September 4, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution: Real-Time Strategic Planning in a Rapid-Response World
by David La Piana
Written for those “frustrated and dissatisfied with the traditional approach to strategic planning,” this book by David La Piana, a nonprofit consultant, speaker, and author, seeks to make the strategic-planning process more efficient, flexible, and focused.
At the beginning of the book, Mr. La Piana divides the goals of nonprofit groups into a “strategy pyramid” designed to help staff members decide whether a particular plan or action relates to an “operational,” or administrative, strategy; a “programmatic” strategy, developed using the staff capabilities and resources now available; or an “organizational” strategy, which takes into account long-term trends and opportunities.
Mr. La Piana gives illustrated examples of each type of approach and explains in following chapters how nonprofit groups can best map out their plans.
One example he uses is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which reviewed its investment policies when it was criticized for investing in corporations whose products were in conflict with its charitable mission. The foundation decided to continue to avoid investments in tobacco companies, but would otherwise invest in the businesses that brought in the most dollars.
“The choice of a financial strategy (an operational strategy) that supports rather than thwarts its mission (an organizational strategy) is valuable,” he writes. “The foundation now knows better why it will stick with this particular strategy: it has become more conscious of the reasoning behind its choice.”
Publisher: Fieldstone Alliance, 60 Plato Boulevard East, Suite 150, St. Paul, Minn. 55107; (651) 556-4500 or (800) 274-6024; fax (651) 556-4517; books@fieldstonealliance.org; http://www.fieldstonealliance.org; 208 pages; $32.95; ISBN 978-0-940069-65-7.
