Many years ago, when I first moved from manufacturing to nonprofit organizations, I was confused about strategy. In the private sector, it was more about product lines – marketing, sales and profitability.

In my new role in a conservation nonprofit, my peers were speaking a foreign language.

Fast forward 15 years – and I now get it. Strategic planning for conservation and sustainability has to be different than private sector planning. This blog sheds more light on why your team will have more impact when you approach strategy for sustainability and conservation with the following ingredients:

• Applying a systems lens
• Collaboration around shared goals
• Having a healthy organizational culture
• Testing, adapting and learning
• Change management embedded in planning
• Inclusive processes where you engage a wide range of stakeholders & communities

First, let’s talk definitions. These matter because they frame how you solve problems – and how you approach this work.

My definitions for sustainability and conservation are as follows:

Sustainability means taking actions that leave the world better than we found it—enhancing communities, ecosystems, and economies while minimizing harm.

Conservation is the practice of protecting and restoring land and water in ways that enhance ecosystem health, support community well-being, and contribute to a more sustainable future.

But here’s the thing. I conceptualize conservation is a sub-category within sustainability (Image shown below). This suggests that even for conservation organizations focused on land protection for biodiversity and rare species, habitat connectivity and intact ecosystems – you still need to think about the social and economic systems in which those lands and river exist. That means a strong need to apply a systems lens to conservation strategy that shows connections across human communities, ecosystems and the local economy.

Business coaches on social media may scream that market positioning and having a unique value proposition are all that matters for nonprofits. “A value proposition in marketing is a concise statement of the benefits that a company is delivering to customers who buy its products or services.” (Investopedia 2024)

Tip 1: A value proposition is important for nonprofits. Nonprofit leaders do need to be thinking strategically about their niche in the partner landscape, if there is demand for their services, and if they meet a need.

But here’s what I’ve learned from working with dozens of mid-to-large sized nonprofits. Value proposition is just one of 7 critical elements. It’s grossly oversimplified to only focus on value propositions, without also focusing on these additional 6 tips for effective strategy for sustainability and conservation.

Tip 2: Apply a systems lens

In practical terms, this usually means that the first ~3 months of strategic planning, you are learning about the system in which you work through interviews, focus groups and workshops, literature review, reading reports, and assessing data.

You are talking to communities and partner organizations broadly about the challenges they are facing and looking for unexpected insights and connections.

You then are compiling data and findings, identifying trends – and talking about how those trends are changing and impacting your future success.

Tip 3: Collaborate around shared goals

Collaboration isn’t a nice-to-have. When your team has collaborated and developed shared goals, you are setting your nonprofit up for success.

It’s very hard to imagine a scenario where there is a wildly successful nonprofit, without having all of their staff rowing in the same direction around shared goals.

Tip 4: Build a healthy organizational culture

I will confess – while I’ve always known that culture is important, I used to think it was just important as an ongoing issue, but not something you needed to address in strategic planning. This is an area where I have re-thought my assumptions. I now believe that successful strategic planning must include building healthy culture as part of the planning process.

Tip 5: The process itself is about adapting, learning and testing.

There are three ways we address this in strategic planning. First, everything we do in strategic planning starts as a first draft. I always am saying, “We need to put something down on paper in order to be able to edit and improve it.” We start by creating “buckets.” The goals and strategies start as buckets – and the initial bucket is only a few key words that define that goal or strategy. Then we work iteratively, improving and adapting during each task in the strategic planning process.

Second, during each planning meeting with the team, the facilitator reinforces the idea that we are all here to learn. Strategic planning goes better when folks show up to learn and listen, rather than only to advocate for one solution.

Third, we launch the strategic plan even when it isn’t perfect – and you build in a culture of testing projects, learning and adapting as you go.

Tip 6: A strong process for change management embedded in planning

This is my favorite tip – you never should be waiting until the end of strategic planning to start the change management process.

You embed change management in each step of the process. This means that by the time you launch the strategic plan, your team is ready to hit the ground running.

Tip 7: Have inclusive processes where you engage a wide range of stakeholders & communities

I like to say, it doesn’t really matter whether you value inclusivity. What matters is that it works – and it does. Processes where you engage a wider diversity of stakeholders, have more collaborative decision-making processes, and incorporate new perspectives are simply more successful in the long run.

The take-home is this: Don’t oversimplify your approach to nonprofit strategy. A little extra investment upfront leads to greater impact in the long run.

Here’s a bonus tip from my colleague, Sean Hale, a nonprofit finance leader and founder of Nonprofit CFOs. “[your] nonprofit also needs a robust back office to handle the accounting, logistics, legal compliance, IT, HR, etcetera.” Effective nonprofit strategy also takes into consideration the infrastructure and foundation needed to run a thriving nonprofit.

This has been my observation time and time again: It’s incredibly hard to have a thriving, highly functioning team that delivers on successful strategy unless you have a collaborative, inclusive process, with a healthy culture, and strong change management.

It’s a little more work upfront. But in the long-term, inclusive, collaborative processes result in better strategy. Your teams are more likely to achieve their goals – and implement strategy with real impact.