A recent study by Grant Thornton, as reported in the January 11, 2007 Chronicle of Philanthropy, reports on a survey of nonprofit boards that asked what they see as their most important role. The sample consisted of nonprofits with budgets of under $20M, $20M- $49M, $50M — $99M, and over $100M.

In nearly every budget size the top priority was strategic planning. Only in the biggest category, groups with budgets of more than $100M, did “Management Oversight” (46%) trump strategic planning (31%), as the board’s top priority. In the other categories strategic planning ranked first; overall 40% of respondents rated strategic planning as the board’s top priority.

The question this report raises is: What do all these respondents mean by “strategic planning?” The management literature is clear: there is no agreement on the use of the term nor of its function in the organization (more on that in another post).

None-the-less, the boards of America’s nonprofits, and particularly its bigger ones with budgets of $20M or greater, think it is their responsibility to do something in the realm of leading the organization toward the future.

Tags: nonprofit

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 10:11 am and is filed under Governance, Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.