Cost of Strategic Planning
Whenever we’re asked about our strategic planning services, one of the first questions is about cost. The first answer is always, “It depends.” Every organization contemplating strategic planning approaches the process with different expectations, different needs, different time lines, and different levels of readiness.
It’s very easy to sell an “off-the-shelf” strategic planning solution, but it’s difficult to get such a solution to “fit” all the varied organizational situations we encounter in our practice.
Valuable Questions
These questions often help to clarify what an organization and its board don’t know and need to know, or what issues need to be addressed in order for any strategic plan to be successful. In fact, there are some organizations that can actually be made worse by strategic planning undertaken in the wrong way, at the wrong time, or for the wrong reasons.
Well Thought-Out Plans
A single facilitated meeting and a consultant-written report rarely cause transformational change in an organization. These reports are like Mark Twain’s definition of a “classic” book — a book everyone praises and nobody reads. These quickie plans often hide more than they reveal and seldom deliver any real value to nonprofit organizations.
There are many approaches to strategic planning. We’ve documented the features and limitations of three popular nonprofit planning models here. In our practice, we’ve used variants of all three models, and others, as indicated by our clients’ particular situations.
Here are some of the questions we ask as we work with the client to determine the scope of services and fee structure:
Building A Strong Foundation
Asking these questions helps us understand what strategic planning services are needed, what supports are present to make the strategic planning successful, and what related services might be required to enable the organization to realize its mission.
Power of a Well-Defined Strategic Plan
Strategic planning is a powerful tool in your organization’s success, and it deserves time, thought, and consideration. Just as strategic planning is important because “prior planning promotes proper performance,” as the saying goes, these questions asked up front, help us work with our clients to assure that the planning process itself is designed to promote proper performance.