Do you have the data you need to make informed strategic decisions?

Gathering precise, relevant information is incredibly time-consuming, but this information is essential to a developing a strong strategic plan. Equally important to informed strategic decision making is understanding the environment in which you operate. Our Strategic Planning Preparation Service Grant gives you the important contextual information you need to make good strategic decisions.

Most nonprofit managers simply cannot find the time or resources to collect the full range of internal and external inputs that can ensure the right decisions — and then justify those decisions to a board, staff, and funders. Our Strategic Planning Preparation project provides a team of expert market and strategy analysts to create an in-depth, unbiased situational report. The team uses your unique mission as the basis for all analyses, highlighting those opportunities that are both realistic and significant. Our detailed map of your situation, position, and potential enables you to confirm your current path and see what new strategic choices could bring.

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

• Is approaching a planning point, such as updating a strategic plan or evaluating a new initiative
• Needs a detailed, accurate context for planning — not hunches and anecdotes, but facts
• Lacks the time or resources to engage in extensive data gathering and analysis

• External analysis that identifies trends and influences in your operating environment:
  • Uses methods such as interviews, focus groups, and surveys with clients, peer organizations, industry experts, government officials, and advocacy groups
  • Covers key issues such as competition for funding or clients; changes in client needs, size, or composition; analysis of similar organizations in or out of your geographic area; legislation; potential collaborations; and funder analysis and feedback
• Opportunity map that takes an objective view of organizational strengths and weaknesses, then maps them to external factors to rate specific opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis)

*Note: does not include development or update of a strategic plan.*

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. Your team will include:

• Account Director
• Project Manager
• Strategy Consultant
• (2) Strategy Associates

This project will take about 5-6 months (21-25 weeks) to complete once the project kicks off, which is approximately 4 months after your application is reviewed.

Milestone	Description	Estimated Weeks
Grant Decision	Grant application review, interview and site visit	12
Staffing	Staff and prepare the pro bono consulting team	5
Kickoff	Team and client meet and agree on project goals and plan	2
Planning	Conduct interviews and define a plan for external data gathering	4
Environmental Scan, Part 1	Conduct external interviews and present preliminary findings	7
Environmental Scan, Part 2	Conduct additional interviews and present Environmental Scan and SWOT Report	7
Assessment & Closing	Conduct assessments and complete project	1

Our Strategic Planning Preparation 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.
• Either just completed or is going to complete soon executing their current strategic plan
• Resources and staff/board alignment needed to enter into a strategic planning process in roughly 9 months to a year from time of application
• Staff that can invest the necessary time to make the project succeed:
  • Executive Director: 1 to 2 hours per week
  • Key managers: 10 to 20 hours total
  • Board representative: 10 to 20 hours total

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.

• Financial Analysis
• Competitor/Collaborator Analysis
• Strategic Scorecard