic staff and leadership, conduct a qualitative and quantitative assessment of your programming and services. The evaluation should encompass the following for each program/service: effectiveness, scalability, quality, potential for growth, cost-effectiveness, and overall strengths and weaknesses. This analysis will help clarify the direction of these programs and services as a part of your strategic plan.

3. Business Model and Organizational Assessment

Nonprofits that employ a business mindset are those best positioned for sustainable growth. Key to any strategic planning process is an assessment of revenue-generating activities, threats to financial stability, and the capacity to scale the organization. Use this time to analyze the following:

• Your Business Model: Review the programs and services your organization provides and the revenue sources by which your work is being funded to determine which programs or services should be expanded or started, maintained, or reduced. 
• Your Organizational Capacity: This assessment will be key to determining your organization’s team capacity and ability to take on new initiatives. It will also identify areas of your organization that might be prohibiting progress and, therefore, need to be adjusted. The information gathered in this analysis will guide discussions around any trade-offs or changes that must be made to advance strategic goals and objectives.

This exercise will allow your organization to craft a strategy that will increase its mission impact and alignment with more effectiveness, and increase financial stability.

Part 3: Developing the Strategic Plan

Now that your organization has a comprehensive understanding of its current state, priority areas for growth and improvement, and feedback and buy-in from stakeholders, it’s time to reconvene your strategic planning group to design the formal plan. Decision-making in this stage should be centered around a shared objective to advance your mission and increase your impact. These objectives should ultimately translate into 3 – 5 strategic goals, supported by short- and long-term metrics, that will indicate progress is being made and goals are being met.

Once your organization has aligned on 3 – 5 strategic goals, it’s time to put pen to paper! Develop a comprehensive strategic planning document that includes the following:

1. Cover Letter from Leadership
2. Executive Summary 
3. Mission, Vision, and Values Statements 
4. Organization History and Current State
5. Core Future Strategies and Goals
6. Short- and Long-Term Objectives
7. Success Metrics and Progress Indicators
8. Conclusion

A formalized document will not only help your team show prospective donors your ambitions for the future but will also hold your team accountable and ensure that all activities are on track and in support of this new shared vision.

Best Practices for Nonprofit Strategic Planning

It is critical to approach your strategic planning process with the same level of care and attention you’ll give to executing the final plan itself. Follow these best practices to ensure an effective and efficient strategic planning process:

Before you begin researching, analyzing, and developing the plan, make sure your team understands why this new plan is needed and what it will address. 

Equally important is selecting a diverse group of active participants to engage in the planning process. This will ensure that all perspectives – especially those of the communities you serve – are accounted for in this new path forward. Gathering diverse input will also help your team generate fresh ideas, leading to a more relevant and impactful plan.

All strategic plans should include a progress measurement system, backed by data, to track success and determine where adjustments need to be made along the way. Defining these metrics from the outset will create a culture of accountability and prevent stagnation as the strategic plan is implemented.

Maintaining a line of constant communication – amongst teams, leaders, and board members – is imperative to strategic planning success. Conduct regular progress reports and check-ins with your teams to build trust and maintain transparency on what is going right, and what may need to be modified, to move the plan forward. Ultimately, increased communication will reduce resistance to changes and increase your likelihood of successful implementation.

Nonprofit Strategic Planning In Action: A Case Study

National CASA/GAL Association for Children (NCASA)

• Challenge: NCASA sought to develop a strategic plan that would guide fundraising efforts from 2023 to 2030. The plan focused on scaling its programs and aligning its network for enhanced impact.
• Solution: Orr Group crafted a comprehensive strategic plan that involved close collaboration with staff and board leadership. We first identified key strategic goals and focus areas, and then led an extensive vetting process to gather feedback from key stakeholders that resulted in the development of a plan that reflected the needs of NCASA’s entire network.
• Impact: The strategic plan set a clear direction for organizational growth, scaling programs nationwide, and enhancing outcomes for children and families. It laid the groundwork for a culture of inclusivity, innovation, engagement, and retention among staff. Our partnership has positioned NCASA to meet its ambitious growth goals with confidence and clarity.

Nonprofit Strategic Planning: How to Get Started

A compelling strategic plan not only guides operations but also inspires donors and partners to rally behind a shared vision for the future. If your organization is looking to level up its fundraising, programs, and sector impact, a strategic plan is the perfect place to start.

Orr Group brings a unique perspective, a business mindset, and a proven track record in impact to design and implement effective strategic plans. Get in touch to understand how we can help your organization chart a new path forward.

Campbell Lake is an Associate Director on the Growth team at Orr Group. Campbell plays a key role in expanding the company’s brand presence by creating content, supporting thought leadership, managing social media accounts, preparing marketing and business development materials, planning events, and more.