Strategic Planning in Nonprofits
Event Details
This series is offered in partnership with the Nonprofit Association of Washington
Is strategic planning on your radar for 2025? Do you need to clarify the strategic direction of your organization and the strategies that will be used to achieve your vision while also ensuring organizational health and sustainability? If you answered yes, join this three-part webinar series that will set you on the path to developing a plan that does not sit on a shelf collecting dust! Strategic planning aligns your people and resources around a plan to achieve your mission.
The series will be anchored with Strategic Planning in Nonprofits (SPiN), a toolkit developed by Nonprofit Association of Washington to make strategic planning accessible and manageable for you, your board, and your staff. Over the course of three 90-minute webinars and suggested "homework" in between sessions, we will review the six phases in the planning process and you will leave with the tools and confidence to develop a strategic plan for your organization.
Learning Outcomes
- Be able to work through the six phases of a strategic planning process
- Be able to assess the current state of your organization
- Know how to improve your mission statement
- Be able to name at least one strategic priority for your organization
- Have an action plan of at least two next steps toward developing a strategic plan
- Have the resources, templates, and processes to complete a strategic plan
Who Should Attend
Board Members, Executive Directors, and other nonprofit staff working with boards
Part 1: Getting Started with Strategic Planning
Thursday, January 16, 2025 | 7:00pm – 8:30pm ET
This session will introduce the what and why of strategic planning as well as lay the groundwork for the six phases of planning. We will explore the first two phases of the planning process, Prepare and Listen. After completing this session, you will understand the need for strategic planning, be able to articulate what you hope planning will accomplish for your organization, and be equipped with the tools to assess your organization’s readiness to engage in a strategic planning process. You will also be able to identify key planning questions and stakeholders for your planning process.
Part 2: Your North Star – Mission and Vision
Thursday, January 23, 2025 | 7:00pm – 8:30pm ET
This session will explore the role of consulting with a broader circle of stakeholders as you (re)envision your mission and vision. We will explore who your stakeholders are and what data you might gather. We will also talk about the role of a mission and vision statement in serving as the north star for your strategic plan. We will review key elements of mission and vision statements. After completing this session, you will be prepared to assess your organization’s mission and vision statement and know how to engage key staff and board to craft statements that capture and communicate your organization’s identity.
Part 3: Rolling Up Your Sleeves – Plan, Execute, and Evaluate
Thursday, January 30, 2025 | 7:00pm – 8:30pm ET
This session will present a process to innovate, develop, and prioritize strategic goals with your board and key staff. From there we will also discuss how to write good objectives to make your priorities actionable and measurable. Many strategic plans get left on the shelf to collect dust. Discover how to avoid this pitfall by building an execution and evaluation plan into your process. After completing this session, you will know how to write strategic goals and objectives for your organization and have ideas about how to align your resources so you can reach your goals. Most importantly, you will know how to keep your plan a living document and how to track progress on your goals.
For More Information:
Cost + Registration
- MANP Members save $75!
- $75 MANP Members / $150 Nonmembers
- Enter code LearnMANP at the final checkout screen when registering to apply the member discount. Note that an account is not required on NAWA's website to register.
Register Here via Partner Website
Accessibility
- Captioning: We will have automated captioning enabled.
- Interpretation: Please indicate during registration if you have an interpretation request. Typically, we need at least two weeks in order to schedule an interpreter.
- Visual Descriptions: Presenters will include visual descriptions of themselves and the slides to give a person who is low-vision, blind, or calling in without video a sense of space and place.
- If you have additional accessibility requests, please let us know when you register.
About the Presenter
Kim Rakow Bernier, MPA is an organization and management consultant who partners with nonprofits to align people, purpose and planning for impact. She is a nonprofit practitioner and educator with over twenty years of experience and leadership in building the capacity of leaders and organizations. Kim has led nonprofits planning efforts from inside and out of multiple organizations; most recently at a global grantmaking nonprofit in her role as Executive Director, and as the chair of the strategic planning committee in a leadership development and environmental restoration organization.
Kim is a skilled educator and facilitator. Her passion for teaching dates back to her time as a teacher in the Solomon Islands as a Peace Corps volunteer. Back in the U.S., Kim spent close to a decade leading outreach initiatives at a global sustainability education organization. In that role, she presented over 200 workshops and keynotes at schools and conferences around the country. More recently, Kim has designed and facilitated board retreats, workshops on meeting facilitation, and strategic planning processes.
Currently Kim provides organizational development and management consulting services to nonprofits, partnering on strategy planning, theory of change development, board development, and meeting and retreat facilitation to increase program impact and achieve results. Kim has a Master of Public Administration degree and a Certificate in International Development Policy and Management from the Evans School of Public Affairs.