Review These Tactics Before Finalizing Your Nonprofit’s 2025 Strategic Plan
The first quarter is a time for organizations to finalize strategic plans and budgets for the year ahead.
Thankfully, the current financial landscape offers promising opportunities for nonprofits. Although stock markets are in the middle of a current downward fluctuation of approximately 5%, the overall increase of the stock markets of greater than 100% over the past 10 years has created significant wealth for large numbers of individuals. This presents a unique opportunity to connect with donors, cultivate relationships and secure philanthropic support.
Once financial resources are identified and secured, it’s essential to have a clear vision of how to use these resources responsibly. This includes both advancing your programmatic work and investing in your organization’s long-term health.
In light of the strategic plans of funders and current industry trends, nonprofits should consider these suggestions when developing their 2025 strategic plans and budgets.
Stay Abreast of Government Legislation
Nonprofits funded by federal and state governments are facing a lot of uncertainty in the current government climate. The potential of cuts by federal or state governments to reduce annual budget deficits could impact your organization. Nonprofit management and boards should monitor the situation closely if governmental entities fund their organizations. If deemed necessary, based on the organization’s funding, prepare a contingency plan for either delays or reduction in funding from governmental entities.
Invest in Workforce Development
Recruiting and retaining skilled employees remains a top challenge for organizations across numerous industries. Organizations should consider providing training and development opportunities to their workforce to help retain skilled staff and improve the program quality.
Another tactic is to review whether employees are in the right roles and ensure that their skill sets align with the responsibilities and demands of their positions. Nonprofits should also consider evaluating their pay scales to ensure that they are competitive and allow the organizations to attract and retain the best talent.
Leverage Technology
Outdated systems can hinder a provider’s ability to make informed decisions and streamline operations. Meanwhile, technology that provides accurate, real-time data can help organizations analyze trends and make strategic decisions. As a result, nonprofits should consider investing in technology that supports better service delivery and enhances data collection and reporting. It is also important to ensure that the technology infrastructure supports compliance with regulatory and policy requirements.
Focus on Person-Centered Support
Another important consideration for nonprofits is ensuring that their services are aligned with the goals of enhancing person-centered support. In 2025, providers should tailor their services to meet the unique needs of the individuals they serve. This includes evaluating whether your organization is equipped to scale services and support diverse communities.
Engage With Stakeholders
Nonprofits should stay actively involved with stakeholders. This includes participating in stakeholder engagement activities, work groups and forums. These conversations can inform future investments and help shape your organization’s strategic direction.
Develop a Succession Plan
With many senior leaders, including CEOs and chief financial officers, leaving their roles at record rates, it’s essential to have a succession plan in place. Furthermore, as your organization grows, the complexity of operations will increase. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that institutional knowledge is documented and that key employees are ready to step into leadership roles to prevent disruptions caused by unexpected absences.
Seek External Consultation
No organization has all the expertise in-house. Seeking external consultation can help fill resource gaps, provide specialized expertise and offer an outside perspective on your strategy, management practices and operational inefficiencies to help your organization unlock its full potential in 2025.
The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.
As a partner in The Bonadio Group’s advisory and consulting division, Terrence “Terry” Phillips provides a wide range of services to nonprofits, with a focus on healthcare and human services. Over his career, Terry has provided services to more than 100 tax-exempt and for-profit healthcare and human service provider organizations. Terry is an expert in these respective areas as well as rate reimbursement for services provided by these organizations.
In his free time, Terry enjoys helping others as treasurer of the Scott Spino Foundation. This foundation specializes in mentoring youths in the City of Rochester and Monroe County through its literacy and scholarship programs.
