What are the best practices for setting measurable objectives in nonprofit strategy?

I agree that setting measurable goals is important but leave room for the agility needed in a crisis. During the pandemic we were able to support tens of thousands of Hong Kong new arrivals to the UK because we were able to pivot to new opportunities that came up. Similarly with the invasion of #Ukraine. Goal setting is important but we must beware of being so rigid that we miss the genuine opportunities that arise.

Nonprofit organizations must set measurable goals to accurately gauge their progress and impact. This should include the clear definition of objectives, application of SMART criteria, stakeholder engagement, constant performance monitoring, and necessary adjustments to strategies or objectives.

I believe a great strategic plan should have only three goals- one for staff/program, one for leadership, and one for infrastructure. These are consensus goals from a stakeholder's retreat. Objectives should be the steps over three years to reach those goals and should be tied to budget and timelines. Then staff can be managed by these objectives with budget and deadlines. But most importantly, a plan is not to be thrown in a drawer and looked at once every three years. If you manage by objectives, it is used every day, updated quarterly, and reevaluated annually.

“Where attention goes, energy flows.” So setting measurable objectives starts with noticing what you are already paying attention to: What gets you most excited about your nonprofit? What are the most compelling signs of growth that you see? Then find a way to measure those. Dream big and imagine what you would want them to be at in three months from now. Write that go down. When you’re checking in on them weekly and measuring them frequently, you are naturally giving more attention to those areas. This will give you more energy to keep growing them until you meet your goal.

While the SMART criteria offer a structured approach to goal setting, rigid adherence may stifle innovation and adaptability. Nonprofits can benefit from incorporating flexibility and experimentation into their objective-setting processes. This agile approach enables better responses to change and the seizing of unexpected opportunities. Moreover, while mission alignment is crucial, organizations should also explore objectives with potential long-term impact, even if not immediately relevant. This could involve calculated risks or innovative projects. Balancing structured goal-setting with flexibility fosters innovation and resilience, enhancing the organization's ability to navigate a dynamic environment effectively.

The SMART checking of goals and objectives is a helpful guide but be sure to not let it be the ultimate determinant of what remains in the strategic plan and what is taken out. You can have SMART goals but the goals themselves are poorly written, thought out, etc. The Relevant part should help ensure alignment with mission, our previous issue in this series. Also, organizations sometimes come up with lists of goals and objectives but there is no discussion of why, how and what things will look like when/if attained, thus void of strategy. If goals comprise increases or decreases in number or percentage of something we should know what is behind that choice. Is is market data, historical, combination, etc.?

There are times when even with the best efforts, some goals just cannot be met.Leaders must take time to assess and evaluate the reasons why; you may need to communicate immediately with the vision bearer or stakeholders,and consult to gather suggestions for potential solutions. We learn something daily from collaborating with colleagues in the same field, so don’t be afraid to ask for help, at times little tweaks make the most significant changes!

While the use of the corporate acronym may sound distasteful to some folks (myself included), I cant find anything wrong with the philosophy behind creating achievable deliverables that are relevant to your organization and quantifiable. Even a nonprofit is a business - it's just a business that serves a particular community need rather than the needs of the owners or shareholders. It should be run like a business. Understanding what makes a list of goals versus a list of wishes is something that is part of creating a business, but sometimes in the managing of that business we lose sight of that. Regular review of your goals to ensure that they are in fact goals and not just fanciful thoughts is critical to sustaining business.

Employ the SMART criteria to frame objectives: Specific goals define accomplishments clearly. Measurable goals track progress and success. Achievable goals are realistic within resources. Relevant goals align with the mission and nonprofit's needs. Time-bound goals have deadlines, creating urgency and prioritizing efforts.

I absolutely agree and I would just like to add that the essence of involving stakeholders, staff and leadership in setting objectives is to ensure ownership and buy-in. This helps create a sense of shared responsibility and commitment.

Stakeholder engagement is crucial in objective-setting, involving input from beneficiaries, staff, volunteers, donors, and the community. Their insights deepen understanding of challenges and opportunities, fostering ownership and commitment. Meeting stakeholders face-to-face, when possible, builds trust and rapport, ensuring objectives are informed by diverse perspectives, enhancing relevance and effectiveness.

Successful strategic planning requires proper engagement of stakeholders, and top down approaches are typically ineffective. This does not mean creating the illusion that they have a voice in the planning process through attendance, meeting minutes, etc. but instead actually engaging them, documenting their contributions and using them for the development of the plan. A stakeholder analysis is a useful first step to ensure who should be involved in the process and that representation cuts across tenure, units/departments, hierarchy, etc. Be sure to close the feedback loops and show them that you're listening and their contributions are impactful.

Express your mission and stand behind your mission with a viable strategy to inform potential stakeholders regarding the cause, effects and success ratios inclined pursuant to your determination to take in tasks where your goal are concerned

Créez des groupes de travail avec les parties prenantes pour définir ensemble les objectifs mesurables. Assignez des rôles spécifiques à chacun dans le suivi des progrès pour maintenir l'implication et la responsabilisation. Impliquez ces groupes dans l'identification des indicateurs pertinents, de sorte que chaque membre se sente responsable du succès des objectifs établis.

Consider the following best practices: 🔹Combine internal and external data 🔹Use data visualization tools 🔹Involve diverse stakeholders 🔹Consider multiple data sources 🔹Regularly review and update objectives 🔹Identify root causes, not just symptoms 🔹Balance data-driven goals with innovation 🔹Communicate data insights effectively 🔹Foster a culture of data-driven decision-making 🔹Stay up-to-date with industry trends and research By following these guidelines, you can set achievable targets that advance your nonprofit's mission and make data-informed decisions to drive success.

By following these guidelines, you can set achievable targets that advance your nonprofit's mission and make data-informed decisions to drive success: 🔹Combine internal and external data 🔹Use data visualization tools 🔹Involve diverse stakeholders 🔹Consider multiple data sources 🔹Regularly review and update objectives 🔹Identify root causes, not just symptoms 🔹Balance data-driven goals with innovation 🔹Communicate data insights effectively 🔹Foster a culture of data-driven decision-making 🔹Stay up-to-date with industry trends and research

Adopting a data-driven approach to setting objectives ensures that your goals are realistic and based on historical data, benchmarks, and research. Analyze past performance to identify trends and areas for improvement, considering both successes and shortcomings. This analysis helps set achievable, evidence-based objectives that align with your nonprofit's mission. By grounding your goals in actual performance data, you increase the likelihood of success, ensuring that your strategic objectives effectively advance your organization's aims.

The data you use is only as good as the consistency involved in obtaining it. Your entry methodologies need to be solid, and you need to stick with the same tools to aggregate and formulas used to analyze that data. Deviance from any of these will result in the misinterpretation of outcomes and inaccurate measurements being employed to drive strategy. There's often no need to switch products, and doing so often adds additional cost barriers that stack up against outcome delivery. Instead learn what you have, and how it can be used effectively. Be consistent. Approach running your enterprise the same way a scientist approaches recording their lab results - consistently and with complete transparency.

When the word of out that you know your stuff and the mission is of interest to a wide span of people, it renders the impression that an investment in you is a step in the right direction .

Establish an effective monitoring system and process that serves your organization's specific needs. Strategically determine what to monitor, how, how often and why. Often organizations are collecting and monitoring data they don't use which is a cost they should reconsider. Given the rapid speed of environmental change and the need to keep pace and adapt, real time tracking and monitoring is advisable. Within strategic planning there must be discussion on how the organization uses its tracking and monitoring system and process, and how it enables the organization to be nimble and quickly make changes to adjust to results and trends.

Your KPIs are often provided to you by your funding sources as conditions for funding disbursal and accounting. Follow those KPI's religiously, and use an ERP that has customizable dashboards that can be set up on individual employee, team, and department levels. Each person can then see how they are contributing to the overall effort, and leadership can have discussions with teams that are honest, frank, and contain no surprises.

To maintain measurable and attainable objectives, establish a progress monitoring system. Set key performance indicators (KPIs) to track achievements in real-time. Regularly review these indicators to adjust strategies and address issues promptly. This approach keeps your team focused and accountable, ensuring delivery on set objectives.

Depending of the funding possibilities and duration of the project (through the project period ): set up measurable goal/s (key performance indicators/steps), regularly monitor the progress, reflect & adjust.

KPIs are an integral measurement tool. However; when crafting KPIs both lead and lag measures are crucial to provide a holistic view of your progress. Lead measurements are proactive, predicting future outcomes and allowing for course corrections to ensure the best outcome. Lag measurements are reactive, reflecting past performance and indicating if goals are met. They also provide an opportunity to celebrate milestones along the journey, boosting morale. You need both to guide your actions and assess success while promoting continuous improvement.

Set aside time once a year where your management team focuses on a yearly review, and brings forward new changes demanded by external stakeholders, funding sources, and legislative bodies. Discuss how these changes will affect your data outputs, and use this as the appropriate time to review your data modelling, adjusting any formulas as needed to improve data integrity and include the new business criteria. Conduct an organizational assessment during this time too. How is the world changing around you? What technological improvements may help drive success for you? How will you incorporate these? How will not incorporating them affect your ability to deliver service? This is the time to look at overall strategy.

In the dynamic nonprofit sector, regularly reflecting on and adapting your objectives is crucial. Stay flexible to accommodate changes in funding, policies, or community needs. This agility ensures that your organization remains effective and responsive. Regularly revising goals in response to new information and external shifts helps maintain alignment with your mission and enhances your capacity to meet and exceed stakeholder expectations. This practice is key to sustaining impact and relevance in a changing environment.

In addition to all that has been said, think about your most valuable resource: staff time. Ensure your staff are spending time and energy proportionate to the strategic priorities. Look closely at staff roles and shift to align with strategy. The real place I find strategy takes hold is in the org chart.

In addition to all that has been said: 🔷Create a Theory of Change: Develop a comprehensive theory of change that outlines how the organization believes it will achieve its mission. This framework can help clarify the pathways to achieving immeasurable objectives and illustrate the connections between activities and outcomes. 🔷Set Milestones and Celebrate Achievements:Establish milestones that mark significant steps towards the objective. Celebrating these achievements, even if small, can maintain momentum and motivation. 🔷Leverage Qualitative Research Methods:Utilize methods such as focus groups, interviews, and participant observations to gather in-depth insights and feedback about the objective’s impact.

A best practice for setting measurable objectives in nonprofit strategy involves leveraging new technologies to adapt to current market conditions effectively. This can entail integrating innovative tools and platforms to streamline operations, enhance outreach efforts, and maximize impact. Additionally, actively involving volunteers in these technological advancements can significantly increase effectiveness and efficiency. By harnessing the power of technology and engaging volunteers strategically, nonprofits can set measurable objectives that align with their mission and navigate the evolving landscape with agility and purpose.

Vet new volunteers and support staff well. In the desperate need to improve services, I have run into big issues later because expectations were not iron clad. As in an entire team ghosting the organization.

Friday, May 10, 2024 By: Dr. Richard Francis Viktor Hogan Remember, strategic planning is not a one-time event but an ongoing process that requires regular review and adjustment. It’s crucial to keep the plan alive and relevant to the organization’s needs and the external environment. A few key best practices: — Identify Clear Goals: — Engage Stakeholders: — Use the SMART Criteria: • Objectives should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. — Conduct a SWOT Analysis: • Assess your organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to inform your objectives. — Commit to Continuous Improvement: — Tie Objectives to Board Meetings: — Develop a Theory of Change: — Evaluate and Adapt: -30-