Strategy Formation
The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution is Born
In 2003, La Piana Consulting undertook Strategy Formation: Beyond Strategic Planning, a four-year research and development initiative. The effort was supported by nine foundations across the country including the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, The Forbes Funds, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, the Hawai’i Community Foundation, the Heinz Endowments, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the R.K. Mellon Foundation, the Meyer Foundation, and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
The purpose of the initiative was to address the need for effective methods of forming strategies in the nonprofit sector. It evolved out of a growing recognition of the shortcomings of traditional strategic planning to meet the needs of nonprofits to form and implement effective strategies to address challenges and opportunities on an ongoing basis, and to effectively advance their missions. The ultimate objective of the project is to help nonprofits increase their capacity to be more strategic in thought and action on a day-to-day basis.
In the first year of the initiative, we completed a literature review, and interviews and discussions with nonprofit, academic, and business sector leaders to learn how organizational strategy is formed. We drew on the thinking of the business sector and adapted this to the nonprofit sector. Based on this research and our own experience, we developed an initial process and tools for nonprofits to use in forming effective strategy.
In the second year of the initiative we focused on “hands-on” research and development, and tested the initial process and tools with a cross-section of close to 20 nonprofit organizations including a pilot cohort of nine nonprofits based in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the beginning of the pilot phase, we began a process evaluation of the project, using an outside evaluator. This has provided invaluable input to the project, as the evaluator is working as a true learning partner with us.
In the third year, we piloted the evolving process and tools with a cohort of ten organizations located in Hawai’i. We also applied what we were learning in many of our client projects, which allowed us to try variations on the process and tools, and to test these with a variety of types and sizes of nonprofits located throughout the country.
In the fourth and final year, we are working with a pilot cohort of 6 nonprofits in Pittsburgh, PA. The process and tools were refined and published in The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution: Real-Time Strategic Planning in a Rapid-Response World.
