Find strategic planning as exciting as a root canal?
Do you think strategic planning = lots of long, boring meetings, followed by a big, bound report that rots on a shelf? All while the organization goes about doing the same thing over and over, but still hopes for different outcomes?! Not on our watch!
At Grace Social Sector Consulting, we make sure strategic planning is engaging, equitable, participatory, wholistic, and dare we say FUN.
Yes, Fun!!!
Strategic planning that works
KICK OFF. Gather details and orient key stakeholders who’ll collaborate on the planning process.
DISCOVER. Conduct interviews, discussions, meetings, and focus groups to assess your situation. Use surveys for feedback and key questions. Ensure all participants have a chance to contribute.
EXPLORE. Review insights from stakeholders, explore the landscape, identify trends, brainstorm future options and criteria, consider equity, establish 3-5 top priorities, and assess their impact on your future.
DECIDE. Create a simple 1- to 2-page plan for your goals that:
Uses clear language
Covers the next 3 to 5 years
Explains how you will measure success
Review and update your mission, vision, and values.
PLAN + ACT. We’ll plan your implementation one year at a time, so you don’t have to stress about what will happen in three years. We’ll outline tasks for your first year, so you know who is responsible for what and when. I’ll keep everyone on track, including any new team members who come on board.
“Carol’s ability to ask thoughtful and challenging questions really helped us reflect on where we are and where we want to go. Her guidance provided a transformational lens to look at our organization, enabling us to plan for a cohesive and impactful future.”
It's time to envision your organization's next 3-5 years, if...
You are a relatively new executive director and you are ready to lead your organization to design its future direction
You're unsure whether your board and staff agree on your future direction and where to focus your energy
You've completed everything in your last strategic plan
You’ve done diversity, equity, and inclusion work—but it hasn’t yet been integrated into an organization-wide strategy
It’s been a long while (or maybe never) since you did any strategic planning
Your organization has expanded or weathered a major change and you need to determine a fresh direction
“These are seriously some of the best working sessions I’ve seen a board go through, with high level strategic goals that can be divvied up into action steps defined by board/staff. The strategic plan itself looks phenomenal. That is everything a strategic plan should be. So many get lost in the weeds.”
Three
Big
Benefits
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Consider equity and inclusion at each step of the process
Replace analysis paralysis with getting to heart of what you can realistically do
Brainstorm in ways that include everyone’s contributions
Identify—with crystal-clear clarity—your most realistic, mission-aligned priorities
Produce an immediately actionable plan, with criteria for what success looks like
Generate an easy-to-follow, written-in-plain-English road map to your organization’s most vibrant future
Know, with confidence, that your fresh and flexible strategy guides all your mission-driven work
Access tools to evaluate challenges and opportunities as they emerge and evolve
Actually enjoy the process!
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Invest wisely in a wholistic planning process that moves the dial on what matters most
Establish a clear plan that everyone can get behind
Gain clarity and agreement on where your organization is headed
Know how to start realizing your most important goals
Develop a plan that respects your time, and generates aspirational—yet achievable—results
Ensure you prioritize, synthesize, and implement key ideas from our meetings
Achieve bigger goals--without arguing, lobbying, and turf wars
Start doing more of what your organization does best—and stop what you don’t
Evaluate new priorities as they evolve, smartly decide which to pursue, and what to ignore
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Obtain a realistic, actionable synthesis of all group input (even if you generate, say, 50 big-picture, big-dream ideas)
Achieve agreement at levels beyond what stakeholders thought was possible
Engage your whole organization in uncovering and questioning previously untested assumptions
Be intentional about your future
CASE STUDIES
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Focusing on the Right Things
Revitalizing an educational organization's leadership and vision.
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Right-sizing Roles
Assessing the implications of strong growth for an educational organization.
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Emerging from Crisis
Emerging from crisis with more equity, clarity, & alignment—plus a re-energized, recommitted staff & board
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Envisioning Nonprofit Volunteer Structures
A national higher education agency has undergone significant staffing and leadership changes. New leaders aim to address long standing issues.
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Becoming a trusted voice
Identifying an overarching goal of being a go-to source for decision makers.
“We hired Carol Hamilton to curate a strategic plan for The Cupcake Girls. Our process included meetings with staff and board. It was the middle of COVID. And like most other folks, I was overwhelmed, unclear, and confused. What stands out in our work with Carol: Her ability to hear everyone’s emotions and input (even the quiet people) with a sense of calm and an intentional ear. She also maintained clear boundaries—and intentionally kept us focused on strategic planning.
I felt really safe with her, and knew that my vision was heard. I had been unsure whether we could pull this off virtually. But we all stayed engaged under Carol’s leadership. By the end, my team, board, and I had a clear, actionable plan that will allow us to grow in years to come.”
Strategic Planning
FAQs
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We get it – nobody wants another frustrating planning process! At Grace Social Sector Consulting, we make strategic planning engaging, equitable, participatory, and (yes, really!) fun. While we love creative brainstorming, we're also committed to helping you make real decisions. We'll work together to narrow your focus to no more than 5 key priorities, ensuring you walk away with a clear path forward.
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We're firm believers that strategic plans should be useful, not dust collectors! We'll create a focused 1-2 page plan that includes:
Your top, high-level goals (no overwhelming laundry lists!)
Clear success indicators so you know you're on track
You also receive a practical first-year implementation plan with real accountability and timelines.
Everything you need, nothing you don't.
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Don't worry – we've got a proven approach for this! Together, we'll:
Create a small but mighty planning committee (up to 5 people)
Let this core team guide stakeholder involvement through interviews, focus groups, and surveys
Facilitate engaging conversations that consider both creative and practical perspectives
Build in feedback rounds to ensure everyone feels heard
Turn all that input into clear, actionable priorities
We have proven methods to make sure the group gains traction and makes decisions, together.
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We understand that things change fast in today's world! That's why we:
Focus on creating a solid, detailed implementation plan for Year 1
Help you set up regular check-ins to keep things on track
Create a framework for developing Year 2 and 3 plans when the time comes
Build in flexibility so you can adapt as needed. Think of it as a living document rather than a rigid blueprint!
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Absolutely, we can do this remotely – and do it well! Our virtual process includes:
Focused, energetic video sessions (90 minutes to 3 hours)
Interactive digital tools that make collaboration easy and fun
Progressive sessions that build momentum
No travel hassles or coordination nightmares
Cost savings for your organization
Better accessibility for your whole team
The best part? You'll still get all the engagement and results of an in-person process, just with more flexibility and less stress!
We can also design a combination approach including both remote and in-person sessions.
Reach out to schedule
a Discovery Call.
Or maybe strategic planning isn’t right for you right now…
You may also want to explore social impact evaluation design: a Grace Social Sector Consulting service via which you learn to demonstrate your impact to potential supporters by building an evaluation system for your organization.
Or perhaps you don’t have the capacity to commit to a full planning process right now. Yet you want to get a better sense of where you are, your key stakeholders’ concerns, as well as your strengths and areas for growth. We call this an organizational assessment—a Grace Social Sector Consulting service that will generate that clarity.
Curated Resources
A collection of podcast episodes and articles to improve your knowledge of strategic planning and evaluation design for nonprofits.
