All organizations need to start off with a plan that clearly identifies their long-term objectives. A strong strategic plan gives nonprofits an opportunity to see what they need to do in the present to keep the organization running, and provides insights into components that could be added down the line to improve processes. Below is a list of stages nonprofits need to go through to successfully implement their strategic plan.

Decide what the nonprofit will look like

When building a strategic plan, nonprofit managers need a solid understanding of what the organization intends to do and who it will service. With these processes understood within the organization, a plan can be crafted to ensure it will be able to achieve its goals. Organizations that cut corners during the planning stage often struggle to reach their long-term objectives; thus, it's essential that businesses take the time – even if the process can be tedious – to establish a clear set of goals and benchmarks to help achieve them.    

Build the planning team

There are two ways to go about creating a team for nonprofit planning: select top-level executives or choose a group of employees that cover numerous sectors within the nonprofit. While it may look good on paper to staff a planning team with top-level executives, that's not a guaranteed formula for success. Each nonprofit is different, and as such, each will need to craft a planning team that will most effectively allow it to map out and achieve its long-term objectives.

Perform SWOT analysis

Strong nonprofit planning requires all members to be realistic and understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOTs) the organization may encounter. Strengths and weaknesses are often internal factors within the nonprofit, while opportunities and threats are external factors. It is important that nonprofit managers ask themselves and their strategic planning team the right questions to properly carry out a SWOT analysis.

Form an action plan

After understanding what a nonprofit does best, as well as areas of improvement, managers will be able to build an action plan that will help them remain in operation. An action plan consists of strategies that will allow the nonprofit to meet its goals, and identify who within the organization will carry out these actions. An effective action plan covers all aspects of the strategic plan, is clear to everyone within the organization and is reflective upon the current operations of the nonprofit.

Track the success of the plan

Creating a strategic plan is pointless if it's cast aside after the first month or two to collect dust. Nonprofit managers need to regularly review their strategic plans and track their progress. If a nonprofit is booming, it should try to identify the factors that contributed to the growth and adjust accordingly. If the opposite is true, conducting an analysis of the processes that resulted in the drop off may enable the organization to cut ties with ineffective strategies and move forward. Nonprofits can measure their success by looking at the long-term objectives marked in the strategic plan the amount of lending opportunities the nonprofit received, the number of people the nonprofit was able to help and whether employees and managers are happy.

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