Today's episode features Dr. Collette Portis, an award-winning business strategist, who joins Wendy to discuss the fundamentals of strategic planning in the nonprofit sector. They cover the importance of not trying to handle everything in-house, the roles and responsibilities of key participants, the necessity of hiring an outside expert, and essential preparatory steps before the first strategic planning meeting. This episode is the first of a three-part series on strategic planning, focusing on actionable steps and effective implementation.

Links:

https://linktr.ee/reddevelopmentgroup

https://amzn.to/42h8UiE - JUST Strategy By Dr. Collette Portis

https://amzn.to/4ntu1a9 - G.O.A.L.I.E. By Dr. Collette Portis

https://amzn.to/3ImXHXd - CEOs Finish Strong: Learn What’s Weakening Your Company by Dr. Collette Portis

SBDC - https://www.sba.gov/local-assistance/resource-partners/small-business-development-centers-sbdc

Junior League of Collin County - https://www.jlcollincounty.org/community/meeting-facilitation-services/

https://www.bosslevelengaged.com/services-for-nonprofits-nonprofitnook

https://thenonprofitnook.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@BossLevelEngaged

https://www.instagram.com/thenonprofitnook/

00:00 Introduction to Strategic Planning

00:35 Welcome to The NonProfit Nook

01:20 Introducing Dr. Collette Portis

02:11 The Importance of Strategic Planning

02:47 Defining Strategic Planning

03:54 The Role of Strategy in Nonprofits

07:40 Who Should Be Involved in Strategic Planning?

07:58 The Role of External Consultants

09:10 Engaging Different Levels of Leadership

13:28 Involving the Board in Strategic Planning

15:09 Strategic Planning for Small Nonprofits

16:19 Finding the Right Consultant

18:15 Funding Your Strategic Planning

19:13 Alternative Funding Sources

21:09 Utilizing Local Resources

21:48 Exploring Free and Paid Resources for Nonprofits

23:09 Preparing for the First Meeting with Consultants

24:24 Conducting Initial Assessments and Consultations

29:25 DIY Assessments for Nonprofits

31:42 Key Elements to Assess in Nonprofits

36:59 The Importance of Technology and Disaster Recovery

39:14 Conclusion and Next Steps

Mentioned in this episode:

Flodesk

Enji

Do not try and do it yourself.

Mm-hmm.

I need people to understand that if you work inside an of an organization,

you are in a, like, it's like you're in a forest and here's the tree.

The tree is right against your nose.

And if the tree is against your nose, nine times outta 10, you might know that

there's 10 trees around you, but you don't know that you're standing in the

midst of, of hundreds of trees and you don't know what those trees look like.

You don't know what trees are in trouble, what trees are doing well,

because you're way too close to it.

Welcome to The NonProfit Nook, the podcast for nonprofit leaders, board members,

and community change makers who want to build stronger, smarter organizations.

I'm your host, Wendy Kidd, a longtime business owner and nonprofit leader,

and I'm here to bring you real talk, real tools and real stories to help

you thrive in the nonprofit world.

I'll be talking with local nonprofit leaders, community change makers

and experts in everything from board development to fundraising and digital

tools, sharing real stories and simple strategies you can actually use,

because running a nonprofit is hard, but you don't have to do it alone.

Let's get started.

Today's guest is Dr. Colette Portis, award-winning business strategist,

speaker and author of five books.

As founder and CEO of Red Development Group, she's helped businesses scale from

zero to six figures in months and guided leaders to build agile, profitable teams.

Named one of Fort Worth's top 15 coaches and 2023 Entrepreneur of the

Year, Dr. Collette brings decades of experience in leadership, operational

growth, and community impact.

And trust me, she sent me a whole book of impressive accomplishments that I somehow

managed to condense into this short intro.

But her work in nonprofits is why she is here.

And I want to thank her not only for being my guest, but for her work that

she's already done in the nonprofit world.

So welcome Dr. Colette.

Thank you, Wendy.

Thank you for having me.

I'm excited about the conversation.

Of course.

So I want to preface this by telling my listeners that you and I have

already talked about it and we have so much to talk about in the area

of strategic planning that we are going to do a three podcast series.

So today's is the first one, and we're going to talk about what strategic

planning is and all that good stuff.

But just know that we are going to get to the actionable steps.

It's just going to be in a future podcast.

So stay tuned.

'cause Dr. Collette's going to bring it all.

Yes.

And I'm so excited.

So excited.

So am I. I am always excited about helping the people who help others.

I know.

You're so good at this.

You're so good at this.

Okay, well, so let's start off with what is strategic planning?

What is it and why do we need it?

So I am, um, a Christian woman.

Mm-hmm.

But I mean, even if you're not Christian, I just think the stream of

words we call a sentence makes sense.

And there's a scripture in Habe two and two that says, write

the vision, make it plain.

So he that finds it may run with it.

Okay.

Most people think that strategy is about deciding what they're

going to do, and that's part of it.

Mm-hmm.

But strategy is really about writing it down so someone else

can assist you in getting it done.

Because my belief is that greatness cannot, it is impossible for greatness

to happen without other people.

I would agree with that completely.

You could be great, but how do you know if there's not someone to use it?

Try it.

Test it.

You would never know.

Mm-hmm.

So strategy is that like how do you take what's in your mind, put it down

on a piece of paper in a way that would allow someone else to pick that piece of

paper up and carry your vision forward.

That's what strategy is.

Absolutely.

And I think it's important to note that strategic planning is not just goals,

right?

There's so much more to it than just creating a vision

statement or a goal list.

Exactly.

Um, and that's, that's what we're, that's why I wanted to do this series, is

because strategic planning is a big deal.

Mm-hmm.

And it should be something that your organization does to stay true to the

mission and to help the mission grow.

Yes.

Right?

Yes.

And if they're not doing it the right way.

They are wasting their time.

Yes.

And they're wasting everyone's time that's in the room and

they're wasting their staff's time.

If they didn't bring the staff into strategic planning again, we're going

to get to that, but they're wasting everyone's time that is involved in

it if you are not doing it correctly.

Yes.

And so I really want to make sure that people understand what it is.

Mm-hmm.

And how to do

it and how to implement it.

Absolutely.

And if fortune 50 companies spend thousands of dollars,

sometimes millions to plan.

Then don't you think that that would mean that this is something that's

very important to do and, and I want to pause for a moment because I know

that there's somebody thinking, well, we're not a Fortune 50 corporation.

Yes, we're a nonprofit, and I say all the time that we have to understand

that a nonprofit is a corporation that has a different type of tax structure.

Exactly.

It's absolutely a business.

It is absolutely a corporation and it just has a different type of tax structure.

So there are principles in business.

That you still need to practice and follow, and planning and strategizing

is one of those principles you need to practice and follow.

You don't have to.

Yeah, that's the truth.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You can just, you know, you can just throw seed, throw seed

around and, and see what grows or.

You can decide where your seed goes, why your seed goes there, and what you

intend for it to do when it gets there.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

You know, work smarter, not harder.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

Mm-hmm.

Well, and I think that a lot of people are.

When they say, I'm a nonprofit, not a business, I, I think what

I hear people saying from that is that they see business as corporate

and unfeeling and without passion.

And I am here to tell you, as a small business owner of

over 20 years, I have passion.

Yes.

And I had passion when I started my business, and that's

why I started my business.

Small business owners are passionate.

They're just doing it in a different tax classification, that's all.

They're still going for profit.

A nonprofit should be making money absolutely to be able to stay sustainable,

so there really is no difference other than the tax classification.

The other thing that people don't realize is as small business

owners and as nonprofit leaders.

They got into this a lot of times for the passion Yes.

Not to run a business.

Yes.

And so that's my purpose in life right now is to get nonprofits to realize that

we can help you do well in business.

Just because you didn't have that muscle when you started your nonprofit

doesn't mean you can't develop it.

Absolutely.

So that's why we're doing this and this is why this is going

to be a three part series 'cause we got so much to talk about.

Absolutely.

And Wendy,

I think you make a great point because in this season.

Right now with funding being, you know, moved and, and so much uncertainty, yes.

Nonprofits have to now figure out how to create funding for their organizations.

They no longer have the option to sit around and wait for someone

else to bring them funding.

They've gotta figure out how to generate it.

They have to be strategic.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, so let's, let's start with the basics.

Who should be participating?

Who should be in the room?

For the strategic planning sessions.

Right.

And you know, we're going to have these meetings.

Who should be in the room and who should guide it?

I think those are two very different questions.

Yeah.

So let's start with who should guide it?

Do not try and do it yourself.

Mm-hmm.

I need people to understand that if you work inside an of an organization,

you are in a, like, it's like you're in a forest and here's the tree.

The tree is right against your nose.

And if the tree is against your nose, nine times outta 10, you might know that

there's 10 trees around you, but you don't know that you're standing in the

midst of, of hundreds of trees and you don't know what those trees look like.

You don't know what trees are in trouble, what trees are doing well,

because you're way too close to it.

Yeah.

So bring in an outside expert with fresh eyes.

Fresh ideas to come and ask you the right questions to get

you to where you want to go.

So that's number one.

Yes, it should be led by someone outside of your organization.

And it could be the same, someone that comes back every year, but

they're not there every day with you.

They're not in the day to day.

Exactly.

So they see your organization differently and what they can hear is.

How people are making their decisions, how people see your organization.

'cause those kinds of things are driving their decisions.

Yes.

And then they can help you to build a strategy.

So that's one.

The other people that are in the room are your C-suite.

Your C-suite needs to be in the room, all of them.

Okay.

Explain what a C-suite is.

Yes.

Because remember we're talking to nonprofits.

They might not be familiar with that term.

Absolutely.

So your executive director should definitely be in the room.

Yes.

If you have someone in charge of HR, they should definitely be in the room.

Your fractional CFO should definitely be in the room.

If you have a COO, they should be in the room.

Your board chair.

Should be in the room with that for the initial start.

'cause developing your strategy takes time.

Mm-hmm.

It is not a one day and we're done kind of thing.

So initially your top leaders need to be.

In that room.

Secondarily, your second level leaders need to be in that room.

Your program manager, your client relationship manager, need to be in

that second phase because your upper level management team, your high

level managers, they're going to decide what does vision look like?

Are we still on track?

Is it still the same?

Do we need to make an adjustment to our mission?

Have we met the goal?

Right.

Let's, let's talk about, and I know it's not a nonprofit, but McDonald's,

they used to want, you know, a hundred thousand burgers sold and

now you look at their sign and it just says, billions of burgers sold.

Right, right.

They, but they had to keep adjusting.

Mm-hmm.

Year after year because they, they got there, uh, Wendy and I are alum of

Goldman Sachs, 10,000 small businesses.

Woohoo.

They are on their way to 20,000.

They are right.

They are, they have gone past the 10,000.

They have gone past.

It is behind us now.

Exactly.

And now they had to adjust the goal.

Mm-hmm.

And they had to adjust the mission.

So your, your upper level meet leadership team makes that decision.

What's the vision or how do we need to make an adjustment to the mission?

And then your second level leadership team comes to join them to say, okay, we've

decided what mission is, what vision is, what goals are now, how do we get it done?

Yeah.

Your strategy is about how we get it done.

Yeah.

Which is the difference.

'cause some people think a strategic plan and a business plan are

the same thing and they're not.

No, not at all.

No.

Your strategy is talking about steps to getting the mission done.

Yes.

Yes.

And so you're a second level.

Management is helping you with steps.

They know their departments, they know their teams.

They know what, what kind of human capital you have and you don't have.

Mm-hmm.

And they can inform the strategy to say, we want to develop this

technology, but we don't have anybody in this organization that's tech savvy.

Right.

So now we need to decide, do we outsource that or do we bring

somebody in house to develop that?

For us.

Right.

And then lastly, you want your individual teams, whoever's responsible for that

department to run it by those, the others that are in that department.

To say, get everybody on board.

Get everybody on board.

Yes.

What do you think?

This is what we're thinking about doing.

Do you think this is going to be effective?

And the reason why that is important is because if I'm the

one doing the task every day.

Mm-hmm.

And all of us have probably experienced this.

Yes.

New plan happens.

They do something new, they change the software, and now it takes you

20 more minutes to do a task that took you two minutes to do because

they never did ask the people.

That we're actually doing the work, whether or not there's

some changes we should make.

What do you like?

What do you, what do you not like?

Yeah, so you should have different layers and different levels at which

your team is being engaged with the strategic planning process,

and you should always be assigning.

Portions of that strategy to somebody in your organization.

Mm-hmm.

So that they know who is responsible for making sure

that this strategy goes forward.

Okay.

So I'm going to sum up what we just said.

So everybody catches this.

There are more.

There's more than one meeting happening.

Absolutely.

And who is in that meeting depends upon where you're at in the process.

Absolutely right.

So our first meeting is our top level leaders.

Absolutely top level.

We're talking your board members, we're talking your, your C-suite.

We learned what C-suite is your C-suite and board chair.

Board chair.

So not the the whole board.

Not

the whole board.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

That's an important point.

Mm-hmm.

So talk to me about that.

So your board chair's responsibility is to, to ensure that vision is going forth.

Mm-hmm.

And the organization is being fiscally responsible.

Yes.

Right?

Yes.

They are doing what they said they're going to do.

Well, your board chair needs to make sure.

Of one, what you said you were going to do, why you said you were going to do it,

because then that now they've gotta go.

Um, convince all these high powered com people from your community that

this is the direction to go in.

Mm-hmm.

And they have to hold them responsible for helping you get there.

Right.

And if they don't know that and they're left out mm-hmm.

Then you bring them this idea and they're like, what and why would you do that?

And.

We had momentum over here and why would we change that?

And the board is, or we have, we've developed or built this

board in this way for this purpose.

Because your board might shift and change based on what your company's goals are.

Right, right, right.

Which is why most boards, their tenure is two years.

Because the organization is going to look different about every two to five

years, it's going to look different.

So you need a different set of people supporting you if your board chair is

not in the room, is not lending their voice to how those top level people who

oversee your, your executive director.

If they're not involved in this process, then what happens

is you've gotta disconnect.

Yes.

And you lose your board.

Yes.

Or your board starts to feel like they're your employee and not your

board member and so they go away.

Yeah.

So have the board chair in first.

Mm-hmm.

Board members come in at the next one.

Now let me ask you this.

I'm going to back us up even a little more.

When we're talking baby nonprofits, little tiny nonprofits

who, they just have a board.

Mm-hmm.

That's all they got.

Mm-hmm.

They don't have any staff.

Is it just those people that's in the room?

Is it all of those people, or do we still need to limit it to just the board chair?

That's doing this first step,

so that's a very good question.

Mm-hmm.

When you have tiny small profits, the smaller, small, uh, nonprofits, then

my suggestion will be your executive director, whoever their right hand is.

Mm-hmm.

Because there's almost always one, there's always that volunteer.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

And then you're going to have your board chair and whoever

your board chair's right hand is, which is normally your vice chair.

Mm-hmm.

And your treasurer and your secretary.

So your

officers, your

officers are who are going to be assisting you mm-hmm.

In making those decisions.

The other piece is if you're a smaller nonprofit and you have say, um, somebody

who's responsible for technology and things like that, they're going to be that

second level, but they need to be there.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

All right.

So now that we know who needs to be in the room,

okay.

And we know that we need to bring somebody else, yes.

From outside into this room, what do we look for in that

person that we're bringing in?

Oh, first off, what you want to do is you want to find out how

long have they been doing this.

Mm-hmm.

You want to pay attention to their process, to their onboarding process.

If they're not asking you a bunch of questions, then they're

probably not the right one.

Yeah.

Because what they're going to do typically is come in and

tell you all of their ideas.

Mm-hmm.

And how they think you should be doing it better.

But I, my.

My son-in-law is an anesthesiologist, and one of the things that I say

to him all the time is, every time you go into that room, I need you

to understand that that person is the absolute expert on their body.

They just haven't been able to figure something out.

And your job is to listen to them enough to help them figure it out.

Yes.

You are not the expert on that body.

Yes.

And it's the same when it comes to any consultant.

If consul, if your consultancy is not.

Asking you lots of questions and measuring.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Which we're going to get to that.

Yep.

Absolutely.

Then they probably are not the right ones.

And I know a lot of us have experienced strategic plans happening,

and it never gets implemented.

The statistic says 83% of them don't get implemented past, oh,

I believe the first 90 days.

83% y'all.

Yes.

83% is so true.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But primarily because that consultant came in to give you their ideas.

Mm-hmm.

As opposed to understand the organization, see what you have, see what you can

improve, and see what you don't have in order to inform your strategy.

Mm-hmm.

But while understanding where you are trying to go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let

me ask

you

this, and I know this is not one of the questions I asked you before pre

podcast, but I'm just going to go with it.

Go with it.

Because you know, everybody out, there's thinking, well, how much do

I have to pay somebody like that?

Right?

Mm-hmm.

And I personally, I have looked at these consultants, so I have a clue, but I'd

like for you, the expert in the field, to give them an idea of what to expect.

Yeah.

It's going to completely depend on size of your organization.

If you're a smaller, tinier nonprofit and you want somebody to come in and

do strategy for you, you're going to be looking at maybe about $25,000.

Mm-hmm.

If.

They, they are a real strategist, and let me define that.

Yeah.

Real strategist means that they're not coming in to just

write something with you.

They are coming in with tools to measure where you are.

They want and need to know what your current state is.

Mm-hmm.

And then they are going to write your strategy, which is why it may seem like

it's a high price tag, but what you get on the back end is more than a document.

Right.

You actually understand the value of what you have and the people

you have, which I think is part of what gets missed in non-profits.

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

If no one has $25,000.

Sitting on their table, where, where should they look?

Um, if they don't have $25,000 sitting on their table and they

really need somebody to do it mm-hmm.

Then my suggestion is, recruit, recruit, recruit.

Right.

Find you someone Yes.

In the industry that is really, really great, that loves your

mission and is willing to come and do it, but you have to use the same

sponsorship people to Yes.

They give them sponsorship credit throughout the year.

They're title sponsored.

Absolutely, yes.

And then you also have to make sure that.

You still are picking the right person.

Yes.

Don't just, and I see this mistake happen all the time.

Don't just say Yes because they decided to offer it to you.

Yes.

Because a lot of times it wastes your time.

Yes.

And it still doesn't end up being beneficial, but you spent time doing it.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so you want to make sure that that's happening, but if you

don't have the money, absolutely.

Go find a sponsor.

That's always.

I think go find somebody who loves your mission, but make it beneficial to them.

Mm-hmm.

End of the tax year, people are trying to get rid of money.

Yes.

All of the time.

Yes.

So there's also, um, um, uh, what planned giving.

You know, yes.

Your, if your board members, if you've got board members, maybe rather than

them paying, you know, board dues or whatever every year, maybe they've

made your organization a beneficiary on their policies or something like that.

One of the great ways to raise funds for this is to find out who you know

that has stock sitting somewhere, who is willing to give you a little bit.

'cause they didn't have to come out of their pocket for it, right?

There's so many ways to, to there is to get it done.

My mother used to say, there's so many ways to skin a cat.

Right.

You just have to know that you can, and you have to be determined to do it, and

then your, your subconscious will open up to a, to give you opportunities to get

it done.

Well, and I think that they, they also need to look at local

programs that support this, right?

Yes.

You've got your local incubators for small business.

You're a business too.

You qualify for this people.

Yes.

I can't tell you how many times I'm going to say that.

You are a business too.

Look at those who are supporting small businesses will support

your nonprofit as well.

You've got your local SBDC.

Yes.

The Small Business Development Center.

Call 'em up.

Yes.

Guarantee you they've got somebody that volunteers with them.

Maybe they'll just do a discounted rate for you.

Maybe they can't give you a whole $25,000 for free.

Wow.

Well maybe they're going to give it to half.

Right, right, right.

You know, go to your nonprofit management certificate

programs at the local colleges.

Surely they've got somebody on staff they can recommend.

There are resources out there.

I know that here in North Texas, uh, one of our, uh, women's junior leagues Yes.

Does it for free.

Yes.

So, you know, again, look like, like Dr. Collette says, absolutely.

Look at them and evaluate this resource.

Absolutely.

Just 'cause it's free doesn't mean it's actually going to

be worth anything to you.

Right.

But let's, let's look around and let's find somebody to help us with this.

One of the things I tell people too is a lot of my mentors are in books.

Yes.

I have written a book called G.O.A.L.I.E.. It walks you step by.

If you have a tiny, smaller nonprofit, G.O.A.L.I.E. is going to be it.

If you have a bit of a, a larger nonprofit, JUST Strategy

is going to be it for you.

Take it in a room with your team once a week and spend an hour

or two hours on each section.

Yes.

Thinking about it, yes.

At least in writing something down, I ask all the questions that you need to ask.

Now, of course, it doesn't come with the assessment piece and all of that

kind of stuff, but if you say, have $10,000 and instead of 25, then you

did that strategy piece on your own using a book, and then you went to

someone and said, we need to measure some stuff inside the organization,

then you could, you could do that.

There's so many ways to get it done.

Yes, for sure.

Yes, I, yes, all of it.

Okay.

So let's talk about, now that we, we know who we've got in the room, we

know who we're having come in here.

Let's talk about the prep work before that first meeting.

What are we doing before that first meeting?

Yeah, prep work.

Before the first meeting is all about interviewing consultants.

Mm-hmm.

And know that you get to interview them, just like you hire anybody

else into your organization.

Yes.

Interview them.

Use ai to help you determine what questions you should be asking

a consultant who's going to come and support you with strategy.

Yes.

Right.

If you do not know Ai Chat GPT, we will talk about it.

Absolutely.

I promise.

Absolutely.

We'll have a podcast on it.

Yes.

Use that tool to help you interview.

Don't go with the first person who said yes, or the person

who offered it for free.

Determine how much of an impact you really want to make in your organization.

Mm-hmm.

What do you really want to do in the next 12 months?

And if it's big things, then be intentional.

Yes.

About who you.

And ask your friends.

Ask around.

Ask people you know in your industry who they've used.

Who they've encountered when they were still in corporate America and ask

for referrals, and then do your due diligence in interviewing them to make

sure they're a fit for your organization.

What is that person that they hire once they've interviewed and they

hired, what is that person going to do for them before the first session?

What they should do, mm-hmm.

Is initially a conversation.

With whoever is running the organization.

So if it's the executive director, they want to know what the executive

director's hopes and dreams are for their legacy that they will leave.

You notice how I just said that?

Mm-hmm.

Right?

Not just the organization, but what legacy do you want to leave?

So when you leave here, what do you want people to say you've

done right when you left?

A lot of times we don't realize that we have the opportunity to

do that, and I tell my clients, you get to write your own eulogy.

Because really that's what life is.

You writing your eulogy.

You get to tell people what they're going to say about you on that day.

Yeah.

And so that first meeting is really that.

What is it that you want people to say about you at the point that you're gone?

It really should be a conversation around that.

There's going to be some questions about revenue and profit and, and

fundraising and all of that kind of stuff, and questions about

your board and that kind of thing.

But for the most part, that conversation should really be about what is it that

you want to leave behind when you're gone.

Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Sure.

And then what else are they going to do?

Because I know that there's assessments that you guys do.

Yeah.

So now for us.

Once we do that initial, um, consultation, our next step is to do

what we call an operational snapshot.

And you go to the doctor, right?

Mm-hmm.

And they're going to put your arm in a sleeve.

'Cause they want to take your blood pressure.

They might prick your finger because they want to take, they want to check your iron

or whatever, or blood sugar, whatever.

They're going to look in your ears.

They might have you stick your tongue like they, there's, you know, you're going to

get on this scale that we all hate, right?

But you gotta do these things because they have to understand is the human breathing,

is the human alive?

Is the human working efficiently?

Are they alive?

Is the body warm?

Yes.

Right to the right temperature.

They really should be doing that.

Yeah.

Is the organization alive?

Is it surviving?

Is it dying?

Is it thriving?

You are somewhere in there.

And that snapshot is going to say, in these different departments, in

these different areas inside of your organization, we are going to ask,

it's like almost a hundred questions.

Mm-hmm.

But we are going to ask you this.

Whole list of questions because we want to understand what the heartbeat is.

We want to understand is the blood pressure high or low?

We want to understand whether or where you are, because if I come in

to a smaller nonprofit, or let's say I come into a larger nonprofit, like

a United Way or something like that.

Sure.

And I'm not talking to them about their director of

marketing because they have that.

And I'm not considering that, then I have totally missed it.

Yep.

Likewise, if I come into a smaller nonprofit and I'm asking them about

a director of marketing and they're like, lady, we don't have that.

We pass out diapers.

That is the extent of what we do.

We are very small, but we are trying to grow.

Mm-hmm.

You gotta know who you're talking to.

Yes.

We say all the time, know your audience.

Yes.

Right.

I, I need to know who I'm talking to.

I need to know what.

You're doing well, I need to know what you can improve and I need to know what

your complete and total blind spots are.

And so that initial assessment helps us to understand that.

And when we do that for, um, nonprofits in particular, we don't

even charge them to do that assessment.

We don't charge them for the consultation.

We don't even charge them for the operational snapshot.

Then we take that data, not for for profits.

We, we charge for it, but then we take that data and that data helps us to

decide what additional assessments need to, to be deployed and then what is the

strategy for helping this organization get to where they need to get to.

Mm-hmm.

So all that

is done before you even sit down with those key members?

Oh, the whole leadership team?

Yes.

Yeah, because I can't, if I don't know that if, if we do an

operational snapshot and, and it measures sustainability mm-hmm.

In different areas of your company and you have a zero when it comes to finance.

That already lets me know.

You can't even afford to bring us in right?

To do, um, a, a strategic planning with you.

But I can refer you to SBDC.

Yes, I can refer you, I can tell you, you know, purchase this book and

take it and do it it with your team.

I can give you some resources to support you where you are.

But if I don't do that measurement now, I have you in a room talking

to you about giving me $25,000.

When you're already trying to make sure that you pay the two people that

you have on staff, and that is unfair.

And in some cases I think quite abusive.

Right?

Because you haven't figured it out.

And now the, the folks who take care of our people all the time

are feeling bad about who they are.

Mm-hmm.

And feeling like they're not doing a good job of taking care.

Of people right.

When they

really are, right.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Okay.

So let's, let's talk DIY a minute.

Okay.

So if we're going to do this assessment ourselves mm-hmm.

What are these things?

You talked about blood pressure, and we talked about blood

sugar and all those things.

What are those elements that we should be looking at as, as nonprofits?

What we should we be assessing before we sit down to do strategic planning?

Yes.

So, wait, I have a, a book called CEOs Finish First.

I think I'm terrible about remembering.

I mean your own books.

And you don't remember the names.

I know.

But it is a book that has this checklist.

It is a checklist for you to go through and you can, if you put a

check mark there, you get one point.

Mm-hmm.

If you didn't put a check mark there, guess how many points you get?

None.

None.

And then you tally it up at the end of each section and then at the end of it.

All, and now at least you have some idea of where you are.

Mm-hmm.

You can understand whether or not the budget that you have set, because a lot

of times, especially, uh, for smaller nonprofits, we have our budget and

we think like, okay, this budget, we did a budget, it's great, we present

it to our board and things like that.

But then you can't figure out what happened with the money.

Right, right.

Yeah.

And it's like, I, wow.

I know we had money, but what happened?

What did we spend it on?

What did we spend it on?

Yeah.

And nine times outta 10, what we find is that means that your budget

is not constructed correctly.

Yeah.

So it's never going to help identify where your, see where you're starving,

you know where you're doing great.

It's not structured in the right way to help you understand that, well,

you go through this checklist and this checklist is going to help you go.

Oh, right.

So we didn't put that in

there.

Probably should add that.

Just curious, is your checklist somewhere on your website that they can get to?

No, no, no.

You can buy the book on just Amazon book.

Yeah.

Got it.

You can buy the book on Amazon, but we're not the only, you know,

we're not the only game in town.

Right.

But that is a resource that you can use.

I tell people all the time, don't try to go it alone.

Yeah.

You don't do that.

I've been doing this for 31 years.

I know, right.

It's not what you do every day.

So the likelihood that you will figure it out mm-hmm.

Is the thing that kills a lot of businesses.

Well, of course.

Mm-hmm.

Of course.

We all think we can do it on our own and we all know you shouldn't.

Yeah.

So, okay.

It sounds like some elements of this checklist is going to be, yeah.

How's your budget been?

Mm-hmm.

Compared to what your actuals are.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right?

Mm-hmm.

Um, are we doing assessments of what the community thinks of the nonprofit?

So we do a survey mm-hmm.

To see what the community thinks of the nonprofit.

But I will tell you before we even get to that place.

Mm-hmm.

The very first thing we need to understand is what does your team think

of Well, I was going to say that next.

Yes.

Yes.

What?

And not just what does your team think of the nonprofit?

Mm-hmm.

How is that driving the, their decisions every day?

Yes.

Because the truth of the matter is you don't really care what they think.

What you really care is how does their thinking impact my organization?

That's what you really want to matter.

Yeah.

No, you should care what they think.

Right, right.

But you want to measure, you want to understand how, uh, how is your decision

making driving my organization or hurting?

My organization.

You want to know that?

Yeah.

You want to understand where your executive director is.

If you are a board chair, you want to know whether your executive director Yes.

Is treating the organization like it's just a job for them.

Mm-hmm.

As opposed to being the visionary of the organization and, and driving that vision.

Right?

Those are two different seats to sit in.

Yes.

And two different ways to make decisions.

So you also want to make sure that you're measuring, that.

You want to make sure that you are measuring, who do I have on my team?

What does my take an inventory of your human capital?

And I don't mean I've got 10 men and five women.

I don't mean that, I don't mean by ethnic group, I don't mean by religion,

I mean by what kind of skills, knowledge, information, decision

making, all of that kind of stuff.

Do they have, and more importantly, what is it that they don't have?

Right?

Right.

'cause if I don't know what they don't have, then how is

it that I'm growing my team?

I will keep hiring the same people, getting the same results.

I think of, I think of the, uh, the board matrix, right?

What you've got a board matrix, you're looking for certain skills for that board.

You should have that same mat matrix for your staff.

Yes.

Right?

And if you don't have that matrix, you need to start building one.

And you can easily do that by asking your staff.

What's your education?

Mm-hmm.

Where, where do you, what do you excel at?

Mm-hmm.

What are you good at?

What do you love doing?

Mm-hmm.

These are key questions that you can ask of your team so that when you're doing

your assessment, that's part of your, your human capital, like you talked

about, but it's also something that when it comes to implementation, yes.

You know who you can go to for these things.

Yes.

Wendy, we just, we have an assessment that we do specifically around

who is your team and what, what kind of human capital do you have.

Mm-hmm.

And we just did it last week with, um, another company that's our client,

and there was a team member that the owner was really like, I think I'm

going to have to let my rockstar go.

Mm-hmm.

Like, I just, because there has been so much conflict and all of that,

and we did this assessment and I was like, we, what we discovered is.

Your rock star is still a rock star.

You just have your rock star in the wrong place asking your

rock star to do the wrong thing.

And then afterwards, the, the owner and that particular employee had a

conversation and the the owner was like, well, I know you want to do this.

And the employee was like, I never wanted to do that.

Like I never wanted.

Oh my goodness.

But you, if you don't know how to ask the right questions and discover the

right things, you never get to that.

And it was a five minute conversation.

Yeah.

And now that person within less than seven days is in the right seat.

Doing the right thing and is killing it.

That's lovely.

Just, just with something that very simple.

I mean, that goes back to my whole conversation with Kendria on feedback.

If you don't have that feedback loop, you're not going to

know this stuff people.

So go back and listen to that podcast.

Yes.

Because you're going to need that for your strategic planning.

Yes.

Okay.

So we talked about assessing budget.

We talked about assessing human capital.

What your team thinks of the organization, what the community thinks about the

organization, what else are we assessing?

We're assessing identity.

Identity.

That's a good one.

Yes.

Identity yes.

Of the organization.

What's the majority of the folks you have around you?

Because that's impacting your day to day.

Mm-hmm.

That's impacting your output, that's impacting the level of impact that

you leave on your, your clients, your customers, your community, whatever.

Mm-hmm.

If you, um.

I have a, a friend who works for a certain company and they, her

department feels like they're the, they're, they are the company.

Mm-hmm.

The other department is always the one that's causing the problem.

Mm-hmm.

And it's like, and so I'll say things to her like, have you ever considered if

they weren't around, what would happen?

Have you ever, 'cause Yeah.

Because oftentimes what happens is we don't understand the value.

Mm-hmm.

And sometimes, especially as leaders, we will go hire a bunch of people like

us and we don't even realize that we, things aren't getting done in the way

we need them to get done, done, because.

We haven't diversified.

Yes.

Our folks, yes, we've got a bunch of people that are the same here.

Coming back to assessing your human capital.

Yes, yes.

But then the other thing you gotta measure is where are we technologically?

Mm-hmm.

Because you, you are going to get left behind.

Yes.

There, there's no possibility.

It is an absolute, you will get left behind if you're

not technologically savvy.

Where are you with that?

Are you paying for too much tech or do you not have enough tech?

Or are you in the right place?

Does the tech you currently have serve you at the level that you are now?

But does it serve you in your growth stage?

Yes.

Yes.

Right.

I had a, one of

my other podcast guests actually said to me.

Nonprofits are typically 10 years behind when it comes to technology.

Oh my God.

I actually would think it would be longer.

Yeah.

I, I do.

Um, I agree because we're, we're talking some of the things that I hear.

I agree.

You know, like not wanting, I was having a conversation with a, a nonprofit founder

and, uh, she was upset because she got a new board chair and the board chair wants.

The board to use GroupMe.

Mm-hmm.

As opposed to texting?

Yes.

Or just email and she's going, I don't want to learn anything new and

I don't want to, I said, that's fine.

You don't have to learn anything new.

She's like, well, it's going to take me, you know, the 10 minutes is going to take

me to understand and know this thing.

I said, but what if that 10 minutes could save you 10 days?

Yes.

Wouldn't it make sense to do it?

Yes.

It's going to save you time.

I said, right now you're sending individual messages.

Yes.

And spending time to hit the button 10 times where you could put it

in one place and hit the button one time and go on about your day

because you have way too much to do.

So if you, if you're not implementing technology, using technology and

creating parameters around how it gets used inside your organization, right?

Don't just implement.

You need some parameters Yep.

Around how it gets used in your organization.

You have to do that.

You've gotta be responsible for your data.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Your client's data,

that's, that's such a huge issue I think in, in all small

businesses, not just nonprofits.

People are not thinking about the security of the data that they're

working with, and they don't think about it until it's too late.

Absolutely.

And it's, that happens every time.

So that's a whole nother podcast I need to do when you talk about technology,

how to get people up to date on technology and all that good stuff.

So, um, we're running outta time, so I'm going to wrap up.

What else?

Is there anything else that you think that they should assess

that we have not talked about?

Yes.

Disaster recovery.

Oh yes.

Business continuity and succession.

Yes.

Which gets missed 99% of the time.

Yes.

Strategists just don't do it.

Yes,

they don't do it.

And you have to do it except, um, Lord, um, well that was one of those situations.

9/11 People needed these nonprofits, COVID people needed nonprofits.

More than that, if you have no business continuity plan, if you have no disaster

plan, if you have no succession plan, then what happens to your organization when

somebody decides that they're leaving?

Yes.

Or somebody doesn't decide that they're leaving and they're just gone.

Like, well, what happened?

And I'm going to add to that list.

Most nonprofits don't have an exit plan.

There you go.

And it is required by the IRS on how they handle when they shut down.

Mm-hmm.

And most of them don't know that.

No.

So that, that should be part of the strategic planning mm-hmm.

As well, is that exit plan.

Absolutely.

So, okay.

We have a lot that we have talked about.

In a very short amount of time, but I don't think it's

short, but it feels short.

Um, so I'm going to put a lot of this in our show notes.

Mm-hmm.

Guys, I'm going to give you lots of links of different resources that

we've talked about in these show notes.

Um, and next time what we're going to talk about is.

Going through and actually developing that strategic plan, what it's

going to look like, how long it's going to take, all that good stuff.

And then the third episode is how we're going to implement that plan.

Yes.

So thank you, Dr. Collette.

You're welcome.

This is fantastic, and I cannot wait to get started on our next session.

Absolutely.

I look forward to it.

All right.

Thanks guys.

See you next time.

Bye.

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