Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations, Second Edition

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Customer Reviews:

Excellent Resource for Non-profit Boardmembers [Posted on 2005-09-30]
This book is a step by step guide with suggested modifications to fit the needs of any group. The worksheets, included on an accompanying CD, are very useful. I highly recommend this book to anyone involved in strategic planning for any organization - public, private or non-profit.

good basic introduction [Posted on 2006-03-16]
Book provides a good basic introduction to strategic planning from the non-profit perspective. Although I already knew strategic planning from the corporate side, this book showed how it differs when applied to the non-profit arena. The review of the SWOT process was a bit simplistic, but I found the checklist for evaluating projects helpful. The disc and the worksheets were definitely worth the price of the book

Strategic leaders at NPOs should read this book [Posted on 2006-04-23]
The authors of this book do a nice job of condensing the content of their book into a diagram at page 15 that they entitle: "The Strategic Planning Process." Then they explain the diagram chapter by chapter. The chapters are full of good information and lots of exhibits, worksheets, and real-life examples. Job well done! I recommend to anybody interested in preparing a business plan for a for-profit or a nonprofit to read this book. And I also recommend all strategic leaders (i.e. executive directors, board chairs, and CEOs) read this book. It should be helpful to them in performing their job duties.

The book basically points out the following series of questions and/or tasks a strategic leader much consider when doing his or her job:

1. What is the organization doing now?
2. What are its strengths?
3. What are its weaknesses?
4. Are we heading in the direction we want?
5. What must we change to get back on track?
6. Prepare a written plan for change.
7. Implement the plan for change.
8. Monitor the implementation.
9. Reevaluate the plan for change.

I would have liked the book better if the authors had more accurately described what a business plan is, and what it is used for. The authors seem to think that a business plan is something that a for-profit entity creates in order to get loans from lenders or capital from investors. While it is true this is one of the reasons for writing a business plan, the more important reason a plan is written is that it acts as a roadmap for the leader and management of the business to follow towards success. Most businesses that do not have a written business plan are doomed for failure. NPOs without a business plan will probably not be successful either.

Another shortcoming I found in the book was that the authors do not point out that NPOs need a "business plan" just as much as does a for-profit. NPOs also need a roadmap to follow. Whether the authors want to admit it or not, a business plan for an NPO is pretty much the same document as a business plan for an organization seeking profits. The difference between the two plans exists in the marketing section - and that is the only difference. NPOs need to market to their customers/clients and to philanthropists that have a connection and commitment to their cause, whereas for-profit businesses need only market to their customers/clients.

Any NPO should have a business plan starting on the day it comes into existence. The strategic planning process described in this book can be used to create that written business plan. Therefore, this book is for NPO founders. After the business plan exists and it is being used as a roadmap to success, then the effectiveness of the plan must be monitored regularly. When it appears the plan is not proving effective, then the strategic planning process described in this book should be used again to implement change to get the NPO back on track to success.

Strategic leadership is a critical role that any leader must play, and if he or she can't, then she has no business assuming a leadership role. A "leader" who does not know how to perform strategic leadership is merely a manager, not a leader. I think it is a sad state of affaires that so many executive directors and board chairs are clueless when it comes to strategic planning - thus they are just managers. The authors, by writing this book, have created a resource for wanta-be leaders to use to learn how to do an important and critical part of their job - lead strategically.

My Board loved the charts [Posted on 2007-06-08]
The Planning Committee of the Board of Directors at my nonprofit wants to get the full Board engaged in strategic planning within a year. The chart in this book that shows the steps in the process was just what they wanted. It was worth the purchase price...and we haven't started to use it yet!

Critique Highlights [Posted on 2007-11-10]
Strategic planning is a subject I know well having been a practitioner in a Fortune 500 company and a consultant for both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations of all sizes and many different types for about 45 years and having written two books on the subject - one specific to nonprofits. My reason for buying this book along with two other books ("Applied Strategic Planning" Goodstein, Nolan, and Pfeiffer, and "Strategic Planning for Not-for-Profit Organizations" Haworth Press) was to find out if I should be aware of some important new techniques/approaches that had been developed. I did not find any.

I do not have time to provide a complete critique - just the highlights. This book is too long and involved for a reader who simply wants to find out how to write a strategic plan quickly and efficiently without wasting a lot of time. It inadequately provides the methodology for identifying key issues and tying in goals with strategies. Particularly missing is information on key governance areas, such as, job descriptions of executive directors, development directors, standing committees of boards, and important features of bylaws.

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