Our integrated and comprehensive approach promotes strategic direction andaction. With shared understanding of what an organization is working toward, nonprofit leaders can better evaluate and adjust what they are working on as they implement and learn, and as the environment changes.
Our Model of Nonprofit Strategic Management and Planning
We believe leaders make better decisions with information that is raised in an objective way and shared with decision makers. Through comprehensive assessments of internal and external conditions, staff and Board can develop a shared reality and more clearly identify and commit to strategic priorities.
Fio Partners frames its strategic planning process around four key tasks:
- Agreement on vision, mission, and values
- Designing or redesigning your organization’s core of programs and relationships
- Safeguarding and supporting the core through key management systems
- Improving the core through organizational learning and quality assurance.
Our approach recognizes how an organization’s stage of development influences management tasks. It also seeks to connect whatyou want to do with the supports for howyou will get it done. Finally, we help identify key results to monitor in order to foster continuous learning and improvement.
Our strategic planning processes typically last between four and eight months and can engage a variety of stakeholders—from Board members and staff, to consumers and community leaders. Contact us and together, we’ll craft a process that supports your organization’s needs, ambitions, and people.
Business Planning
Our business planning process leverages your organization’s competencies in pursuit of promising market opportunities. We’ll help you define compelling products or services, identify target markets, ensure the financial model works, and develop communication and distribution strategies. And we’ll work with you to develop a business planning document that will educate board and staff and support the search for capital resources.
The Tools We Can Use Along the Way
Fio Partners has developed a range of tools that gather information about an organization’s internal and external contexts and capacities. Recognizing the “as is” of the organization allows leaders to intentionally leverage strengths and address capacity gaps, enhancing the agency’s ability to advance its mission and desired outcomes. We also believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) should be part of all stages and phases of the planning process. As such, we bring that perspective to all of our information gathering tools and strategies.
In building the information base for your plan, together, we determine which of these tools will be most useful and relevant. We build on information you already have and focus on what you need to learn. We then gather and analyze the desired data, highlighting results that indicate the need for action.
Our standardized tools include:
- Board Survey – Assesses board-functioning and gathers input from members into the planning process
- Fio’s Growth Guide – Examines ten major management systems by stage of development
- Staff Assessments – Climate Survey; Organizational Learning Survey; Culture Mapping; Mid-Management Skills Assessment
- Program Assessments – Program Portfolio Analysis; Consumer Journey Mapping; Consumer Perception and Satisfaction Survey
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Indicators – Understand where your board and staff are in their DEI journey
- External Stakeholder Assessments – Community Perception Survey; Partner Perception Survey
- Financial Analysis – Key Ratio Trends; Red Flag Analysis
These tools are augmented by our ability to do customized qualitative research, including key informant interviews, focus groups, field studies, competitor analysis, and benchmarking.
Contact us to share what you need to learn and set a clear direction and course of action for your nonprofit.
