Just like any nonprofit or for-profit organization, nonprofit trade and professional associations should regularly undertake a strategic planning process to achieve long term goals and fulfill their mission for their various stakeholders.

This is an essential way for these organizations to improve member satisfaction, increase staff morale, increase financial sustainability and strengthen the brand itself (Board Source, 2024).

A regular strategic plan is a very important component of stewarding the stakeholders.

However, a strategic planning process doesn’t stop with a bound copy of your document. Rather, any strategic plan should be a living document, not a publication collecting dust on a shelf. This plan should be communicated with organizational stakeholders, it should drive operational planning, and evaluation efforts should be ongoing. These should be audited at least once a year at the Annual Meeting, more so if the organization is going through significant change (Kenny, 2018).

These steps are just as important as the all of the preparation and planning in the beginning so that your leadership can maximize its significant investment of time, money and other resources (Damico, 2018).

Woodland Strategies empowers organizations to be strategically agile. We utilize current research and leading-practice models to approach strategic planning and execution. This includes environmental scanning, establishing strategic goals and priorities, developing implementation strategies and change initiatives, performance measurement and evaluation, and communicating strategy and performance to diverse categories of stakeholders. These initiatives are framed within the context of competitive and ethical challenges. Kick off the New Year with a new vision! Get started today!

Contact Woodland Strategies, a professional consulting firm in Minneapolis to assist you in the New Year with a new strategic plan for your trade or professional association!