Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations
Chapter One
Introduction to Strategic Planning
What Is Strategic Planning?
Strategic planning is making choices. It is a process designed to support
leaders in being intentional about their goals and methods. Simply stated,
strategic planning is a management tool, and like any management tool,
it is used for one purpose only-to help an organization do a better job.
Strategic planning can help an organization focus its vision and priorities
in response to a changing environment and ensure that members of the
organization are working toward the same goals.
In short we define strategic planning as follows:
Strategic planning is a systematic process through which an organization
agrees on-and builds commitment among key stakeholders
to-priorities that are essential to its mission and are responsive to
the environment. Strategic planning guides the acquisition and allocation
of resources to achieve these priorities.
Several key concepts in this definition are worth expanding on to better
articulate the authors' approach to planning and our values and beliefs
regarding a successful planning process:
The process is strategic because it ... read full excerpt from Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations: A Practical Guide and Workbook, 2nd Edition ebook
