About the Nonprofit

Women In Government (WIG) is where women legislators get their best ideas and share their best ideas. Our resource libraries contain information from recent Women In Government conference presentations, legislator bill share sessions, virtual policy roundtables, webinars and PSA campaigns.

Nonprofit Resources partnered with WIG to create a 4-year strategic plan.

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Our Services

4

Listening sessions coordinated

5

Priority issues identified

The Opportunity

The organization had a 2021-2022 strategic plan that created new Mission and Vision statements and four focus areas launching the organization into a period of more strategic thinking. The next step was to create a four-year strategic plan for 2023–2027 for the organization and an in-person retreat for the Executive Board members and staff that will serve as a kick-off to the strategic planning process. The completed plan will guide the deployment of the organization’s resources and will serve as a benchmark for progress against identified goals. Founder and President Kristin Bennett of Nonprofit Resources led this effort. 

Our Approach

We began by providing the Executive Director with the book that outlines our methodology. The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution outlines a no-nonsense approach to strategy and planning. It was important for everyone involved to invest in understanding why we chose this system over any other, and how to use the tools we will introduce. We have worked with the LaPiana team for years and invite you to review our webcast about the methodology and why we love it. 

We established the following steps:

• Organize two pre-retreat meetings with the Executive Director and any identified staff participants to discuss and finalize the agenda.
• Develop the agenda for the retreat.
• Facilitate the retreat.
• Produce a summary report from the retreat.

We provided strategy worksheets from the Nonprofit Strategy Revolution to the Executive Director of Women In Government to complete and share with the Board of Directors. 

The worksheets include:

• What is Strategy
• Examples of Identity Statement, Big Question(s), Strategy Screen, and Strategy
• Identity Statement
• Big Question
• Next Steps Work Plan

Data collection was constructed, organized, and reported results of:

• Online surveys to targeted audiences.
• Four listening sessions focused on:
  • All legislators
  • Private Sector
  • State directors
  • Board of Directors

All data was compiled into a report and an in-person strategic planning session was conducted with the organization’s Executive Committee, Women In Government staff, and facilitator Kristin Bennett to review the collected data and to lay the groundwork for the Strategic Plan Task Force.

The Results

A summary of top questions and results from the surveys and listening sessions shows that, overall, the concerns and perceptions are consistent across the groups.

• 70% of respondents feel the organization is bipartisan. During the strategy session, it was noted that nonpartisan would be a better descriptor than bipartisan.

• 80% of respondents feel that the organization serves a unique purpose.

• The largest polled group (women legislators) ranked bipartisan connection with other women legislators relatively low.

• Polarization ranked as the most important industry trend across all groups.

• Travel sponsorships for in-person conferences were important and needed.

Five priorities were identified with action items, who is responsible for when it will be completed, and a description/status for each. 

Nonprofit Resources, LLC provided the Executive Director and Board of Directors with the Next Steps Workplan documents to be visited on a quarterly basis. Evaluation/status sheets were provided that can help identify if an initiative is flagging and needs to be removed as a priority.

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Conclusion

This project followed Nonprofit Resources’ methodology and was successful in leading the organization through the process and identification of the next steps for the next four years. Overall, Women In Government leadership were very satisfied with the strategic planning process and outcomes.