The Step Most Nonprofits Miss When Strategic Planning, and How You Can Get It Right
While nonprofits across the country develop strategic plans, many of them end up gathering dust on the shelf because they're missing a crucial follow-on step that comes after their strategic plan is complete: strategic alignment.
A good strategic plan is developed from the ground up. It considers the needs of the community, the perspectives of all the key stakeholders associated with a particular challenge, and the positioning of the organization, but it shouldn't be limited only to what the organization is good at today. Instead, it should help an organization see its full potential, catalyze the community of stakeholders to action, and set an aspirational vision for what's to come.
This inevitably means that a good strategic plan will tell an organization that it must change course, sometimes in small and other times in big ways, to create the impact it desires. This is where strategic alignment comes in.
Understanding Strategic Alignment
Strategic alignment is the process of adjusting an organization’s internal structure and resources to ensure they are in sync with the strategic plan.
If you think about it, your organization today is headed north. But a good strategic plan likely charts a course to the north-east to create the impact needed. Strategic alignment is about setting your organization up to bridge the gap between its current direction and where it needs to go.
Strategic alignment involves scrutinizing existing programs, departments, and initiatives to determine how well they support the new strategic direction and includes making necessary adjustments to optimize effectiveness and impact.
Here's why strategic alignment is crucial and how you can get it right:
Analyzing Existing Team Structures
Ensuring Buy-In from All Levels
Aligning Programs with Strategic Goals
Building Capacity for Change
Establishing a Framework for Impact Measurement
1. Analyzing Existing Team Structures
A strategic plan without alignment is like having a detailed map without a vehicle to travel in. It provides direction but lacks the means to move forward. Strategic alignment bridges this gap by ensuring that every aspect of the organization is geared towards executing the plan. This involves realigning resources, creating structure for teams, and possibly even redefining roles and responsibilities to ensure everyone is working towards the same goals.
How to Get It Right: Conduct an analysis of your current organizational and operational structures to identify lines of responsibility for implementing the plan going forward, as well as possible gaps in the organizational structure that will need to be considered as an implementation approach is developed. Keep this structural understanding in mind as you go through additional steps in this process.
2. Ensuring Buy-In from All Levels
For a strategic plan to be successful, it needs buy-in from all levels of the organization, from the board and executive team to frontline staff and volunteers. Strategic alignment involves engaging these stakeholders early and often, ensuring they understand the plan and their role in its implementation.
How to Get It Right: Create communication channels that keep everyone informed and involved. Alignment is a process that plays out over several months, implementation is a process that plays out over several years. Engage key stakeholders early so they know what to expect in the months and years ahead, and build regular check-ins into your ongoing communications processes to ensure these stakeholders remain up to date on progress as well as their roles and responsibilities.
3. Aligning Programs with Strategic Goals
Many nonprofits operate multiple programs that may not always align with their overarching strategic goals. Strategic alignment involves evaluating these programs to determine their relevance and effectiveness in achieving the strategic vision.
How to Get It Right: Assess each program’s impact and alignment with the new strategic goals. Identify the ways in which the current programs meet the strategic goals and objectives. Decide which programs to expand, modify, or phase out based on their contribution to the strategic plan. Recognize that, simply because your organization doesn’t continue to support a given program, doesn’t mean you can’t partner with another organization that delivers that service.
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4. Building Capacity for Change
Strategic plan implementation is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process that requires building the capacity for change within the organization. This means equipping your team with the skills, knowledge, and tools needed to implement the strategic plan and adapt to new challenges and opportunities.
How to Get It Right: Recognize that implementing a strategic plan requires designing new initiatives and refining existing ones. Invest in organizational and professional development activities that expand your team’s capacity to think creatively and systematically. Design Thinking convenings and annual planning workshops can drastically improve your team's ability to contribute to the plan and leadership's organizational approach to enacting change. DC design offers each of these, as well as ongoing capacity support that helps our clients execute on their plan and create a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
5. Establishing a Framework for Impact Measurement
A strategic plan is only as good as its ability to deliver measurable impact. Strategic alignment should include the creation of an impact evaluation framework that allows the organization to track progress, assess outcomes, and make data-driven decisions.
How to Get It Right: Develop clear metrics and data collection protocols that align with your strategic goals. Regularly review and analyze this data to ensure you are on track and making necessary adjustments to maximize impact.
The DC Design Approach
At DC Design, we often work with our clients on strategic alignment after the strategic planning phase concludes. This additional support is rare in the social impact consulting world, but we’ve seen that it adds capacity, expertise, and energy to the implementation process that ensures our nonprofit partners can effectively implement their plans and achieve real impact. DC Design also helps nonprofit partners understand budgeting and other resources needed to carry the work forward.
Here’s how our phased approach works:
Strategic Planning (months 0-6): We develop a comprehensive strategic plan that clearly describes the areas your organization must focus on to address community needs and sets a clear, aspirational vision for the future?
Strategic Alignment (months 7-9): We help organizations realign their internal structures and resources to support the strategic plan. This includes a Design Thinking-based implementation convening to upskill an organization’s ability to create change.
Foundational Implementation and Evaluation (months 10-12): We establish metrics and data collection protocols to measure success.
Ongoing Implementation and Impact Evaluation (months 13-66): We provide ongoing support to ensure effective execution and continuous improvement. We also conduct biannual impact evaluations to track progress and refine strategies.
Conclusion
Strategic planning is essential, but without strategic alignment, it’s unlikely to drive the change your organization seeks. By ensuring that your organization’s internal structures and resources are aligned with your strategic goals, you can move from planning to action and achieve lasting impact. If you’re ready to take your strategic planning to the next level, consider partnering with experts who understand the importance of both planning and alignment. At DC Design, we’re committed to helping nonprofits create real, transformative change.
If you feel ready to start your strategic alignment process or have questions about it…
