Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Boards: Who Decides What

Picture a fictional nonprofit just after its board votes for a new plan. Two board members leave sure the board will now write the goals. The executive director leaves sure the board has just endorsed hers. Six weeks later her draft meets a committee that expected a blank page, and the plan loses a season to a question nobody asked out loud.

Below: who decides what, the board’s work at each stage, a sample approval motion and a quarterly routine. For the longer view, see our guide to nonprofit strategy.

What Does the Board Decide, and What Does Staff?

The board decides direction and the trade-offs that come with it: the mission, the few goals, what the organization stops doing and whether the finished plan is approved. The executive director and staff decide how the work gets done, and they draft almost everything the board votes on. In small nonprofits, board members often do some staff work too.

BoardSource describes the board’s role as setting direction, providing input and approving the final plan, and says the board “owns the final strategic plan.” The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits describes the other seat: staff may “conceive, develop and implement the organization’s plan,” while the board monitors the process and gives counsel.

In their guide to board effectiveness, Vic Murray and Yvonne Harrison list a “lack of clarity about who should play what role in the planning process” among the causes of board planning problems. Settle it decision by decision with the Pen Question, named for whoever holds the pen: who drafts it, who decides it, and who approves it?

Check the bylaws and any delegation policy before adopting this split. Changing the purpose stated in your articles of incorporation may need more than a board vote, depending on state law and whether you have voting members. In a nonprofit with two staff, a board member may draft the situation summary and should say which hat they are wearing.

What Does the Board Do at Each Planning Stage?

The board has four jobs across a planning cycle: commission the plan with a clear motion, shape the big choices, approve the finished plan and monitor it each quarter. The executive director and staff do the drafting in between. Board members who stay inside those four jobs give the plan its authority without slowing it down.

1. Commission. The motion names the problem the plan must solve, the deadline, who drafts and the process budget. CNPC regularly sees boards vote for a solution, such as hiring a consultant, before naming the problem. A board self-assessment first shows which board habits the plan depends on.
2. Shape. Board members bring what they hear from funders, partners and the community, question the situation summary and make the big choices: the goals and what stops. Test each option: does it fit the mission, and can we staff it? Running the SWOT with the board helps when every item ends in a decision.
3. Approve. One vote on a complete package, covered below.
4. Monitor. A short review each quarter and a look at the whole plan once a year, before the budget.

Our guide sets out the planning process step by step.

Should the Board Form a Planning Committee?

Form one when the full board cannot do the detailed work in its regular meetings. Keep it small: two or three board members, the executive director and one or two staff. It reads drafts, gathers input, tests options and recommends. The full board keeps the plan-level decisions. Give the committee a one-paragraph charter and an end date.

Murray and Harrison describe three set-ups: the board does it all, a board committee works alongside management, or management drafts and the board decides. Which fits depends on the organization’s age and size, the experience of its senior staff and how many board members have planned before. Without the executive director, a committee risks writing the plan itself: management work done by volunteers who will not carry it out.

The charter names the members, the chair and the decisions to bring back.

If the board wants outside help, decide first what is missing: drafting, a neutral facilitator or the executive director’s own clarity. Our comparison of when the board wants a consultant sets out the three.

How Should the Board Vote on the Plan?

Vote once, on a complete package: the goals and their targets, the stop-doing list, a costed year one and the quarterly review dates. Staff’s owners and measures come attached. A plan approved without a costed year one is approved in name only. Afterward, members describe the adopted plan accurately and raise concerns at the board table.

Sample motion for a fictional youth arts nonprofit: “Moved that the board approve the three-year strategic plan as presented, including its three goals and targets, its stop-doing list and the year-one cost estimate, ask the executive director to propose how the next budget funds that estimate, and review progress at the February, May, August and November meetings.”

BoardSource’s recommended board practices have staff develop the annual budget and the board approve it, checking that it reflects the strategic direction. The plan vote sets the year-one cost and the budget vote funds it, so goal one does not become an unfunded promise.

Cost year one before the vote, or the plan stays a promise.

How Does the Board Monitor the Plan?

With a one-page report each quarter and three questions. For each goal, the executive director reports status, the measure against its target, what is stuck and any decision needed from the board. The board asks what changed, what is stuck and what it must decide. Questions about daily operations belong with staff.

A board that asks how many meetings staff held has moved into management. A board that asks whether goal two still deserves its share of the budget is governing. When a target slips, ask the executive director for a recovery plan, then decide whether the goal, money or timing changes.

The board itself changes during a plan: BoardSource names two consecutive three-year terms as the most common term limit, so members join and leave mid-plan. Brief newcomers on it when onboarding new board members, and check the board’s planning role yearly against the board’s governance checklist.

Where Do Boards and Executive Directors Clash?

Watch for four situations: a board committee that starts writing the plan, a quiet board that approves anything, a board that sees itself only as fundraisers, and an executive director who brings a finished plan with nothing left to decide. Each comes from a decision about roles that nobody made out loud.

• The drafting committee. Board members rewrite staff drafts line by line, and staff stop treating the plan as theirs. Send comments to the executive director, who revises.
• The quiet board. CNPC coaches see disengagement more often than micromanagement, and it is harder to spot. A board that waves every planning choice through gives the plan no direction. Put one real choice in front of it at every planning meeting.
• The fundraising-only board. In BoardSource’s Leading with Intent 2021 findings, boards that put fundraising above all else do so “at the expense of organizational strategy, relevance, and impact.” Give the plan the first agenda slot, ahead of the fundraising report.
• The finished plan. A polished draft at its first board reading leaves two choices: approve it without ownership, or reopen everything. Bring options while the board is still shaping the plan.

If the two seats still disagree about a goal, the full board decides after hearing the executive director’s case. Strong partnerships, CNPC coaches find, keep a monthly check-in between the board chair and the executive director outside board meetings, where these problems surface early. More on managing the board relationship and on the board and executive director working together.

The quietest board in the room can do as much damage to a plan as the loudest.

Where Does Coaching Fit in Board Planning?

Coaching works with the executive director, the person who drafts the plan and reports on it. A coach helps the executive director frame updates so the board stays on strategy, hold boundaries with members who overreach and treat the board chair as a partner. CNPC does not coach boards through executive coaching, run retreats or write plans.

In CNPC’s experience, boards notice the result: clearer choices in the packet and more strategic presentations. Sessions are confidential, which matters when the subject is the board.

CNPC offers nonprofit executive coaching: six sessions with a volunteer coach for $300 to $600, depending on operating expenses, because our coaches donate their time. Every CNPC coach is credentialed by the International Coaching Federation. For a leadership team planning together, Executive Team Coaching costs $500 to $1,100.

Coaching is the wrong tool for a governance dispute, such as a split board or a bylaws fight. A governance consultant or the board’s counsel fits better, and CNPC says so during matching.

What Should the Board Do Before the Next Meeting?

Put fifteen minutes on the next board agenda and run the Pen Question on three decisions: the goals, the stop-doing list and approval of the finished plan. Write each answer into the minutes. The first draft will then reach a board that knows what it is being asked to do.

If you are the executive director who will carry the plan, a volunteer coach can work through the board side of it with you. Apply Now.

Frequently Asked Questions