Real Examples of Good Nonprofit Strategic Plans
Developing an effective strategic plan can be difficult without reference to what “good” looks like. Yet it can be hard to find real examples of nonprofit strategic plans, and even harder to know whether they are strong examples—and why.
To help address this gap, I’m sharing real-world examples from my recent work with re:power and State Innovation Exchange (SiX). Both organizations are building the liberated, multiracial, feminist democracy we desire and deserve. Each is doing so through a uniquely powerful strategy, and they offer helpful examples of what a good strategic plan looks like.
In the full article and in the highlights below, I offer my point of view on what makes a strategic plan “good,” and I highlight examples of what that looks like in practice in SiX’s and re:power’s strategic plans.
So much credit is due to both teams for their values-based, visionary work in these strategy processes. I learned so much from their deep wisdom and heart-centered leadership—and this learning is very much reflected in the perspective and analysis you’ll see here.
We’re all collectively building a practice of strategy we can call our own in the social sector. I hope this contribution helps to enrich that practice.
In purpose,
Nick
No good reason
An executive director once confided in me that she had little concept of what a nonprofit strategy should look like. She was preparing to lead her organization’s next strategic planning process, and had been hoping to see an example of a good strategic plan as a reference. She had privately asked her executive director peers for examples—but not a single leader felt confident enough in their plan to offer it up as a model.
I don’t blame this leader, or her colleagues. When it comes to strategy, our sector simply doesn’t make it easy to discern what good looks like, and it’s a vicious cycle.
But there is truly no good reason for this. No one should be left wondering what they are even building toward in a strategy process because they are unable to reference good examples.
What does “good” look like in practice?
To see examples, have a look at the strategic plans and highlights below, and visit the article for full analysis.
State Innovation Exchange
View State Innovation Exchange’s strategic plan here: Toward our Irresistible Future: Grounding in Who We Are and Who We Are Becoming (executive summary, full strategic plan).
Good-strategy highlights include:
Mission as outcome vs. mission as activity: SiX’s mission statement defines the organization’s purpose in terms of the change it seeks to bring about in the world. SiX’s outcome-oriented framing encourages problem-solving around how to achieve the desired change—rather than presupposing the organization’s activities out of the gate.
Clarity amidst the noise, through a strong diagnosis and theory of change: Good strategy requires making intentional choices among multiple valid ways of understanding a situation. Organizations that skip or under-invest in this work are susceptible to trying to be everything to everyone or to pursuing a grab-bag of actions that fail to drive meaningful change. SiX avoids these pitfalls by grounding its strategy in a clear, rigorous diagnosis and a thoughtfully constructed theory of change to reduce complexity and sharpen focus.
Practical implications of strategy: SiX goes beyond simply stating its core strategic decisions, clearly articulating what those decisions mean in practice. This approach provides concrete direction for annual goal-setting, planning, and budgeting—helping ensure the strategy is actionable, not abstract.
re:power
View re:power’s strategic plan here: In Pursuit of Liberatory Organizing: Organizational Strategy of re:power and re:power Fund (link).
Good-strategy highlights include:
Values-forward vision: re:power’s vision statement clearly and confidently describes the future it is working toward. Its vision is values-forward—reflecting a well-developed power analysis and an affirmative description of its desired alternative to the current state—and that’s what makes it so powerful.
Distinctive mission: If an organization’s vision describes the future it seeks to build, its mission should clarify the unique role it plays in bringing that future about. re:power’s mission is unambiguous and unapologetic about its distinct contribution, which lays a foundation of strategic clarity to inform subsequent decision-making.
Nourished by a unique superpower: A nonprofit’s superpower underpins the distinctive value it brings to the world, based on its unique strengths and assets. re:power demonstrates what it looks like for a superpower to be authentic to who re:power is, deeply valued by those it serves, and fully embodied in its work, with one participant in the organization’s programming remarking: “Your work felt like a love letter just to me…”
If you’re interested in exploring my support for your organization, you can reply or contact me via my website.
What makes them good? A non-traditional perspective
In my view, good nonprofit strategy requires more than a strategic plan. Good strategy results from a broader set of strategic management processes in an organization. In addition to (1) strategic planning, which is about establishing clarity of strategic intent, strategic management also (2) connects that intent to the organizational muscle for action and (3) engages a discipline of reflection, learning, and adaptation. For strategy to be “good” within organizations that care about social justice, it must also (4) embody the values of a more just and equitable world.
Strategic plans are just one (important) component of this broader strategic management system. Strategic plans communicate strategic intent by documenting key strategic decisions and their practical implications for the organization.
Below, I summarize key criteria for good strategic plans within each category, but I also recommend reviewing the full discussion here to get a sense of why these are appropriate criteria.
(1) Good strategy establishes clarity of strategic intent
An organization can express a clear and concrete strategic intent through a set of interconnected strategic choices connecting a compelling purpose to a strong analysis to a practical organizational response. I refer to this element as strategy development, and it is the main function of strategic planning.
Specifically, a good strategic plan establishes clear strategic intent by:
✅ Articulating a clear purpose, notably including the concrete change an organization seeks to bring about in the world.
✅ Developing a sound analysis, including a diagnosis of what stands in the way of its desired change, and a theory for how to overcome the challenge.
✅ Choosing a response, including a vision for the programming, organization, and business model needed to activate the theory of change.
✅ Making real, coherent choices at each of these levels, saying no to otherwise-valid options that aren’t mutually reinforcing with the rest of the decisions.
(2) Good strategy connects intent to the organizational muscles for strategy embodiment and adaptation
Separately from the periodic exercise of strategic planning, an organization should bring its strategic intent to life through its normal, ongoing management processes. I call this capability strategy embodiment, and its typical core is an organization’s annual processes for setting goals, developing work plans, and budgeting. In this way, planning is much more relevant, timely, and contextualized—shaping all of an organization’s work instead of layering strategy on top.
A good strategic plan helps to connect strategic intent to ongoing management processes by:
✅ Identifying the practical implications of strategic decisions for organizational management and evolution.
✅ Providing a strategic roadmap, as distinct from an implementation plan, describing an organization’s likely journey of evolution from its current state into the organization it aspires to be.
✅ Capturing decisions and concepts that have been sufficiently socialized—where enough shared understanding exists across the organization for staff to interpret and apply them in their day-to-day work.
(3) Good strategy involves a discipline of reflection, learning, and adaptation
Even good strategies can, and should, evolve. An organization’s strategic context changes constantly. Organizations gain better information and learn continuously over time. Nearly always, a strategic plan will include areas of lower specificity, best-guesses, and open questions deserving further examination. Organizations test and refine their strategies through a capability for strategy adaptation.
A good strategic plan supports reflection, learning, and adaptation by:
✅ Identifying key assumptions, hypotheses, and areas of further inquiry.
✅ Describing a theory of change that supports the measurement of outcomes rather than activities and outputs.
(4) Good strategy embodies the values of a more just and equitable world
Traditional nonprofit strategic planning approaches originate in the military and private sector. They carry with them embedded assumptions, mental models, and practices of the dominant culture. Our sector must practice strategy according to a different set of values—ones that reflect and actively advance a more just and equitable world.
Our strategy processes must pursue genuine co-creation. The people who are most impacted by strategy, including staff, should have appropriate agency to shape it. This requires rebalancing power in decision-making, honoring diverse forms of knowledge and communication, and creating space to surface multiple truths and hold them in principled tension. Genuine co-creation demands that participants engage from a place of real agency. That, in turn, requires a process with enough spaciousness for sense-making, dialogue, and reflection—and enough contextualization in each person’s day-to-day work that they can bring their full wisdom to bear in strategic discussions.
We must also reframe our very conceptions of what strategy is and looks like. Mission statements should avoid saviorism and the notion that a single organization must (or can) achieve systemic change. Strategic analyses should account for power, including how it is shaped by race, gender, class, and other forms of structural inequality. We should avoid equating organizational size and control of resources with mission success. Our programming should account for the intersectionality of people’s challenges and hopes and dreams. We should aim for clarity that enables supportive mutual accountability, not “performance management” and control.
Among other ways, a strategic plan reflects the values of a more just and equitable world when it:
✅ Has been genuinely co-created by the people it impacts.
✅ Accounts for power in its analysis of the problem, theory of change, and programmatic response.
✅ Articulates success in terms of outcomes for people, not organizational size, control of resources, or other self-centered metrics.
✅ Supports action through alignment on shared strategic intent, as opposed to commitment, compliance, and control.
A strategic plan need not check all these boxes to be “good.” Instead, good strategy clarifies what’s most important for an organization during a given strategy cycle. In my view, it’s better to invest in deep alignment in the specific areas where it’s most needed, rather than to rush to cover all the bases superficially.
Similarly, a good strategic plan need not contain so much content, or have the beautiful graphic design featured in SiX’s and re:power’s documents. These were the right approaches for these organizations. For others, a simple Word or Google Doc might suffice. Clarity and alignment are the goal.
Co-creating a discipline
My hope is that these examples not only inspire, but also serve as practical guides for nonprofit leaders looking to craft strategy that is focused, values-driven, and built for real impact.
These are just two recent examples I’m able to share. And ultimately, as with strategy itself, this perspective is one of many valid ways to describe what good strategy looks like. It’s an offering I’m contributing to the collective knowledge and wisdom, to help build a discipline of strategy we can call our own.
Do you have examples of standout nonprofit strategic plans? How would you answer the question, “What makes a strategic plan good?” Let’s build together.