Ten Keys to Successful Strategic Planning for Nonprofit and Foundation Leaders

¶ … Keys to Successful Strategic Planning

During the last several years, the issue of strategic planning has been facing continuing amounts of criticism. This is because various political and economic challenges have caused some individuals to question the effectiveness of using these tools. However, the article titled Ten Keys to Successful Planning is demonstrating how this is an operative approach for dealing with a host of challenges. To fully understand the way these ideas can help a firm requires focusing on the main points of the article. This will be accomplished by looking at: the key ideas, analyzing the strengths / weaknesses and commenting about these views. Together, these elements will show how strategic planning is an important tool that should be used by all firms.

Key Ideas

According to Mittenthal (2002) there are ten key ideas that will help to make a nonprofit successful (through utilizing traditional business strategies). These include: having an understanding of internal challenges, taking a realistic view when looking at the organization's strengths / weaknesses, being all inclusive of everyone, creating an empowered planning committee, involving senior management, sharing responsibility with the board of directors / staff members, learning from the best practices, prioritize / plan, patience and having a commitment to change. These ideas are important, because they will help a nonprofit to be able to streamline their operations. (Mittenthal, 2002)

As a result, Mittenthal believes that these ideas can be used as a way to reorganize the management structure of the firm. However, there are limitations when using these different tools. This means that all stakeholders must be willing to apply common sense and flexibility at all times. Once this occurs, is when the firm will be able to deal with a host of challenges. (Mittenthal, 2002)

The Strengths and Weaknesses

The strengths of the article include: the ability to provide a working outline for nonprofits to use and it is discussing the limitations of these ideas. This is illustrating how they can help organizations to deal with a host of challenges. Once this occurs, is when they will become more flexible. (Mittenthal, 2002)

The biggest weakness of the article is through providing a general outline of strategies. This is problematic, as a number of these tools may not be necessary and could cause a nonprofit to waste its resources. This is showing how administrators must carefully apply these tools when dealing with a host of challenges. (Mittenthal, 2002)

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