Strategy for Nonprofit Organizations

Course Description

We hear a lot about successful for-profit companies and the successful strategies they have developed. Even though nonprofit organizations are not concerned with profit maximization, they too can benefit from following a strategy. A nonprofit’s strategy constitutes its decisions about what it will do and how it will do it. Nonprofit managers are critical to successfully implementing strategy since they are responsible for carrying out the actions that will support it. By understanding a nonprofit’s strategy and how it helps the organization fulfill its mission, a manager can do a better job implementing the strategy.

Learning Outcomes

• Define strategy
• Explain the basics of strategy in a nonprofit context
• Describe the strategic planning process and how different approaches may be taken by different organizations
• Discuss how mission statements are constructed
• Explain how budgets and capital budgets interrelate with nonprofit strategic planning
• Describe the success factors for strategic planning
• Recognize the need for contingency planning