Strategy versus Tactics

Nonprofits often confuse strategy and tactics. Both are necessary to advance the mission of the organization. The two terms are inexorably intertwined. How an organization needs to proceed is how they successfully navigate strategy and tactics.

Strategy is the action plan to achieve goals or directions for the organization. Setting strategy is paramount to setting a forward looking vision. Strategic plans are ubiquitous in the nonprofit space, and they are typically organized with the goals of the organization enumerated followed by strategies and tactics to achieve the goals in a hierarchical order-goals-strategies-tactics. Tactics are the individual steps to bring a strategy to life. Boards often get bogged down in the tactics which can be very specific and narrow. This focus on tactics can squash creative and strategic thinking at the full Board level. The Board as an entity needs to work hard to stay at a strategic level (oft used analogy-the thirty thousand foot level) and be disciplined at who implements and how tactics are accomplished. 

In an organization with a staff, the specific steps to achieve goals should be in their scope of work. The Board could lay out a timeframe for implementation, and a schedule for the administration to report back to the full Board.

In an all volunteer board driven organization the steps needed to implement goals should be delegated to the committees of the board that are best suited to that task. For example, if one of the goals of the strategic plan is to explore increased financial sustainability, the strategies/tactics can be divided up between board committees. The development committee could identify funding sources (expand donor base, foundations), the finance committee could model out needed resources to develop a reserve fund (setting a dollar goal i.e. achieving 50% of operations in a reserve account with a target date), and the governance committee could look at adding potential Board members with capacity.

While It is essential for Boards to have strategic goals, it is imperative that there is a method for implementation. The collective wisdom of a board should endeavor to remain strategic, and do its best to implement specific strategies and tactics while not losing sight of the larger picture.