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Strategic planning is the bridge between your vision and your reality. It helps you align your goals, values, and actions to make a difference in the world. Read on to find out how strategic planning can help your organization make a difference.
Organizational culture is often embedded in the stories of an organization that reflects its values, norms, and identity. These stories, whether passed down through generations of employees or shared through official communication channels, play a crucial role in shaping the cultural landscape. There are different types of stories:
Founding stories about the formation of the organization, the vision of its founders, and the initial challenges they faced. They often highlight core values that inspired the creation of the organization.
If your mission is the blueprint for your organization’s work – the what, why, and for whom – and the vision is the artist’s rendering of the realization of that mission, then organizational values are your ethical and moral compass and the foundation of your decision-making process. They serve as a guide for how things get done and inform your day-to-day work routines, interactions and approaches.
As we reflect on this past year, our hearts are filled with gratitude for the incredible journey and the impactful strides we have made together. In 2023, our commitment to building healthy nonprofits and fostering thriving communities has propelled us to forge new partnerships and broaden our reach.
When we think about strategic partnerships in the nonprofit industry, we often default to considering mergers as the primary form of integration. While mergers represent a fully integrated partnership, it is essential to recognize that they are not the sole option. In fact, there are various ways to collaborate, ranging from co-locating services in a peer organization to submitting joint funding proposals or when two organizations launch co-created programs for the benefit of both.
At a recent M+S presentation to a group of for-profit and nonprofit leaders, we asked attendees, “When you hear the term consulting services, what comes to mind?” The group’s answers to this question showed a surprising level of antipathy towards consultants.
Here’s what they said:
“Telling others [about] problems they already know.”
How's this response for cynicism, "Make money."
One person simply responded, “Expensive.”
In today's fast-paced digital world, many nonprofits find themselves challenged by a widening technology gap. In a nonprofit trend report from Salesforce, which tracks global trends from 1,600 nonprofit leaders, 74% of nonprofits reported that digital transformation was a “need-to-have” or “must-have.” These findings reflect a growing recognition among nonprofit organizations that embracing technology is critical to achieving and growing mission impact.
Earlier in my career, I taught an interpersonal communication class at a university in northern Illinois. At the end of a lesson on active listening, I asked students to share a key take-away from the lesson. One student vigorously raised his hand and said, “Oh, oh, Ms. Caribeaux, I learned that it is important to think before you speak.” I was struck by the conviction with which he made that simple statement but appreciated this profound insight.
Our society has come to greatly value content generation, the virtual equivalent of talking. Social media influencers can make anywhere from $10 to $10,000 per post! Listening has become a lost art.
A 2021 LinkedIn report in which 400 U.S. companies with 100,000 employees (about the seating capacity of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum) were surveyed, cited an average loss per company of $62.4 million per year because of inadequate communication to and between employees!
Providing Nonprofit Organizations with A Single Source for All of Their Back-Office and Strategic Collaboration Needs
We are thrilled to announce that Mission + Strategy (M+S), a nonprofit collaboration services provider founded by Jean Butzen in 2006, is joining the Keystone Alliance (Keystone) family of organizations.
This blog post is by Jean Butzen, Founder and President; you can read more about Jean and learn how to contact her here.
I read this article and found it so interesting I wanted to ask our blog readers: do you agree with its conclusions? What do you think of how it supports its arguments?
This blog post is by Jean Butzen, Founder and President; you can read more about Jean and learn how to contact her here.