Community Organizing and Strategic Planning Go Hand-in-hand
Why nonprofits should take a community organizing approach to strategic planning
When undertaking a strategic planning process, it is essential to develop insightful and effective strategy. Equally important is an effective process for developing that strategy. This is why we recommend taking a community organizing approach to strategic planning.
Nonprofit leaders should use the planning process as a way to do the work your organization needs to do anyway — engage with and reach out to all your constituents and center your work on the people most impacted by your organization’s efforts. This builds relationships and investment in the organization and gathers insights to help develop better programs and strategy. We encourage you to engage board members, staff, clients, community members, funders, elected officials, and anyone else the organization touches. Through the process of interviewing, surveying, and engaging with these constituents, you learn about the community you serve, and they deepen their understanding of your organization and become contributors to designing its future. Some examples of this approach include:
Hosting a town hall, focus group, or series of interviews with clients and community members for whom the organization exists to serve, asking them about their hopes and priorities for the organization’s work
Convening an all-staff meeting to share strategic planning drafts and ideas and get input from staff about the proposed directions
Engaging board members, emerging leaders on staff, a former client, and/or a community member to serve on the strategic planning committee
Sharing imperfect drafts and iterating on the strategic plan throughout the process internally and even with external partners and constituents
Sometimes leaders can feel hesitant to share imperfect drafts of work in progress. You may worry about receiving criticism or even anger from constituents who don’t agree with potential ideas being shared. Or you may worry that the feedback will make it difficult to move forward with a direction you want to advance.
Despite these concerns, it is beneficial to persevere and be inclusive and transparent. This community organizing approach strengthens not only an organization’s strategic plan but also its community, board of directors, and staff in three ways:
Engaging them with the work of the organization
Helping to glean their wisdom to assist in shaping the organization
Preparing them collectively to implement the strategic plan once it is adopted
Read several examples of how we’ve used community organizing in the strategic planning process on our case studies page.