Types of planning advice CNPE offers

CNPE offers both a full-service Strategic Planning process, as well as additional planning tools and engagements. These tools are perfect for organizations that are making course corrections for a plan that is already in place or that need some planning assistance for key parts of an internally-run strategic planning process.

Strategic Planning: Our process helps you develop the right plan for your organization

The planning process is as important as the plan itself. We work with you to design and implement processes that will help you understand the landscape around you, envision where and what you need to be, and chart a course to realize that vision.

Our three- to six-month process helps you develop a traditional, three-year strategic plan. The process includes gathering data (including stakeholder feedback); reviewing your vision, mission, and core values statements; analyzing your internal capacity and external landscape; and identifying broad strategic areas of focus. Our consultants support leadership throughout the planning process; facilitate a board retreat (and staff retreat, if needed); and facilitate and document follow-up meetings with a strategic planning committee to flesh out plan details.

Beyond the Plan: CNPE offers additional Strategy Tools and Engagements that help your organization make the most of it's plan

Running a nonprofit day-to-day is demanding and navigating a constantly evolving environment requires more than strategic planning every few years. You need tools that advance your understanding and help adjust your actions in real time to the changing road ahead, and CNPE can help. Our lineup of strategy tools brings fresh approaches to assessing your performance and delivering your mission with impact.

If you are looking to supercharge your strategy or build greater alignment among stakeholders on where to go next, these tools will get you there. Our strategy engagements are affordable and designed to be conveniently facilitated on-site, can accommodate any size group, and take only a few hours to complete.

• Mission Calibration 
  A clear and powerful Mission Statement is critical for connecting with those you serve, providing donors, staff and volunteers a reason to believe. Your mission also influences your strategy, creating the most important guide for deciding how to invest precious resources. And while most organizations have a Mission Statement, many of those statements don’t possess the essential critical elements to effectively facilitate this connection and guidance. Our facilitated process will help your board members, executive leadership, and staff analyze your mission statement and calibrate it for greater impact—inside and outside your organization.

• Dual-Bottom Line Assessment
  Your organization’s work is your strategy in motion. With limited resources and limitless needs, it is critical that your organization invests in the programs, services and events that deliver maximum impact. But when was the last time you took stock of all that you do, not only individually but collectively? Are you measuring success against both the delivery of your mission and the impact your activities are generating? Geared toward executive leadership, program staff, and board program committees, this facilitated process produces a graphic representation that will challenge your assumptions, reveal opportunities, and identify patterns that will help dial in your strategy and grow your impact.

• 360^o SWOT Assessment
  Understanding your organization’s strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats in your operating environment is essential to executing a winning strategy. But this well-known strategic planning tool is often underutilized and only scratches the surface through a handful of perspectives. We approach SWOT differently with an assessment that dives deeper into the essential functions of your organization and can accommodate any size group of staff, board, and other key stakeholders. What’s revealed are issues and insights that would normally remain hidden. And what emerges are actionable items that will help direct your strategy with greater clarity and buy-in. 

To learn more about CNPE’s planning and strategic services or to retain one of our consultants, email Ed Cortas, VP of Strategic Initiatives & Consulting, or call 502-618-5329.