General Resources
- Blog Directories
- Free Trainings
- Join Peer Group
- Job Banks
- Online Groups
- Organizations That Help
- Periodicals
- Reference Materials
- Supersites
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some
related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes
free, online resources.
For-Profits
Nonprofits
Other Sources of Assistance
1. Small Business Answer Desk: Call 800-827-5722
2. SBA:
Small Business Administration Home Page
3. SCORE
– Service Corps Of Retired Executives Call 800-827-5722
4. Better
Business Bureau
5. Small Business Development Center: Call 402-595-2387
6. American Home Business Association. Call 800-664-2422.
7. National Association for the Self-Employed. Call 800-232-NASE.
8. Business Assistance Service (with Department of Commerce) Call
202-483-3176
9. National Business Association. Call 800-465-0440.
10. Chambers of Commerce and Trade associations — You should
contact your local Chamber of Commerce, even if only to introduce
yourself. The Chamber can be a great source of help and contacts.
One of the ways in which they can help if to suggest an appropriate
trade association for you to join. The particular trade association
you would benefit from, depends on the nature of your products
or services.
1. Contact your Secretary of State and/or state’s attorney
general’s office and ask for a list of resources
2. Executive
Service Corp provides experienced consultation in the areas
of technical and management.
3. National
Council of Nonprofit Associations (find your local office and
call for help)
4. Contact the local volunteer recruitment organization in your
community and ask for assistance.
5. Look in the Yellow Pages of your local telephone directory
for professional associations. Look for networks or associations
of organization development practitioners, facilitators or trainers.
6. Look in the Yellow Pages of your local telephone directory
under the categories “Consultant” and “Volunteering.”
7. Contact local large corporations. They often have community
service programs and can provide a wide range of management and
technical expertise. Speak to the head of the Human Resources
Department.
8. Call a local university or college and speak to someone in
the college of Human Resources, Training and Development, or Business
Administration.
9. Ask other nonprofits (particularly those that have similar
services and number of staff,) or current clients and ask for
ideas, contacts and references.
10. Ask a retired business person (from a for-profit or nonprofit
organization). Often, they have facilitated a wide variety of
meetings.
See the list of Websites that have extensive, free online
resources for you
See the topic Mentoring
In the group, members share support and accountabilities to apply new information
and materials to learn. Here’s a procedure
to start your group.
The number of free training programs and courses has increased dramatically, especially with the advent of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC’s).
The following links are to free, online training programs that provide free materials and associate means for you to learn from the materials and then to somehow verify your learning.
Also consider
Related Library Topics
Although the above-listed sites are labeled as “for-profit,” many of the guidelines apply to nonprofits as well — there is more in common between nonprofits and for-profits than is uncommon.
A recent trend is for educators to freely share their educational and training materials. In addition to using the materials to design and implement your own learnings about particular topics, you also can learn about systematically designing trainings in general, including about the training’s outcomes, goals, learning objectives, training methods, result and methods of evaluation.
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
This section is about online newsletters. Online magazines, journals, etc., are included later on below.
One of the most convenient means to get quick, useful advice is to join a free, online discussion group in which to pose your questions. There are 1,000s of these groups and that number continues to grow rapidly. There are a variety of names for the groups, for example, listservs, egroups and eforums. Some people have strong feelings about which name should be used and why the names are different. Usually, groups have a home page which includes description of the purpose of that group, and how you can participate in it.
Groups use a wide range of technologies to support discussions. One of the first types was Usenet, or newsgroups, usually having names with words separated by periods, e.g., “alt.activism” or “soc.org.nonprofit.” Often, these groups need special types of news readers, many of which are available for free on the Internet.
The following lists by no means includes all groups. However, many of the major ones are listed below. New ones are often announced in some or all of the following, as well.
The following sites pertain to both for-profit and nonprofit topics.
Also consider
About Business Blogs
Indices of Blogs
Before you look at any of the lists of blogs later on below,
it might be useful for you to understand what is involved in writing
a blog or even consider doing your own blog. See
Business Blog FAQ
Bloggers — A Portrait of the Internet’s New Storytellers
NOTE: We don’t include links to individual, specific
blogs below. There are just too many — and too many don’t survive
past their first year. Instead, we only include links to indices
of blogs, that is, links to organizations that maintain lists
of individual blogs. If you want to publicize your blog, we recommend
that you submit them to one or more of the indices below.
The number of blogs has exploded over the past several years.
Many blogs do not last past the first year. Consequently, it’s
quite difficult to identify and monitor individual blogs for this
Library.
Instead, the following list is to numerous services that monitor
and organize blogs into relevant categories. Some of the services
also list how long certain blogs have existed and how many visitors
that blog receives each day.
Search the various categories to find several blogs in which you are interested.
You might select individual blogs based on how long they have lasted and how
many visitors regularly visit that blog.
131+
Manually Verified Free Blog Directories To Submit Your Blog
100+ Blog Directories
to Submit Your Blog Posts
10
Blog Directories Actually Worth Your Time
21
Web Directories That Still Have Value in 2019
blogs of financial blogs
102
Best Business Blogs You Need to be Reading (and Taking Lessons From)
About.com’s
Top
100 Small Business blogs
Blog Search Engine
Lists of blogs (Wikipedia)
Complete List of Blog Sites
50 Successful Blogs
in Every Topic Imaginable – Sparring Mind
The world’s
50 most powerful blogs
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Applies to nonprofits unless otherwise noted.
Simply put, a mission statement is a succinct description of
the overall purpose of an organization. Basically, the mission
statement helps to convey the purpose of the organization to the
community and aligns organizational activities to one overall,
common purpose.
There are a variety of views about what should be included
in a mission statement.
Developing/Updating
a Mission Statement (the purpose of the organization)
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Much of this program is based on materials adapted from the
Nonprofit Capacity Building Toolkit(SM).
This module is in the nonprofit organization development program. However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study exercise to learn more about strategic planning and writing a strategic plan.
Very simply put, strategic planning identifies where the organization wants to be at some point in the future and how it is going to get there. The “strategic” part of this planning process is the continual attention to current changes in the organization and its external environment, and how this affects the future of the organization. Skills in strategic planning are critical to the long-term success of your organization. This form of planning includes:
a) Taking a wide look around at what’s going on outside the organization and how it might affect the organization (an environmental scan), and identifying opportunities and threats
b) Taking a hard look at what’s going on inside the organization, including its strengths and weaknesses (perhaps doing a SWOT analysis)
c) Establishing statements of mission, vision and values (some prefer to do that as the first step in planning)
d) Establishing goals to accomplish over the next (usually) three years or so, as a result of what’s going on inside and outside the organization
e) Identifying how those goals will be reached (strategies, objectives, responsibilities and timelines)
Strategic planning determines the overall direction and goals of the organization. Consequently, strategic planning influences numerous aspects of the organization, including what:
a) Products and services will be provided by the business and how those products and services will be designed
b) Organizational design and roles will be needed by the organization
c) Performance goals should be established for positions throughout the business
d) Board committees should be developed (in the case of corporations)
e) Resources will be needed to achieve those goals, and consequently, how much money is needed to procure those resources — ultimately, the goals determine the content of various budgets
Two key points to remember while proceeding through this module are:
1) The planning process is at least as important as the planning document itself
2) The planning process is never “done” — the planning process is a continuous cycle that’s part of the management process itself
NOTE ABOUT BOARD COMMITTEES: Consider establishing a Board Planning Committee (in the case of corporations) to review and help guide implementation of the information in this learning module.
The Planning Committee might be comprised of chairs from other board committees. Major activities and goals from this learning module could be incorporated in that Committee’s Committee Work Plan. This module includes additional recommendations for membership of the group of planners.
NOTE ABOUT OCCASIONAL REFERENCES TO NONPROFIT MATERIALS: Various links below refer to nonprofit strategic planning — there is little difference between strategic planning in for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Consequently, all of the materials referenced below can be useful to understanding strategic planning in for-profit organizations.
NOTE ABOUT STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS USED IN THIS MODULE:
There are many different ways to do strategic planning. The process used depends on the nature and needs of the organization, the reason for the planning (there are numerous, different reasons for doing strategic planning), the types of priorities faced by the organization, the rate of change outside and inside the organization, the ways that decisions are made in the organization, the expertise of people doing the planning, the extent of external research needed to do the planning, and the personal preferences of the organization’s leaders and the facilitator(s) of the planning process. Because this module aims to explain strategic planning to people who have no — or very little — experience in strategic planning, some basic approaches are described in this module. Other approaches are described in the Library’s Strategic Planning topic.
Also consider
Read all of the document referenced by the following topic.
Basic Guidelines for Successful Planning Process
Read all of the documents referenced by the following topics.
Read all of the documents referenced by the following topics.
Read all of the documents referenced by the following topics.
The following activities involve completing a Strategic Plan document. A framework, or template, is provided for you, Framework for a Basic Strategic Plan Document. However, that document is in HTML, of Web-based format. You might be better to re-create the framework, using your preferred word-processing software.
1. Planning Indicators (Best Practices) (includes program planning and evaluation)
2. Monitoring Implementation, Evaluating Implementation — and Deviating from Plan, If Necessary
1. One of the first indicators that an organization or a person is struggling is that open action items are not tracked and reviewed. (Open action items are required actions that have not yet been completed.) Instead, people only see and react to the latest “fires” in their workplaces or their lives. Whether open action items are critical to address now or not, they should not entirely be forgotten. Therefore, update and regularly review a list of open action items (identified while proceeding through this program) that includes listing each open action item, who is responsible to complete it, when it should be completed and any associated comments. When updating the list, consider action items as identified during discussions, learning activities and assessments in this module. Share and regularly review this action item list with the appropriate peers, board, management and employees in your organization. You can use the following Action Item Planning List. (At that Web address, a box might open, asking you which software application to open the document.)
2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national, free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended by many human resource and organization development experts.
(Learners in the nonprofit organization development program can return to the nonprofit organization development program.)
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
The following framework will guide you through completion of your basic strategic plan document. (There are many models for strategic planning — this framework is for conducting a goals-based plan.) Each section includes directions. Many sections include examples, as well. In addition, sections includes links to related, additional information to help the reader fill out that section of the framework.
NOTE: The framework depicts a useful format, but should be duplicated into an editable version, for example, into Microsoft Word.
Readers are encouraged to work with a planning team in their organization to fill in this framework. After completing this framework, readers can move information from the framework to a more suitable document to be the final version of the strategic plan document, if desired.
(Note that there are a wide variety of perspectives and approaches regarding strategic planning. The library topic Strategic Planning provides overviews of many of these perspectives and approaches.)
Also consider
Related Library Topics
[NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION!!]
[insert dates!!]
[insert date that plan was authorized by board by
directors (in the case of a corporation)!!]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary
Board Authorization of Strategic Plan [in the
case of a corporation!!]
Organizational Description
Mission, Vision and Values
Goals and Strategies
Appendices
A – Action Planning (objectives, responsibilities and time lines)
B – Description of Strategic Planning Process Used
C – Strategic Analysis Data (External Analysis, Internal Analysis
& List of Issues)
D – Goals for Board Committees and Chief Executive Officer
E – Staffing Plans
F – Operating Budgets
G- Financial Reports (Budgets, Statements, etc.)
H – Monitoring and Evaluation of Plan (Criteria, Responsibilities
and Findings)
I – Communicating the Plan
(Complete this section after you have finished the other sections of the plan document. The Executive Summary describes plan highlights to bankers/funders, board members, employees and other stakeholders. The Executive Summary should be one to two pages in length at most. It should include very concise descriptions of the most important information from the strategic planning process and its results. For example, include very brief descriptions of what’s in this document and how to use the document, strategic issues and goals, when the plan will be implemented, how the implementation will be monitored and by whom, and any specific actions required by upper management.)
Board Authorization of Strategic Plan [in the
case of a corporation!!]
(Authorization designates board member’s approval of the strategic direction and action plans described in this strategic plan document.)
Name of Board Member: ___________
Date Signed: _________
Name of Board Member: ____________
Date Signed: _________
Name of Board Member: ____________
Date Signed: _________
(etc.)
This section should include information that will be informative, particularly to readers from outside of the organization.
The mission statement is a concise description of the purpose of the organization. It answers the question: Why does our organization exist? When answering this question, include the nature of your products and services, and the various groups of customers that buy the products and services. The mission statement should provide continued direction and focus to your plans and operations. Post your mission statement throughout your organization, on all stationery, in your plan documents, etc. (For additional assistance, see Writing Mission Statements.
Your Mission Statement: ____
The vision statement is an inspirational, compelling answer to the question: What do you hope for your organization and customers? Ideally, it should be written in a compelling, inspirational fashion. Post your vision statement throughout your organization. (For additional assistance, see Writing Vision Statements.)
Your Vision Statement: ____
The values statement depicts the priorities in how the organization carries out activities with stakeholders. The board and chief executive should regularly reference the values statement to provide guidance to the nature of how the organization should operate. (For additional assistance, see Writing Values Statements.)
Your Values Statement: ___
Goals and Strategies
Goals are identified from having
taken a wide look around the outside of the organization (an external analysis) and careful look inside the nonprofit (an internal analysis), and then identifying what are the most important issues to address. Appendix C includes information to organize this analysis. Your Goals Should Be “SMARTER” When you design and word your goals, be sure they are “SMARTER”, that is, specific, measurable, acceptable to the people working to achieve the goals, realistic, timely, extending the capabilities of those working to achieve the goals and rewarding to them. Don’t worry so much about having to specify goals to be exactly “correct”. Your goals are likely to be modified somewhat as you give more attention later on to product design.
You will probably have organization-wide goals, for example, goals in regard to building and running your organization, for example, board development, staffing, getting a new building, etc. You also will probably have goals that directly in regard to building, producing and selling products or services to your customers.
Below, write down the strategic goals that must be achieved in order to address the issues listed in Appendix
C. Think about what must be achieved in order to address the issues. Consider goals over the term of your strategic plan, but look very closely at the next year especially. (For additional assistance, see Strategizing.)
Next, write down more forward-looking goals. If you are developing a new organization, then you’ll probably have goals to build a board, do a strategic plan, do a market analysis to build a program, get volunteers, hire staff, etc. Consider goals over the term of your strategic plan, but look very closely at the next year especially. (For additional assistance, see Strategizing.)
Next , under each goal, write down the major approaches (or strategies) that must be used to achieve each goal. Consider strategies over the term of the strategic plan, but especially over the next year. (For additional assistance, see Strategizing.)
Does each goal and its associated strategies really contribute toward the mission and vision of the organization. Will the goals be reached by using strategies that are closely aligned with the values of the organization? If not, then very closely reconsider whether you want to pursue those goals and associated strategies.
(Make copies of this page as needed.)
Your Goals and Strategies
Goal # 1 (Write them to be “SMARTER”)
Strategy # 1.1
Strategy # 1.2
Goal # 2
Strategy # 2.1
Strategy # 2.2
(etc.)
In the section labeled “Your Action Plans” below, write down action plans, especially for the next year. Action plans specify how the strategic goals and strategies will be carried out. Action plans often include various objectives to be reached while achieving each goal, who is responsible for achieving each objective and by when. Write objectives to be “SMARTER”. (For additional assistance, see Action Planning.)
(Make copies of this page as needed.)
Goal # 1 (Write them to be “SMARTER”)
Strategy # 1.1
Objectives |
Date of Completion |
Respon-
sibility |
Status |
| | | |
(etc.)
This appendix might include, for example,
An external analysis looks at societal, technological, political, and economic trends effecting the organization, e.g., recent or pending legislation, demographic trends, rate of access to trained labor, and competition. In your external analysis, don’t forget to look at stakeholders’ impressions of the organization, including bankers’/funders’, customers’, community leaders’, etc. (For additional assistance, see
Taking a Wide Look Around the Outside of the Organization.)
From out external analysis, we identified the following trends and how they might effect our organization:
Political trends:
Economic trends:
Societal trends:
Technological trends:
Other trends:
Write down the major strengths and weaknesses of your organization. Consider the quality of operations of the Board, products, staffing, finances, facilities, marketing, etc. (For additional assistance, see Looking at Organization’s Strength’s, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT).)
From out internal analysis (our SWOT analysis), we identified the following factors:
Strengths of the organization:
Weaknesses of the organization:
New businesses, in particular, are often better off to first look at the major obstacles or issues that if faces, and next identify the more forward-looking, developmental goals to accomplish over the next few years. For example, current issues might be that sales are flat, there is high employee turnover, etc. Developmental goals for a new organization might be, for example, build a board, do a strategic plan, do a market analysis to build a product, hire staff, etc.
To identify the key issues identified from your strategic analyses, consider the following guidelines:
a) From considering the effects of weaknesses and threats that you identified, what are the major issues that you see? List as many as you can. Consider issues over the term of your strategic plan, but look very closely at the next year especially. Many organizations have stumbled badly because they ended up “falling over their feet” while being focused much too far down the road.
b) Consider each of the issues. Ask whether it’s “important” or “urgent.” Often, issues seem very important when they’re only urgent, for example, changing a flat tire is an urgent issue — but you’d never put “changing a tire” in your strategic plan. Attend only to the important issues and not the urgent issues.
c) Deal with issues that you can do something about. Issues that are too narrow do not warrant planning and issues that are too broad will bog you down.
d) Issues should be clearly articulated so that someone from outside of the organization can read the description and understand the nature of the issue. (The following link may be useful at this point when identifying issues: Life Cycles of Organizations.)
Key issues that our organization must address through use of this strategic plan include:
1. ________________________
2. ________________________
3. ________________________
4. ________________________
(etc.)
Appendix
D -Goals for Board Committees and Chief Executive Officer
Organize Appropriate Board Committees [in the case of corporations!!]
Board committees should be developed that associate with each of the major areas of strategic goals. For example, if a strategic goal is to build and develop the board, then consider a Board Development Committee. (Of course, you will have other types of board committees to address ongoing major activities that are not directly associated with types of strategic goals, for example, an executive committee.)
One of the best ways to ensure that board committees are fully participative and effective is through use of work plans for each board committee. With the board members, design work plans for each committees. Write goals and/or objectives to be “SMARTER”. A work plan is the plan that each board committee references to guide completion of their contribute to the organization’s strategic plan. For example:
Work Plans for Your Board Committees
(Make copies of this page as required.)
Board Committee _______
Committee Chair _______
Goal # 1(Write them to be “SMARTER”)
Strategy 1. 1
Objectives |
Date of Completion |
Respon-
sibility |
Status |
| | | |
(etc.)
The board [in the case of corporations!!] is responsible to provide ongoing governance and direction the
organization. Usually, the board decides to carry out their responsibilities by including the role of a chief executive in the organization. The board is responsible to oversee the performance of the chief executive and evaluate the performance of the chief executive on a regular basis.
The chief executive should be attending to responsibilities and goals that are directly aligned with the
strategic goals of the organization (as should the responsibilities and goals of everyone else in the organization). Therefore, after strategic goals have been identified, it’s timely for the board to update the performance goals of the chief executive (who, in turn, updates the performance goals of everyone else in the management and employees in the organization). (For additional information, see Performance Management, Board of Director’s Evaluation of Chief Executive and Employee Performance Management.)
Goals may need to be reworded to be more specific to the authority and resources of the chief executive role.
Goals should be designed and worded to be “SMARTER”, that is, specific, measurable, acceptable to the chief executive, realistic, timely, extending the capabilities of the chief executive and rewarding for him or her to accomplish.
(Write goals to be “SMARTER”.)
1. _________________________
2. _________________________
3. _________________________
4. _________________________
(etc.)
Reference each of the strategies to reach the goals and consider what kind of capabilities are needed to implement the strategies. This might seem like a lot of guesswork, particularly if you don’t have experience in supervision. However, don’t worry so much about being exactly correct — you will likely refine your staffing plan later on as you design and plan your products in the development process. If you are developing a new organization, you might think about including the following typical roles in your initial staffing plan (but again, consider these roles in terms of implementing the strategies in your plan): chief executive, administrative assistant and product managers for each of your major products. However, it’s common that the chief executive is also a product manager or the first year or so. You may end up refining the staffing plan as you complete action planning, along with identifying who will accomplish each of your objectives. (The following link may help you when developing your staffing plan. See Organizing Staff.)
Note that in the following table, staffing is specified in terms of full-time equivalents (FTEs). One FTE is equal to one full-time staff position throughout the year. If staff will start half-way through a year, than include .5FTE, etc.
Staff Position |
Year |
Year |
Year |
Central Administration, General Operating Activities: | |||
| | |
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| | |
| | |
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| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
Staff for Products [insert name!!]: (have a section for each product) | |||
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
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| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
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| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
In the table labeled “Your Budget Planning” included below, list the resources you will need to achieve the
goals in the strategic plan and the costs to get and use the resources — especially over the next year. You don’t have to be exactly accurate — besides, you may end up changing your budget as you give more attention to product design and planning. You should do a budget for each of the years included in the span of time covered by your strategic plan — but give particular attention to the first year of the time span.
Look at each of your products. Think about how much revenue the product might generate. Next, think about the expenses to run the program, such as human resources, facilities, equipment, special materials, marketing and promotions, etc.
Now think about what resources will be needed for central administration. Will you need a chief executive officer, assistants, etc?
(For additional information, see The Right Way to Prepare a Budget)
The following multi-year budget is an example to help you think about the types of resources you may need to achieve the goals in our plan and to help you think about how you’ll develop your operating budgets.
Note that the following budget includes 40% “fringe” — this is the extra amount budgeted to cover benefits, for example, medical insurance, social security taxes, retirement contributions, etc. You should find estimates
of the current fringe rate for salaries — or, you can budget specific amounts for each of the specific benefits.
Also note that the following is a rather simple budget format and should be modified to suit the needs and nature of your organization.
REVENUE: |
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Product A Sales | |||
Product B Sales | |||
Earned Income | |||
TOTALREVENUE |
|||
EXPENSES |
|||
Central Administration — Personnel: | |||
Chief executive officer (include yearly salary + 40% for benefits, etc.) | |||
Administrative assistant (include yearly salary + 40% for benefits, etc.) | |||
Travel | |||
Staff development | |||
Total Central Administration — Personnel Costs: | |||
Central Administration — Facilities: | |||
Rental of office space (central offices and 4 classrooms) | |||
Office furniture | |||
Utilities (electricity, water, heat) | |||
Telephone (local & long-distance) | |||
Maintenance and janitorial | |||
Total Central Administration Facilities Costs: | |||
Central Administration — Equipment: | |||
Copier leasing | |||
Computer, printers, networking | |||
Training equipment, projectors, etc. | |||
Vans (4 for student transportation) | |||
Total Central Administration Equipment Costs: | |||
Central Administration — Marketing and Promotions: |
|||
Media plan (brochures, newspaper ads, etc.) | |||
Yearly meeting | |||
Annual report | |||
Build and maintain mailing list | |||
Web page development and maintenance | |||
Total Central Admin. Marketing & Promotions Costs: | |||
Other Expenses: | |||
General office supplies | |||
Liability insurance | |||
Subscriptions, books, etc. | |||
Total Central Admin. Other Expenses/Costs: | |||
Product A (a training package) — Personnel: |
|||
Program manager (include yearly salary + 40% for benefits, etc.) | |||
Consultant: curriculum design (3 months full-time; 9 months 2 hours per day) | |||
Consultants: teachers (4 full time and 4 half time) | |||
Consultants: psychologist/counselor (1 full time) | |||
Misc. | |||
Total Product A Personnel Costs: | |||
Product B — Materials: | |||
GED testing packets (600) | |||
Grading services from Dept of Human Services (600 students) | |||
600 self-study guides | |||
Support group facilitator guides | |||
Total Product A Materials Costs: | |||
TOTAL EXPENSES |
|||
TOTAL SURPLUS (OR DEFICIT) (= revenue minus expenses) |
The following table may need to be modified to suit the needs and nature of your organization. (See the advice and materials suggested in the previous section.)
REVENUE: |
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Product A Sales | |||
Product B Sales | |||
Earned Income | |||
TOTALREVENUE |
|||
EXPENSES |
|||
Central Administration — Personnel: | |||
Chief executive officer (include yearly salary + 40% for benefits, etc.) | |||
Administrative assistant (include yearly salary + 40% for benefits, etc.) | |||
Travel | |||
Staff development | |||
Total Central Administration — Personnel Costs: | |||
Central Administration — Facilities: | |||
Rental of office space (central offices and 4 classrooms) | |||
Office furniture | |||
Utilities (electricity, water, heat) | |||
Telephone (local & long-distance) | |||
Maintenance and janitorial | |||
Total Central Administration Facilities Costs: | |||
Central Administration — Equipment: | |||
Copier leasing | |||
Computer, printers, networking | |||
Training equipment, projectors, etc. | |||
Vans (4 for student transportation) | |||
Total Central Administration Equipment Costs: | |||
Central Administration — Marketing and Promotions: |
|||
Media plan (brochures, newspaper ads, etc.) | |||
Yearly meeting | |||
Annual report | |||
Build and maintain mailing list | |||
Web page development and maintenance | |||
Total Central Admin. Marketing & Promotions Costs: | |||
Other Expenses: | |||
General office supplies | |||
Liability insurance | |||
Subscriptions, books, etc. | |||
Total Central Admin. Other Expenses/Costs: | |||
Product A (a training package) — Personnel: |
|||
Program manager (include yearly salary + 40% for benefits, etc.) | |||
Consultant: curriculum design (3 months full-time; 9 months 2 hours per day) | |||
Consultants: teachers (4 full time and 4 half time) | |||
Consultants: psychologist/counselor (1 full time) | |||
Misc. | |||
Total Product A Personnel Costs: | |||
Product B — Materials: | |||
GED testing packets (600) | |||
Grading services from Dept of Human Services (600 students) | |||
600 self-study guides | |||
Support group facilitator guides | |||
Total Product A Materials Costs: | |||
TOTAL EXPENSES |
|||
TOTAL SURPLUS (OR DEFICIT) (= revenue minus expenses) |
Appendix G – Monitoring and Evaluation of Plan
Responsibilities and Frequencies for
Monitoring and Evaluation
Plan’s section, goals, |
Completion |
Respon- |
Written |
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(The following questions should be modified to suit the nature and needs of the organization.)
Monitoring and evaluation activities will consider the following questions:
1. Are goals and objectives being achieved or not? If they are, then acknowledge, reward and communicate the progress. If not, then consider the following questions.
2. Will the goals be achieved according to the timelines specified in the plan? If not, then why?
3. Should the deadlines for completion be changed (be careful about making these changes — know why efforts are behind schedule before times are changed)?
4. Do personnel have adequate resources (money, equipment, facilities, training, etc.) to achieve the goals?
5. Are the goals and objectives still realistic?
6. Should priorities be changed to put more focus on achieving the goals?
7. Should the goals be changed (be careful about making these changes — know why efforts are not achieving the goals before changing the goals)?
8. What can be learned from our monitoring and evaluation in order to improve future planning activities and also to improve future monitoring and evaluation efforts?
Additional questions:
Results of monitoring and evaluation will be in writing, and will include:
1. Answers to the “Key Questions While Monitoring Implementation of the Plan”
2. Trends regarding the progress (or lack thereof) toward goals, including which goals and objectives
3. Recommendations about the status
4. Any actions needed by management
Regarding any changes to the plan, write down answers to the questions:
1. What is causing changes to be made?
2. Why the changes should be made (the “why” is often different than “what is causing” the changes).
3. What specific changes should be made, including to goals, objectives, responsibilities and timelines?
Reminders:
Manage the various versions of the plan (including by putting a new date on each new version of the plan).
Always keep old copies of the plan.
Note that certain groups of stakeholders might get complete copies of the plan, including appendices, while
other groups (usually outside of the organization) might receive only the body of the plan without its appendices.
Consider:
1. Every board member and member of management should get a copy of the plan.
2. Consider distributing all (or highlights from) the plan to everyone in the organization. It’s amazing how even the newest staff member gains quick context, appreciation, and meaning from review of the strategic plan.
3. Post your mission and vision and values statements on the walls of your main offices. Consider giving each employee a card with the statements (or highlights from them) on the card.
4. Publish portions of your plan in your regular newsletter, and advertising and marketing materials (brochures, ads, etc.).
5. Train board members and employees on portions of the plan during orientations.
6. Include portions of the plan in policies and procedures, including the employee manual.
7. Consider copies of the plan for major stakeholders, for example, funders/investors, trade associations, potential collaborators, vendors/suppliers, etc.
(For additional assistance, see Writing and Communicating the Plan.)
This plan will be widely communicated including through use of the following approaches:
1. _____________________
2. _____________________
3. _____________________
4. _____________________
(etc.)
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Much of this program is based on materials adapted from the Nonprofit Capacity Building Toolkit(SM)
particularly the guidebook, Field Guide to Developing and Operating Your Nonprofit Board of Directors.
This learning module is in the nonprofit organization development program. However, this module can also be used by anyone as a self-study exercise to learn more about starting and understanding a nonprofit organization.
This module is useful to entrepreneurs who are thinking about starting a nonprofit, or have already started their nonprofit and what to understand more about what they’re really doing. The module also will be useful to practitioners/consultants who want a broader understanding about nonprofit organizations, including how they are started. This understanding for practitioners/consultants can help them provide more effective services to clients and establish stronger credibility with leaders and managers in the nonprofit workplace.
Starting a nonprofit organization requires careful thought and planning about your new organization. However, you can’t effectively manage an organization if you can’t effectively manage yourself. So in this module, you are first guided through some careful examination about yourself as an entrepreneur (and you are an entrepreneur if you are starting an organization). If you decide you still want to start a nonprofit, then you’ll consider various options to “jump start” your organization, including fiscal sponsorship and using an incubator service. Next, you are guided through a variety of checklists to help you legally register your nonprofit in the particular form you desire, for example, as a nonprofit corporation, as a nonprofit that is exempt from paying federal and other taxes, etc.
Maintaining a healthy nonprofit organization requires healthy practices in governance and management. This nonprofit organization development program is geared to develop those healthy practices in your nonprofit. To truly understand and be effective at these practices, it helps greatly if board members, executive directors and staff have some basic understanding of the overall organizational “system” of their nonprofit organization, including its common traits, dimensions, “personality” and life cycles. This is not just an academic exercise. Too often, people don’t really understand the overall structures in their nonprofit. When problems occur, they only see the specific events, and not the larger structures that cause the behaviors that cause the events. To effectively resolve problems, you have to change the structures — not just react to events.
The importance of this understanding of organizations is evident when you realize that many graduate business training programs start out with an overview of the organizational system, often in a course called, for example, “Organizational Theory“.
Learners who complete this module will achieve the following outcomes:
Starting Your Nonprofit:
Understanding Your Nonprofit:
The following materials will help you address each of the topics and learning activities in this module. If your time is very limited, then you can still benefit from scanning the resources and questions referenced from the following links.
Many people are so excited about starting a new venture, that they forget about one of the biggest challenges — getting themselves ready first. So before undertaking the steps to start a new business, they first should think about:
The following article will help you to answer each of these very important questions.
Entrepreneurs — Are You Personally Ready to Start a New Venture?
/organizations/nonprofits.htm#anchor247079
1. What are at least 3 characteristics of successful entrepreneurs? Are you an entrepreneur? How did you conclude that about yourself? (See Are You Really an Entrepreneur?)
2. Are your finances in shape to begin planning and starting a new organization? Are you sure? (See Are Your Personal Finances in Shape?)
3. How will you manage the stresses involved in planning and starting a new organization, product or service? (See How Will You Manage the Stresses Involved?)
1. Is there really a need for your new organization, product
or service? How do you know? (See Is There Really a Need for the Product or Service
in Your Organization?)
2. What type of organization would you start, if it’s a new
organization? (See What Type of New Organization, Product or Service
Will You Be Starting?)
3. What are at least 3 of the risks involved for you? (See What Are the Risks Involved?)
4. What planning and financial skills do you have? Where might you need to improve? (This eMBA has upcoming modules about planning and finances.) (See What Planning and Financial Skills Do You Need?)
5. So what is a summary of your plans for your new organization, product or service? (See What Are Your Initial Plans?)
6. What expertise, or human resources, will you need? How might they be organized? (See What Human Resources Will Your New Organization, Product or Service Need?)
7. How much money might you need for startup? (See How Much Money Will You Need?)
8. Might you draft a first-draft of a basic strategic plan or business plan now? There can be business plans for a nonprofit. (This eMBA has upcoming modules about strategic planning and about product and service planning.) (See Write a Strategic Plan or Business Plan Document?)
1. What is a nonprofit organization? (See First Things First — What Do You Mean by “Starting a Nonprofit”? and What is a Nonprofit?)
2. What does the phrase “fiscal sponsorship” mean? In what situations might a fiscal sponsor be helpful? (See Consider Fiscal Sponsorship.)
3. What is a business incubator? (See Nonprofit Incubators.)
4. What are the benefits of incorporating a nonprofit? (See First Things First — What Do You Mean by “Starting a Nonprofit”?)
5. What does the phrase “tax-exempt” typically mean?
(See First Things First — What Do You Mean by “Starting a Nonprofit”?) How does a nonprofit obtain tax-exempt status? (See Table of Reminders for Registering Your New Nonprofit.)
6. Do the terms “tax-exempt” and “tax deductible” mean the same thing? (See First Things First — What Do You Mean by “Starting a Nonprofit”?)
7. What does the IRS classification “501(c)(3)” mean?
(See First Things First — What Do You Mean by “Starting a Nonprofit”?)
8. When is a lawyer often needed during the process of starting a nonprofit? (See Do You Need a Lawyer to Start Your Nonprofit?)
9. What are articles of incorporation? Bylaws? (See Table of Reminders for Registering Your New Nonprofit.)
10. To which do you file for incorporation — the IRS or your state? To which do you file for tax exemption — the IRS or your state? (See Table of Reminders for Registering Your New Nonprofit.)
1. What is a basic definition of an organization? An organization gets ongoing direction primarily from mission, vision and values. That’s why it’s so important for boards, management and staff to understand these concepts and how they apply to their nonprofit. What is a mission? Vision? Values? (See Basic Definition of Organization (which includes some optional reading about systems thinking).)
2. It helps a great deal to think of organizations and programs as systems, for example, when planning programs and evaluations or managing major changes in your organization. What is a system? (HINT: Think about inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes.) How is a system different than a pile of sand? What are some common characteristics of systems. How is an organization like a system? (See Basic Definition of Organization (which includes some optional reading about systems thinking).)
3. What metaphor do you prefer to describe organizations? Machines? Organisms? Persons? Groups? Families? Others? (See Various Ways to Look at Organizations.)
4. Organizations have certain dimensions and concepts in common. When designing, organizing and/or re-organizing organizations, it helps to be aware of these dimensions and concepts. Name at least three of the dimensions of organizations. Name at least three key concepts to consider when designing organizations. (See Common Dimensions in Organizations and Key Concepts in the Design of an Organization.)
5. The concept of culture is VERY important. Each organization has its own unique culture, particularly in nonprofits. When managing a nonprofit, it’s important to acknowledge what values are really important to the organization, what behaviors typically occur and what behaviors are really treasured. Lack of understanding about culture is one of the major reasons that organizational change efforts fail. Describe the concept of organizational “culture”. (See Organizational Culture (the “personality” of the organization).)
6. People — like most other systems — go through life cycles. When trying to understand, manage or help a system, it’s very important to you know what life cycle the system is in. This is true for organizations as well. Organizations have life cycles. This is often forgotten when trying to work with organizations. Describe the concept of organizational life cycle. (See Life Cycles of Organizations.)
7. What is the “new paradigm”? What are several of the changes that might be expected in this new paradigm? What major, overall driving forces are causing this new paradigm? (See New Paradigm in Management.)
8. What are the seven key roles in a nonprofit (as listed in the materials for review)? (See Key Roles.)
9. What are the three major sections of nonprofit personnel (as listed in the materials for review) (See Three Aspects of Nonprofit Structure.)
10. What is devolution? (See Current Major Challenge: Devolution.)
11. How would you describe the typical nature of a small nonprofit organization? (See Unique Nature and Struggles of Traditional Small Nonprofits.)
1. Write a five- to ten-sentence description of the charitable purpose of your nonprofit. This is the mission statement of your new nonprofit. What is the nature of your organization’s services, e.g., advocacy, arts, civic, cultural, health, education, human services, or other? (For assistance, see Writing/Updating a Mission Statement.)
2. Find out the minimum number of people required to be on a nonprofit, corporate board of directors in your state. You might call, for example, your Attorney General’s office, States Attorneys office, etc. Recruit at least this number of people to join your board. (For assistance, see Overview of Board Roles and Responsibilities, Joining a Board and Recruiting Board Members.)
3. Recruit expertise to help you get your nonprofit started. A great place to start is by getting references from other small nonprofits. Don’t forget about finding an insurance agent. You’ll probably soon need liability and property insurance. (For assistance, see Getting a Bank and Banker, Joining a Board, Hiring Consultants, Getting and Using a Lawyer, Getting and Using Accounting Services and Insurance for Nonprofits.)
4. If you plan to incorporate your nonprofit, draft a set of Articles of Incorporation (or whatever other type of legal charter is required, for example, a constitution, Articles of Association, etc.). (For assistance, see Articles of Incorporation.)
5. Draft a set of bylaws (bylaws specify how your board will govern the organization and how it will be configured, for example, with an executive director, etc.). (For assistance, see Corporate Bylaws.)
6. If you plan to file for exemption from federal taxes, contact the IRS to obtain the necessary forms. Begin completing the forms when they arrive. (For assistance, see Getting Tax-Exempt Status.)
7. Make a draft (probably a very rough draft at this point) of a plan that includes the top 5-8 goals for the nonprofit to accomplish over the next year. Think about what resources are needed to achieve these goals. (This is a very rough draft of a strategic plan.) Write down the costs for the resources and group them in major categories including: personnel, computers, office supplies, facilities (rent, utilities, etc.) and any other major groups of costs. This is a very rough draft of a yearly budget. You don’t have to go into great detail at this point. (For assistance, see Basic Guidelines for Successful Planning Process and Basic Description of Strategic Planning.)
8. Hold a meeting of your board of directors. In the meeting, members should review the drafts of the Articles, bylaws, application to the IRS for tax-exempt status, strategic plan and budget. Members should vote to approve the drafted items. Members should also vote to select officers. Your state may require that boards have certain officer roles, for example, Chair/President, Secretary and Treasurer. (For assistance, see Basic Sample Board of Directors Meeting Minutes.)
9. Make the necessary filings for incorporation (probably to your local Secretary of State) and tax-exempt status (to the Internal Revenue Service).
10. On the Action Item Planning List, make note to follow up on the following actions.
a) When you get notification from the IRS that you’ve obtained tax-exempt status, contact the appropriate state department to seek exemption from state taxes. (These exemptions vary across states.)
b) When you get notification from the IRS that you’ve obtained tax-exempt status, contact the local tax assessor to seek exemption from property taxes. (This exemption varies across states and localities, as well.)
c) Contact your local city hall to identify if you need permit or license to solicit in your city.
d) Contact your local post office to obtain a bulk mail permit.
e) It may be useful to obtain an employer identification number at this time, so you’re ready if and when you hire employees.
f) Start obtaining facilities in which to operate, whether in your home, an office, etc. The link Setting Up an Office may help you.
g) Begin looking into computer equipment you may need. The link Computers, Internet & Web may help you.
1. Diagram a logic model of your organization, including its inputs, processes, outputs (tangible results) and outcomes (impacts on clients). (Note that this systems view is sometimes called an “outcomes model”, which is very useful when designing outcomes-based evaluations or writing proposals in grant applications.) Fill in the table in the Guidelines and Framework for Designing Basic Logic Model
2. If possible, diagram a basic systems view of your programs, including inputs, processes, outputs (tangible results) and outcomes (impacts on clients). (Note that we’ll soon give more attention to programs, including their design and marketing, in an upcoming learning module.) Fill in the table in the Guidelines and Framework for Designing Basic Logic Model
1. Write a half-page description of the culture of your organization. Include what values your organizations holds dear and what values you see reflected by the behaviors in your nonprofit. Note that if your nonprofit is still fairly new, you can still benefit from this activity by describing what you’d like to see as the “personality” of your organization. This activity will be useful later on during strategic planning when writing values statements. (For assistance, see Organizational Culture (the “personality” of the organization) and Unique Nature and Struggles of Traditional Small Nonprofits.)
1. Write a half-page description of the life cycle of your organization. Is it in Birth? Youth? Midlife? Maturity? Include what characteristics you observe that lead you to conclude that your organization is in that life cycle. Note what life cycle will be next for your organization. Include description of any challenges that you might expect when you go through the next life cycle change. (For assistance, see Life Cycles of Organizations.)
1. In the materials for review, you learned that organizations are systems and that for systems to thrive, their needs to be continued and effective feedback (communications) between its major parts. What can you do to ensure effective communications between the key roles in your nonprofit, including clients, board members, board committees, board chair, executive director, staff and volunteers? Effective communications requires more than good intentions. What specific structures can you use, for example, consider reports from the director, meeting minutes, staff meetings, etc. (For assistance, see Basics of Internal Communications, Communications (Writing) and General Recommendations to Improve Communications Skills.)
Use any or all of the following assessments to evaluate the health of your new or already established nonprofit organization.
1. Answer the questions in the “Legal Indicators” in the Checklist of Nonprofit Indicators. Have you completed all of the necessary activities to conform to U.S. regulations (for example, to maintain tax exempt status)?
1. If you are just starting your nonprofit, the following assessments may be advanced at this point. However, if you are from an already-established nonprofit, then you might apply some or all of the following assessments:
1. One of the first indicators that an organization or a person is struggling is that open action items are not tracked and reviewed. (Open action items are required actions that have not yet been completed.) Instead, people only see and react to the latest “fires” in their workplaces or their lives. Whether open action items are critical to address now or not, they should not entirely be forgotten. Therefore, update and regularly review a list of open action items (identified while proceeding through this program) that includes listing each open action item, who is responsible to complete it, when it should be completed and any associated comments. When updating the list, consider action items as identified during discussions, learning activities and assessments in this module. Share and regularly review this action item list with the appropriate peers, board, management and employees in your organization. You can use the following Action Item Planning List. (At that Web address, a box might open, asking you which software application to open the document.)
2. If you have questions, consider posing them in the national, free, online discussion group hr.com, which is attended by many human resource and organization development experts.
(Learners in the nonprofit organization development program can return to the nonprofit organization development program.)
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.