Strategic planning is a structured, time-bound process that defines where your organization is going, why it matters, and how you’ll get there. It turns your mission into a small set of priorities, clear results, funded initiatives, and a regular review rhythm. Typical outputs include a simple strategy map, a 12 to 24 month implementation roadmap with owners and timelines, and a schedule for checking progress (monthly or quarterly). Unlike an annual plan, which focuses on budgets and tasks, strategic planning clarifies choices and trade-offs.

You’re ready if three things are true: leadership has the bandwidth to commit to a 6 to 10 week process, you have basic financial and program data to ground decisions in, and there’s a real question to answer. You’re NOT ready if you’re in active crisis, leadership is unclear, or there’s no agreement that strategic planning is needed. Sometimes the right first step is capacity building rather than strategic planning.

No. We work with organizations at every stage: from grassroots founders building a fundable nonprofit from zero, to county-level public agencies refining a 5-year strategic direction. We’ve grown one client from $125K to $1.5M over three years using this methodology.

The core process takes 6 to 10 weeks across three phases. Define (2 to 3 weeks): discovery, stakeholder interviews, baseline metrics. Decide (2 to 4 weeks): strategy workshops, trade-off decisions, draft plan. Activate (1 to 3 weeks): implementation roadmap, leadership briefing, optional execution sprint facilitation. Optional ongoing execution support extends the engagement to 3 to 6 months total.

Every engagement produces five deliverables: (1) a discovery and baseline summary, (2) workshop outputs including decisions, trade-offs, and rationale, (3) a strategy plan with 3 to 5 priorities, KPIs, and 12 to 18 month milestones, (4) a quarter-by-quarter implementation roadmap with named owners and budget alignment, and (5) a board / leadership briefing pack with communications toolkit.

Engagements are scoped to your organization’s size, the depth of work, and whether execution support is included. We provide a clear proposal with the number during your discovery call, before you commit. We price by scope, not by hour, so you’ll know what you’re paying for, not what you’re being billed for.

Yes. We facilitate standalone board retreats as a focused engagement. The retreat package includes pre-work intake, a custom agenda designed for decisions (not discussion), live facilitation, and a follow-up plan with decision logs. We scope retreats based on board size, format (one-day, two-day, multi-session), and follow-up needs, you’ll see the number on your discovery call.