Strategic Planning and Mission Met, with Eric Ryan and Ricky Chilcott

Nonprofit SnapCast

Visiting with Eric Ryan and Ricky Chilcott of Mission Met. We talk about strategic planning, and how the Mission Met software helps nonprofits achieve their strategic goals. We also discuss the most glaring problems with nonprofit strategic planning, including these barriers to effective execution:

• The Executive Director Doesn't Champion the Planning Process
• Nonprofit Strategic Plans are Often Too Complex
• Planning is Viewed as an Event, Not a Proces

We'll soon be giving away a copy of Mission Met: Proven Strategic Planning Guidance to Help You Build a Financially Secure and Impactful Nonprofit. This book frames strategic planning as a mindset for managing your organization with writing a plan as one key step in an ongoing cycle creating a structure for implementation and course correction as needed. Among the things we cover:

I. Why strategic planning has a tremendous ROI:

• Helps to ensure that your plan is executed
• Keeps the team engaged and aligned in the planning process
• Elevates the importance of strategic planning overall for the organization
• Shows clear(er) history of what you've decided/tried and what worked/didn't
• Saves you time and political capital by reminding people about work to be done
• Is a break for the day-to-day project management software

II. Advice with selecting strategic planning (or really any software)

• Be honest with yourself about what sort of power you need, want, and can afford
• Ask yourself whether it's useful to only have a limited set of people able to access (most software is price per-user)
• Ensure the platform you choose works the way you want
• Ensure the platform you choose is designed for your size of organization
• Be on the lookout for other support and resources that provide your team value

We welcome support of the Nonprofit SnapCast via Patreon. We welcome your questions and feedback via The Nonprofit Snapshot website.