How do you show your stakeholders that you are making progress against your strategic plan?

Having a great strategic plan is only the beginning of mission success. To be successful, an organization must also monitor and measure strategic execution and consistently report on strategic progress to a board or other stakeholders. A concise scorecard tool for measuring, monitoring and reporting strategy is a great asset to a high-achieving organization.

Communicating your successes to your board and other stakeholders should not be a painful process. Organizations need an uncomplicated way to show their stakeholders that they are achieving their strategic goals. In our Strategic Scorecard project, our team translates your strategic goals into a limited set of key metrics that deliver critical data while maintaining focus and simplicity. A data collection plan ensures you can continue to update the scorecard. With the right data, rather than more data, you can show your board and other stakeholders your progress in implementing your strategy.

The impact of each project varies, but a Strategic Scorecard Service Grant is best suited to a nonprofit that:

• Wants measures to measure and monitor strategic progress
• Needs a clear method by which to present its strategic progress to its board or other key stakeholders
• Wants to establish a common terminology around its strategic goals and objectives

• Analysis of current strategic plan for clarity around goals, objectives, measures and targets
• Organization of objectives into performance perspectives for a balanced approach that encompasses a range of organizational goals
• Development of data collection plan for gathering data about strategic targets
• Development of a sample scorecard tool specific to your organization and your reporting needs
• Development or updating of a strategic plan is expressly out of scope for this Service Grant

Our Strategic Scorecard Service Grant is most likely to be successful under certain circumstances. We recommend you apply if your organization has:

• A clear sense of your organization's mission and vision
• A robust and current strategic plan with clearly articulated goals and objectives and at least 2 years left till projected completion
• PowerPoint and Excel proficiency and skills necessary to build, deploy and analyze a basic online survey
• Staff that can invest the necessary time to make the project succeed:
  • Executive Director: 1 to 2 hours per week
  • Key managers: 10-15 hours total
  • Finance manager: 10-15 hours total
  • Technical contact: 10-15 hours total
  • Board representative: 3-5 hours total

Your Taproot Foundation Strategic Planning Prep team will be staffed by strategy and management experts who have made a personal commitment to strengthening the nonprofit sector. Visit our volunteer roles page for additional information about Strategy Management volunteer roles.

If this project appeals to your organization and you have the recommended items in place, please review our grant process and criteria, and then apply. If you have questions about the grant or your eligibility, please contact us.

• Financial Analysis
• Competitor/Collaborator Analysis
• Strategic Planning Preparation