We are often engaged to “do a strategic plan” or to “do a business plan.” Sometimes, we are even just asked flat out to “help us figure out where we go next.”

I love all these kinds of projects because they are about the future, and that means they are about aspirations, hopes, and dreams. I like to nourish those dreams—of a better life for immigrants, equality for women, safety for kids, a clean environment, etc.

At the same time, it is also my job to help nonprofit leaders think realistically about their dreams. That is the only way these dreams will become reality.

I am often asked the difference between strategic plans and business plans, and which one is best for the situation. It’s easy to give a fairly dry and technical answer. But—rather than try to define these and decide between one or the other—what’s most important in my mind is to ask questions about the nonprofit’s “business” that encourage the nonprofit to think deeply about its work.

That is, it is important to ask what they do, where, for whom, and why. Then, to ask how they pay for the work they do, provide staff for it, and keep their board involved in it. And, to ask them what they will do in the future if things in their environment (or market place) change.

These are the questions a nonprofit leader needs to ask. Further, they must ask these questions frequently, not just every three years at “planning time.” If the nonprofit asks itself these questions, and seeks to honestly answer them, we can help them find the answers.

So, to answer the earlier question: a business plan can be a strategic plan, and vice versa. I have heard both consultants and nonprofit leaders give enough different definitions of either to fill a book. My advice is to not worry about the definition, but just stick to asking questions, even when they may be tough to answer, and make sure your consultants can help you answer them.

Beware of consultants selling a fixed or inflexible process. Your work is too important to not develop a customized set of questions and answers, unique to your organization.

I read a provocative New Yorker cartoon last week. I always look at the cartoons first, then tear into the articles.

In this one a couple of cavemen are sitting around talking. One says something to the effect “Our air and water are clean and pure, we eat only organic and free range foods, we get plenty of exercise, we don’t smoke, and still, we die before age thirty.”

I loved it!