During times of chaos, let strategy be your North Star

Hurricane force winds are barreling toward the nonprofit sector, threatening to uproot the foundation of every part of it – healthcare, housing, food security, art, education, and science. It is frightening in the extreme.

In the midst of it, I see nonprofits hunkering down in their own silos, gaming out scenarios to combat hits to their organizations and clients rather than looking at new strategies for advancing their work.   

Yes, we need to provide critical services and programs to keep on keeping on.

But we also need to innovate and change our models to enhance our work.

That’s why strategic planning and organizational realignment are so important at this critical juncture.

Nonprofits need to ask themselves five questions:

• How can we enhance our work by collaborating with like-minded nonprofits?

• How can we achieve greater administrative efficiency by piggybacking our needs with other organizations?

• How can we better utilize the talents and resources within our boards?

• How can we get the public to support our work?

• How can we engage in effective advocacy that moves the needle?  

Thinking strategically and expansively in consultation with your key stakeholders – the people you serve, your board, core funders, and potential partners – can unlock new ways of doing business and increase your impact.

Innovation isn’t a luxury of happy days – it is something that nonprofit leaders are constantly called to do and today its essential to our survival as a sector.

This work needs to build on the foundation of your organization’s mission. That is the rock that cannot be chipped.

I recently gave a talk to an organization that is over 100 years old, many of whose members are reluctant to dig deep into strategic questions.

I likened their work to that of Antoni Gaudí, an architect of amazing imagination who in 1883 began designing and constructing the Roman Catholic Basilica, La Sagrada Familia, which graces Barcelona, Spain. The work is expected to be complete next year – a mere 143 years after it was begun.

In addition to being a Modernist/Art Nouveau architectural genius, Gaudí was also an engineer. He designed many innovative construction techniques to undergird the enormous structure.

But as the field of engineering progressed, the strategies that were used to construct the building changed. The masterpiece Gaudí envisioned is now almost fully realized, even though he died when it was only ¼ complete.

Gaudí knew that La Sagrada Familia wasn’t about him. He knew it was about a greater purpose – inspiring a love of God.

So, let’s take a page out of his playbook. Let’s take this time of fear and loathing to create something beautiful with our nonprofits that will last for years to come.

Let’s engage in big-picture strategic thinking.

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Pat Libby is a change management consultant working principally with nonprofit corporations. She is author of The Empowered Citizens Guide: 10 Steps to Passing a Law that Matters to You, Oxford University Press, The Lobbying Strategy Handbook, second edition, Oxford University Press, and Cases in Nonprofit Management, SAGE. She has served as an academic, senior executive, board member, and consultant to innumerable nonprofit organizations and foundations for more than three decades.

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