Create Strategic Plans to Prepare for the Future, Book Urges

By M.J. Prest
Senior Editor, Solutions

June 1, 2006 | Read Time: 1 minute

Nonprofit Strategic Positioning: Decide Where to Be, Plan What to Do
by Thomas A. McLaughlin

Strategic plans help nonprofit organizations crystallize their charitable visions while staying flexible in the event of change, writes Thomas A. McLaughlin, a nonprofit-management consultant at Grant Thornton, in Boston. This book aims to help charity leaders come up with ideas for how to best prepare for the future and put a strategy blueprint into action.

Mr. McLaughlin says that if the mission is a group’s heart, then a solid strategic plan is the organization’s head. A good plan will review current trends affecting the group’s mission while acknowledging future risks and articulating possibilities for growth, he writes.

Making judgments about the future is central to creating a comprehensive plan, the author says. He recommends techniques to identify the population a group serves now and people it could serve in the future, assess what an organization is best at doing, and examine the demographics of the charity’s work force to determine turnover rates and employment trends.

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Hoboken, N.J. 07030; (201) 748-6000; fax (201) 748-6088; http://www.wiley.com; 272 pages; $45; ISBN 0-471-71749-5.

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About the Author

M.J. Prest

Senior Editor, Solutions

M.J. Prest is senior editor for solutions at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where she highlights how nonprofit leaders navigate and overcome major challenges. She has covered stories on big gifts, grant making, and executive moves for the Chronicle since 2004. Her work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Slate.com, and the Huffington Post, and she wrote the young-adult novel Immersion. M.J. graduated from Williams College and after living in many different places, she settled in New England with her husband, two kids, and two rescue dogs.