Mission Impact

Create powerful strategies for your nonprofit organization to achieve breakthrough performance in mission impact

Does your nonprofit have a reliable way of knowing the impact its making? Beginning with an eye-opening discussion of what strategy is, Mission Impact: A Breakthrough Strategy for Nonprofits reveals how the process of strategy development should be designed with authoritative coverage of mission impact, vision, five year strategic stretch goals, strategy implementation, and management.

• Step-by-step guidance and practical tools
• Integrates the very best current thinking on performance and strategy available, drawing from both the corporate and nonprofit worlds
• Cutting-edge ideas presented in a user-friendly fashion

The deteriorating quality of life in our communities screams out for immediate action – for breakthrough improvement, not just incremental changes. Mission Impact: A Breakthrough Strategy for Nonprofits will lead you and your organization to achieve breakthrough performance for maximum mission impact.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Introduction xiii

Acknowledgments xxi

About the Author xxv

Chapter 1 What Is Nonprofit Strategy? 1

What Is Strategy? 1

Strategy Guides Performance 7

Nonprofit Strategy 13

Hypothetical Example Organizations 15

Chapter 2 Designing the Strategy Development Process 19

Are You Ready? 19

Stakeholder Identification and Involvement 26

Length and Scope 30

The Strategy Development Group 32

Application to Hypothetical Organizations 35

Chapter 3 Your Mission Impact 49

The Mission Accomplishment Approach 49

The Mission Statement 51

Mission Accomplishment Measures 54

Your Mission Gap 64

Application to Hypothetical Organizations 66

Chapter 4 Vision for Your Organization 77

What Is Vision? 77

Aspirational Visions 78

Role of Aspirational Visions 86

Real-World Applications of Aspirational Visions 92

Application to Hypothetical Organizations 97

Chapter 5 Strategic Stretch Goals 103

What We Know about Goals 103

Outcome-Based SMART Goals 105

Almost Impossible 107

Real-World Applications of Stretch Goals 118

Application to Hypothetical Organizations 124

Chapter 6 Organization Assessment 131

Planning Your Assessment 131

External Assessments 134

Internal Assessments 134

The Venture Philanthropy Partners Capacity Framework 141

The SDG SWOT Analysis 144

Application to Hypothetical Organizations 146

Chapter 7 Strategy Development 159

Nonprofit Strategy Revisited 159

Creating Your Organization’s Strategy 160

The Strategy Narrative 166

Application to Hypothetical Organizations 173

Chapter 8 Strategy Implementation and Management 187

Strategy First 187

Aligning the Organization 189

Annual Operating Plans 195

Additional Management Concepts and Tools 200

Leveraging Your Commitment and Hard Work 219

Epilogue: The Seven Deadly Sins of Nonprofit Strategy 221

Appendix A Venture Philanthropy Partners Capacity Assessment Grid 223

Appendix B Summary of Hypothetical Organization Strategy Development Outcomes 257

References 275

AFP Code of Ethics for Professional Philanthropic Fundraisers 281

Donor Bill of Rights 283

Index 285

ROBERT M. SHEEHAN JR. is the Academic Director of the Executive MBA program at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he is also a Lecturer in the Department of Management and Organization. He is also Principal of Sheehan Consulting, which provides consulting services in strategy development and implementation, leadership and teamwork development, board development, and succession planning for businesses, nonprofits, and government entities. Rob has more than thirty years of executive management experience, including eighteen years as the CEO of two different national nonprofits. His PhD research focused on nonprofit organizational excellence and he is a published researcher on nonprofit performance. He is an active member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, having served as President of both the Central Ohio and East Central Illinois chapters. He attained the association's CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive) designation in 1986.

MISSION IMPACT
BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGIES FOR NONPROFITS

It's time to jump-start your nonprofit's vision. Get your team working together more creatively and strategically. Create strategies that will lead it to breakthrough performance in mission impact.

Beginning with a discussion of exactly what strategy is, Mission Impact will empower you to design, develop, and implement breakthrough strategies that increase your nonprofit's mission impact and improve the quality of life for others—after all, that's why you're in "business," isn't it?

With an accompanying Web site supplying practical tools, this complete guide for designing and carrying out a strategy development process for your nonprofit organization will help you understand how to apply the concepts presented, with a fresh look at:

• Key steps a strategy development group goes through in creating a strategy
• How to create an aspirational vision that will guide your organization to breakthrough performance
• Five-year strategic stretch goals designed to catapult your organization toward its vision
• The issues senior management should consider as it implements strategy
• How to design a process to fit the needs of your organization
• The factors your organization should consider as it designs a strategy development process

Drawing from the author's more than thirty years of experience in the nonprofit world as a practitioner, academic, volunteer, and consultant, Mission Impact fuels strategic change, offering expert insight into how the process of strategy development will guide your nonprofit toward its desired future.