Blog: Strategic planning

A strategic plan can be a powerful and energizing force uniting members of a nonprofit organization in working together toward shared aims. What distinguishes plans that are engines for growth and improvement from those that mainly stay on the shelf? On Monday, March 8, I will  share research conducted on the UW-Madison campus which identifies several factors that correlate highly with successful execution of a plan. We will discuss tools that range across developing the plan and evaluating it, communicating the plan, implementing, and budgeting. Melinda V. Heinritz, Executive Director, Wisconsin Historical Foundation, will share planning approaches that have resulted in significant gains for her organization.

The Communiversity Session is sponsored by the UW Center for Nonprofits.

It’s an old fashioned approach to think we have to know all the answers before we are willing to communicate with clients, colleagues, customers or stakeholders. Inviting them to contribute to solutions is respectful and appreciative. This open approach is also very likely to shed useful light on the problem itself.

The World Café is a technique for really engaging people in questions and issues that matter to them. It combines doodling or drawing on the table followed by discussion and the opportunity to move to a different table with a different question and another round of writing, drawing and discussion.