Nonprofit Strategic Planning Facilitation
Partner with us where it matters most to build your Shared Power™ strategic plan.
For organizations that want to build internal strategic planning muscle and create deep buy-in across their teams, we bring the Shared Power™ methodology, structure, sector best practices and data, and unbiased facilitation, while your team leads stakeholder engagement and owns the planning process from the inside out.
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You know your organization inside and out. We know how effective nonprofit strategic plans get built.
Many mid-size nonprofits are ready to lead their own strategic planning processes, and simply need the right structure and facilitation to do it well. You know your communities, your history, and your internal dynamics. You also know there is something valuable about being the ones to directly ask the people you serve (and other stakeholders) for input into your plan. When your community hears from your team directly, it builds trust and deepens relationships in ways that can be challenging to replicate.
However, there are parts of strategic planning where outside perspective and guidance can be the difference between a merely adequate plan, and a transformational one. Specifically, this includes:
- Developing and sticking to a structure for your strategic planning process based on a proven methodology used by hundreds of organizations
- Grounding your planning teams in sector and sub-sector best practices and data about your competitors or comparators using proprietary research tools
- Most importantly, facilitating unbiased and productive conversations during your retreat that ensure difficult decisions are made with clarity and alignment
These are the gaps that our facilitation-only strategic planning engagements fill. Our approach ensures your strategic planning process is built on more than a decade of knowledge about what works, deep sector data, subsector comparative/competitive insights, and expert facilitation that will ensure you walk away from your retreat with clarity, not contention or confusion.
You’ll be an integral part of the process from start to finish, empowered with our Shared Power™ Strategic Planning tools, and we’ll step in at the key moments when outside expertise and unbiased facilitation are critical.
Facilitation-only engagements start at $35,000 for fully virtual engagements and $45,000 for engagements with an in-person retreat.
Who is Facilitation-Only Strategic Planning For?
Facilitation-only strategic planning is the right fit for mid-size and larger nonprofits with strong internal leadership capacity that want to be deeply involved in their own planning process, but know they will benefit from expert structure, an outside perspective, and a facilitator who can hold the room.
It is especially well-suited for organizations that:
- Have gone through strategic planning before and want a more internally driven or stakeholder-centric process this time.
- Want their team and community to deeply own the resulting plan, not just receive it.
- Have the capacity to conduct stakeholder interviews and surveys on their own, with our guidance.
- Are ready to build lasting strategic planning muscle their organization can draw on again.
When another option may be better
If your organization has a smaller budget and wants a more self-directed approach, our Strategic Planning Toolbox or Strategic Planning Workshops may be a better fit.
If you want a full consulting partner to lead the process end to end, full-service strategic planning may be right for you.
How Does Facilitation-Only Strategic Planning Work?
Facilitation-only engagements are built around six key milestones, with your team doing meaningful work in between.
Kickoff and Preparation Session
We start with a virtual working session to plan the logistics of your process, align on timeline and stakeholder engagement, and give you the tools and frameworks you will need to conduct your own stakeholder engagement. You leave this meeting with a clear roadmap and confidence in what comes next.
Research — Yours and Ours
Your team conducts stakeholder interviews and surveys with the program participants, community members, staff, board, and partners who should inform your plan. At the same time, we conduct organization and ecosystem assessments using our proprietary research tools, reviewing your existing documents, scanning the landscape your organization operates in, and synthesizing findings to bring forward into planning.
Key Insights Session
Before the retreat, we meet with your planning team to share research findings and help you make sense of what you are learning. This session aligns your leaders around the key insights that will drive the retreat and the rest of the planning process.
One- or Two-Day Facilitated Retreat
We facilitate a focused one- or two-day retreat where your team develops or refines your mission, vision, and strategic pillars. We bring the outside perspective, facilitation expertise, Shared Power™ framework, and the ability to transform hard conversations into confident decisions. You bring the leadership, the relationships, and the deep organizational knowledge only you have.
By the end of your retreat, you will have a clear strategic direction: a working mission, vision, plan pillars, and the start of your objectives and key results. Retreats can be held virtually or in person.
Plan Development and Listening Sessions
After the retreat, you will continue to work on your objectives and key results with our Shared Power™ OKR Dashboard. Then, you will lead listening sessions, based on our guidance, with your stakeholders to share aspects of the emerging plan, gather final input before it is finalized, and make revisions.
Once you are comfortable with the direction of your plan, you will put it into writing using templates we provide.
Implementation Planning Session
After your plan is drafted, we meet with you for a final virtual session to help you build activity plans for everyone on your team, prepare for rollout, and set your organization up for successful implementation.
What Shared Power™ Facilitation Looks Like in Practice
Most strategic planning facilitation puts the consultant at the center. They gather the data, run the retreat, hand you a document, and leave. Your team shows up, but the process belongs to them.
Shared Power™ facilitation works differently. We design a process where your leaders are genuinely in charge, conducting stakeholder interviews and surveys, making strategic decisions, and building ownership over the outcomes.
Our job is to bring the structure that makes that possible: the methodology, the facilitation skills, the outside perspective, and data based on more than a decade of leading nonprofit planning processes. The result is not just a strategic plan. It is a planning experience that builds your organization’s capacity to center its stakeholders and to think and act strategically, long after the engagement ends.
Ready to start your own strategic planning process with our expert facilitation to guide the way?
Book a Discovery Call
Case Study
When The Muhammad Ali Center was called to be more than just a museum, Prosper Strategies helped them build a focused plan for an impactful future and close a $2M funding gap.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Facilitation-Only Strategic Planning
How long does facilitation-only strategic planning take?
Most facilitation-only engagements run three to six months from kickoff to implementation planning, depending on your organization’s timeline and capacity for research and listening sessions.
What is the difference between facilitation-only and full-service strategic planning?
In facilitation-only engagements, your team conducts stakeholder engagement, such as surveys and interviews, and owns the process with our guidance. In full-service engagements, Prosper Strategies leads the research, stakeholder engagement, and all other parts of the planning process end to end.
Facilitation-only is right for organizations with strong internal capacity that want to build strategic planning muscle, and for organizations that do not have a budget for full-service consulting. Full-service is right for larger or more complex organizations that want a deep consulting partner to lead the work end to end.
Do you offer in-person facilitation?
Yes. While most parts of the strategic planning process can take place virtually, many organizations find it helpful to be together in person for the retreat. Virtual facilitation starts at $35,000. In-person facilitation starts at $45,000, plus travel expenses.
What if we have never done strategic planning before?
Facilitation-only is a strong option for first-time planners with capable leadership. We build in enough orientation and scaffolding to ensure your team feels confident leading the process. It is also an excellent fit for organizations or leaders that have been through a strategic planning process before.
If you would prefer a partner to lead the full process for your first plan, full-service strategic planning may be a better starting point.
Ready to find the right strategic planning path?
We can help you assess your options and choose the right approach for your nonprofit.
Schedule a Discovery Call