It’s Time to Rethink Strategic Planning and Introduce the Impact Roadmap

Most nonprofits create strategic plans out of necessity — to please funders — because it’s something they’re told they have to do, but once the planning is over, most nonprofit staff just go back to business as usual.

A strategic plan should help you with all of those challenges. It is a tool for you to get clear and articulate exactly what you do, for whom and why it matters. It also identifies key performance indicators or success metrics that help you show how impactful you are and spells out the exact activities you must focus on to make that impact a reality. 

Well-intentioned organizations get bogged down in rhetoric instead of laying out a plan for real impact. The issue? Many are uncertain about measuring their impact. That's why I've created a simple framework — the impact roadmap. Let’s dive into how to create one for your organization. 

1. Write Your Purpose or Mission Statement

You likely already have a mission statement, but most nonprofits don’t have a purpose-driven mission statement. Impact metrics should prove you’re achieving your mission, so you must start there. What is the purpose of your organization's existence? 

A good mission statement includes a desired result for a specific population. Think about what you do, then ask yourself, what does that get the people you serve? If you provide interview clothes to people in transition, why does it matter, what do they get and why should a funder care? It’s not the clothes themselves. 

Maybe you’re improving confidence, developing a sense of ownership or increasing employability. Now go one step further. What does confidence, ownership or employability get them? Are you fostering independence, creating self-sustaining adults or developing fulfillment and purpose? These are all measurable outcomes and everyone can agree that they matter. 

A common mistake nonprofits make is to be too broad and too inclusive, and by including everyone, you fail to meet the unique needs of a particular population while diluting your organization’s impact. You owe it to those you serve to get super clear and specific on who you serve. Narrow down your niche. 

For my program Stable Moments, our mission statement is: Developing life skills in children with complex trauma for healthy transitions into adulthood. 

The desired result is life skill development. The “for who?” is children with complex trauma, and just for an added “so what?” there’s the ultimate outcome of “healthy transitions into adulthood.”. 

Avoid putting “by” or “through” in your mission statement. These typically come before strategies and you don’t want to put strategies in your mission statement. Strategies are the how. The mission statement is the what and why. 

2. Define Your Focus Areas aka Vehicles for Change

Now that you have a mission statement that explains your desired result, how are you going to get there? You should define at least three focus areas, or “vehicles for change,” under which your programs fall. 

Your nonprofit exists to achieve your mission as effectively as possible. So if you’re going to do this right you really should start with your desired result and determine — through research and experience — what is the best way to serve your population. Too often, nonprofits take what they want to do, or the programs they already have in place and claim they’re the best way, but you shouldn’t start with the strategies. Start with the desired result and build your programming around that. 

Some example vehicles for change are education, support, research, community outreach and mentorship. 

Purpose Statement

For each vehicle of change you create, develop a purpose statement or goal. For example, an education vehicle for change might have this purpose: Equipping law enforcement to recognize and effectively communicate with people with developmental disabilities.

The goal of each vehicle for change should go deeper into helping you achieve your overall mission. Also, the specificity of this goal helps when determining success metrics, or ways in which you can measure your impact. 

Success Metrics

For each vehicle for change, you must also determine at least three success metrics that measure three things: 

How much you did. This is typically the number of sessions or participants. For example: 500 law enforcement officers trained or 25 departments trained.

How well you did it. This  measures your success at delivering the program. Think satisfaction or response rates. For example: 90% of officers report they will be able to utilize this training in their work.

Is anybody better off because of it? This is the hardest to track but the most important and should speak directly to the desired result in the goal of the focus area. For example: 75% of officers report improved interactions with members of their community who have developmental disabilities (in a one-year followup survey).

Imagine telling funders that 75% of officers report that your training actually helped them and made the interactions with the population you serve more positive. Now that’s something we can all agree matters. 

Once you’ve chosen your metrics, set actual targets for each. Remember these are success metrics or performance indicators, so what percent or number would indicate you are being successful? 

This should be realistic and something you can achieve. Ask yourself, “what number definitely says we did not hit our target?” Then make the target more than that. Most nonprofits shoot too high. If you want your goal to be 90%, would that mean you weren’t successful if you hit 89%? Choose a number that is right above, what you would deem not successful. 

Key Activities

To collect the success metric data, you will have to ensure there are systems in place and accountability measures to ensure those systems are followed and reported on. Include this as a key activity.

After you develop metrics, you determine which key activities must be prioritized to achieve those metrics. Many strategic planning methods start with tactics and leave the metrics for last, but with the impact roadmap we determine how we want to be impactful, and then focus our efforts on achieving that. 

When writing out your key activities make sure they’re actionable and speak to the work it will take to accomplish your goals. Many people make the mistake of being broad, such as “make connections with local school board.” A more actionable way to write this key activity would be “develop a community outreach strategy, with roles, responsibilities and timeline.”  That way, instead of doing outreach in whatever way we think it should be done, we are starting with an actual strategy to which we can be held accountable. 

Vehicle for Change Example

Here is the completed example of a vehicle for change with success metrics and key activities.

Vehicle for Change: Education

Education Purpose: Equipping law enforcement to recognize and effectively communicate with people with developmental disabilities.

Key Activities

• Create a strategy for which law enforcement departments to outreach and cultivate relationships with 
• Create incentive program for increased participation
• Develop evaluation survey to determine how likely the officers will use the training in their work
• Develop a one year follow up survey and incentive to respond to track what percentage of officers report improved interactions

Success Metrics

How Much: 500 law enforcement officers trained or 25 departments trained.

How Well: 90% of officers report they will be able to utilize this training in their work.

Is Anybody Better Off: 75% of officers report improved interactions with members of their community who have developmental disabilities (in a one-year followup survey).

3. Complete the Impact Roadmap

Your final strategic plan should have a cover page, as well as a page explaining your mission, vision, values and three vehicles for change. There should be one page per vehicle for change that lists the vehicle, the purpose, key activities and success metrics. 

Finally, there should be a section related to operations. This is where you would put fundraising, marketing and capacity goals. Use the same format. Create an operations goal, determine success metrics and key activities. 

An impact roadmap should not only be your guide for exactly where to focus for the year to reach your goals, but it should also help you demonstrate the exact impact you claim to have. Furthermore, it should be used as an external document to share with funders so they can easily understand exactly what you do, for whom and why. 

The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.