Nonprofit Administration Program

1. Nonprofit Administration Program Planning for Strategic Planning!

2. Four Phases of Planning:

3. Key Points on Strategic Planning • Planning must engage all stakeholders (internal and external) in the program and be a product of the NPA program community:

4. example list of stakeholder group wants and influences Young, Dennis R. “Games Universities Play: An Analysis of the Institutional Contexts of Centers for Nonprofit Study” in O’Neill, Michael and Kathleen Fletcher, eds., Nonprofit Management Education: U.S. and World Perspectives, Praeger: Westport, CT, 1998, esp. pp.125-128 (available through OhioLink)

5. example list of stakeholder group wants and influences (con’t) Stakeholder Wants from Center Leverage

6. example list of stakeholder group wants and influences (con’t) Stakeholder Wants from Center Leverage

7. example list of stakeholder group wants and influences (con’t) Stakeholder Wants from Center Leverage

8. Key Points on Strategic Planning (con’t) • Planning is always in a state of development – the process does not end once a plan is forged. • There is no one “best” process; the NPA program must draw from resources and produce a unique document. • It can help energize the program, seek out new opportunities and use existing resources more efficiently and effectively. • Planning can improve the program’s ability to fulfill its mission, sustain its values, and serve its stakeholders more effectively.

9. Conditions for Successful Planning • Building consensus for change • Acknowledge that participants must step out of their ‘usual’ roles. • Convince those involved that this is a necessary and desirable use of their time. • It is helpful to have a “champion” who will encourage participants to become engaged and communicate strategic planning efforts to stakeholders on a regular basis.

10. Conditions for Successful Planning (con’t) • Focus on institutional needs • Select good institutional citizens to serve on planning groups • Encourage broad and open participation – accept and address input from all levels of stakeholders. This promotes a sense of ownership of the plan and a willingness to accept the final product. • Legitimize the political aspects of planning

11. Conditions for Successful Planning (con’t) • Ensure a good fit with campus culture • Understand the academic culture as well as the history and traditions of John Carroll. • Strategic planning carries connotation of “top-down” management, but it is important that the process reflect the values of academic culture • Encourage questions and dissent • Reach final decisions with consensus • There is no generic plan that can be lifted and applied to this program. The plan must be tailored to the NPA program in order for it to be legitimate and useful.

12. Conditions for Successful Planning (con’t) • Promote effective faculty participation • Faculty members are the programs most powerful intellectual resource • Faculty must have sense of ownership over process • Keep in mind the time restraints of this stakeholder group – offer incentives? • Assign planning functions to groups and the converge as process matures.

13. Conditions for Successful Planning (con’t) • Secure effective leadership • A critical variable in effective planning! • The leader is a catalyst, a facilitator, moving others along to engage in process. • The leader does not provide answers and is not ultimately responsible for the plan – she/he may provide a loose framework for discussions. • The leader should provide and effective system for distributing responsibilities. Harvey, Bryan C., "The Perils of Planning Before you are Ready" 1998

14. Importance of Participation in the Strategic Planning Process Basinger, Nancy and Jessica Peterson, Where you stand depends on where you sit: participation and reactions to change. Nonprofit Management & Leadership, vol. 19, no.2, Winter 2008.

15. The Holistic Approach to Planning Planning should be: • Integrated • Reflect the connectedness of academic, financial and facilities planning factors. The NPA program’s plans effect other parts of the institution as a whole. • Strategic • Planning must define program’s relationship to environment and get input from a variety of sources. • Craft a plan that can be tested, challenged and refined. • Aligned • Strategies, actions, outcomes and performance measures are all linked.

16. Connecting Strategic Planning and Organizational Planning • Use small, cross-stakeholder workgroups to generate strategies. • Use environmental scanning to discover emerging issues and challenges that require strategy changes. • Generate a simple vision or what the program should look like in the future. • Be flexible and willing to modify, change and reject strategies. • Articulate the impact of strategies on stakeholders. Norris, Donald M. and Nick L. Poulton "A Guide to Planning for Change", Society for College and University Planning

17. Tools for Planning(get ready for acronyms!) • Plan for Planning • Mission of program • Institutional and stakeholder values • Key performance indicators (KPIs) • Internal and External Assessment • Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT, or SWOTC + Challenges) • Then move on to: TOWS (Turning Opportunities and Weaknesses into Strengths. • Opportunities and strengths that can be leveraged • Problems (threats/weaknesses) that can be mitigated • Constraints and vulnerabilities that can be overcome Norris, Donald M. and Nick L. Poulton "A Guide to Planning for Change", Society for College and University Planning

18. Tools for Planning (con’t) • Assess strategic issues and actions/develop strategies • Articulate vision of the program • Tactical, operational, and budget planning • Execute strategy/develop organizational capacity/ lead and navigate change

19. Communicating the Plan Black, Janice, Kim Hinrichs and Frances Fabian, “Fractals of Strategic Coherence in a Successful Nonprofit Organization” Nonprofit Management and Leadership, vol. 17, no.4 Summer 2007 • Storytelling as a way of communicating information about the program: “When [an] organization ceases to be moved by its mission, when its mission becomes cloudy or no longer acts as a beacon to help guide decision making, [it] may very well disintegrate.” “Stories may provide both the conceptual and practical guidance needed to achieve strategic coherence in the actions of the individuals.”

20. Storytelling • Gather stories to put on the website, either text with photos or video. • Possible storytellers: • Current students • Alumni • Faculty • Organization leaders for whom NPA students have done a project.

21. Another View of the Planning Process Bryson, John M. and Farnum K. Alston. Creating and implementing your strategic plan: a workbook for public and nonprofit organizations San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004

22. Further Reading • Bryson, John M. Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement, 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004 • JCU has1995 edition HD30.28 .B79 • Limited preview of 2004 ed. On Google books http://books.google.com/books?id=gJxu_4FVieMC&printsec=frontcover&cd=1&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=onepage&q&f=false • 2004 version available through OhioLink • Bryson, John M. and Farnum K. Alston. Creating and implementing your strategic plan: a workbook for public and nonprofit organizations San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004 • limited preview on Google books http://books.google.com/books?id=wJA1jzIAwb0C&printsec=frontcover&cd=1&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=onepage&q&f=false • Available through OhioLink • Kaufman, Roger…[et al.] Strategic planning for success : aligning people, performance, and payoffs San Francisco Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer 2003. • Available through OhioLink

23. Further Reading • Daniel James Rowley, Herman D. Lujan, Michael G. Dolence, Strategic change in colleges and universities: planning to survive and prosper, San Francisco, Calif. : Jossey-Bass, 1997 • JCU has LB2341 .R69 • Tromp, Sherrie A. and Ruben, Brent D., Strategic Planning in Higher Education: a guide for leaders.  National Association of College and University Business Officers, 2004. • Available for purchase at http://www.nacubo.org/Products/Publications/Leadership/Strategic_Planning_in_Higher_Education_A_Guide_for_Leaders.html • Search for articles by: • Roseanne Mirablla (Seton Hall University) • Naomi Bailin Wish (Seton Hall University) • David Renz (University of MO at Kansas City)