Strategic Planning - But Make It Pandemic-y

In the best of times, we consultants talk about strategic planning as “setting the course for the organization,” checking in on the vision for the future and setting “aspirational goals” for the future. It’s all true. And most of the time it’s quite enjoyable – gathering input from the board and staff; speaking with an organization’s supporters, peers, or partners to unpack key questions; understanding the organization’s position in the world and what unique value they offer. These are exciting things to explore, fun questions to ask, and very worthy of consideration as an organization plans for the future. 

Now – enter COVID. The effects of this pandemic on our society, our lives, our mental health – it’s a lot. More than I can capture here. But its effects on organizations have been interesting and seem to be pushing many groups to consider strategic planning as a tool to answer some of these same big questions: Who are we? What do we do best? What are we missing?

On the one hand, organizations are coming to these questions with an increased clarity of mission and are more careful than ever about where and how they spend time and resources. So many urgent decisions had to be made early on in order to survive - Do we cancel the event? Do we move to virtual programming? Can we offer a new service to fill this void? Fortunately, this led many groups to shed activities that weren’t working, or find new opportunities, as a result. For example, when a client had to cancel an annual event but found a new way to connect with their stakeholders they celebrated, “We never need to go back to that event that makes us no money and takes up a ton of emotional and physical labor!” When another organization had to move their in-person support groups to a virtual model they actually saw an increase in participation as people who previously couldn’t join were now able to attend. In some ways, COVID has given organizations a rolling-start on planning work by forcing hard decisions and creating a culture where change is underfoot. 

One of the many consequences of COVID, however, is the increased level of uncertainty that permeates organizations. Typically in strategic planning, we’d help organizations identify and consider the internal and external risks or threats to their work. In today’s climate, the number one variable to all aspects of planning, fundraising, and operations is the progression and developments of this disease. While there’s no way to predict what will happen, planning work can absolutely help organizations identify a few scenarios for how their future might look and begin outlining how to get there. 

In this way - pandemic or no pandemic - Brightspot’s role is largely the same: to bridge the imagined future and the current reality by outlining actionable steps and realistic efforts that staff and volunteers can tackle.

There’s no denying life in a pandemic is crazy. The number of things out of our control is far greater than those within it. But that’s sort of always been the case - especially for nonprofits: board members retire, donors move on, programs sunset… Except now, we’ve had time to practice living with change. We’ve become more accustomed to regularly pivoting and changing tacts. Organizations have (hopefully) been in touch with their peers, partners, clients, and donors and have already learned a lot about what the community needs and how they can better deliver it. The winds of change are blowing but they’re at our back and breathing new life, energy, and opportunity into the planning process.