Time to freshen up your strategic plan

Irrespective of whether the bulk of your organisation’s income is derived from government, donors, members or commercial activities, your not-for-profit (NFP) organisation exists in a marketplace and your strategic planning needs to reflect this fact.

One tell-tale sign that your strategic planning process may need to be upgraded is if your organisation has failed to consistently grow its donors and/or members, net profit/surpluses and value of assets in the last three years.

The traditional strategic planning process focuses on the organisation from the perspective of today looking forward to tomorrow. However, the market-based strategic planning approach focuses on tomorrow and, based on this vision, makes changes to the organisation today.

Market-based strategic planning aims to reduce risk by regularly examining changes in the marketplace that relate to your existing and potential funders/donors/members and making changes to your business model to achieve a hand-in-glove fit with the needs of the market. This model is less focused on planning and more focused on innovation and trend-watching, exposing future growth opportunities based on movements within the marketplace.

To help your NFP organisation develop an innovation strategy with clear targets, tactics, responsibilities and deliverables, ask yourself the following five questions:

• What are the opportunities for existing and new products/services in both existing and emerging markets?
• What’s on the radar next year that is lucrative yet has lower risk and high demand?
• Is demand for your existing products and services authentic and proven?
• Is there the willingness and wisdom to adapt your organisation’s business model to suit the marketplace?
• If you were to restart your organisation tomorrow with the existing asset base, how would it be structured, who would the customers be, what would be the business model and what type of resources and infrastructure would you need for it to operate successfully?