Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning for Small Non-Profit Organization
Industry
Non-Profit
Company Size
2-10 Employees
The Results
Qualitative insights through focus groups and interviews, a 3–5 year strategic and operational plan with clear goals and accountability, a data-informed compensation strategy, and stronger leadership alignment and employee engagement.
Client Background
This small nonprofit organization provides support and empowerment programs for individuals affected by incarceration. Seeking long-term sustainability and stronger organizational alignment, the client engaged livingHR to lead a strategic planning initiative and develop a 3–5-year roadmap to position the organization for lasting impact.
Challenges
The client was facing several strategic and operational challenges that were limiting their ability to scale and sustain growth:
- While they had recently updated their Bylaws to strengthen governance and support more complex funding, they lacked a strategic plan to align operations with this growth trajectory.
- The client’s flat structure created significant recruitment and retention issues, with limited vertical career pathways hindering employee advancement and engagement.
- No clearly defined or unified vision for the future, making it difficult to prioritize opportunities for growth and expansion.
- Lacked compensation benchmarking data, which limited their ability to justify internal pay adjustments or advocate for additional headcount needed to support their evolving structure.
These challenges highlighted the need for a strategic partner who could deliver both a high-level strategic roadmap and an operational plan to support sustainable growth. The client required guidance to clarify its vision, define growth priorities, address structural barriers to talent retention, and build the internal infrastructure—through compensation insights and leadership development—that would align with its mission and evolving needs.
Success Metrics
As a result of livingHR’s engagement, the client gained valuable insight into the current state of its operations, strategic direction, organizational culture and overall people experience. Key outcomes included:
- Discovery & Insights: Completed a series of focus groups and 1:1 interviews, gathering qualitative insights that shaped the strategic direction and internal culture priorities.
- Strategic Planning: Developed and delivered a comprehensive strategic plan, SOAR analysis, and Culture Code—providing a unified vision and actionable goals for the next 3 - 5 years.
- Operational Planning: Created a detailed operational plan that translated the strategy into concrete initiatives, timelines, and accountability structures, increasing internal alignment and execution readiness.
- Compensation & Workforce Strategy: Delivered a compensation strategy and market analysis report, enabling leadership to make data-informed decisions around internal equity, headcount expansion, and role design.
- Leadership & Culture Impact: Enhanced leadership clarity and employee engagement through a more transparent and mission-aligned growth framework
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