Strategic Planning Consultant for Nonprofits in Sydney

Spark Strategy: Not-for-Profit Strategic Planning Services in Sydney

Sparks Strategy specialises in strategic planning, crafting innovative and sustainable business strategies tailored to your company’s specific goals. Our approach revolves around collaborative workshops, interviews, and thorough analysis to develop a strong strategic framework. We begin by identifying your unique value proposition and continue to track key performance indicators, ensuring alignment with your mission statement, strategic objectives, and long-term vision. Our strategic management process concentrates on enhancing your competitive advantages and gaining a deep understanding of the business environment through SWOT analysis.

We collaborate with our clients rather than dictating to them. Our belief is that fostering collaboration is the key to generating fresh solutions and models. That’s why our process heavily relies on workshops and interviews, accompanied by rigorous behind-the-scenes analysis. We employ a variety of consulting tools without using jargon, ensuring the strategic planning process is effective in eliciting and testing ideas. Moreover, many of these tools and methodologies can be shared with employees, extending their usefulness beyond the scope of the strategy development project.

Regardless of your project scope, we’re committed to fostering business growth that transcends the entire company. It’s an ongoing process with Spark. Contact us for an appointment today and fuel your future with Spark Strategy.

Strategic planning: What we offer

Strategic planning: Full strategy development

The majority of our strategic planning work involves full strategy development. In such cases, organisations seek to create a new, comprehensive strategy that actively involves key stakeholders and encourages innovative thinking. This process typically incorporates a combination of one-on-one or small group interviews with important internal and external stakeholders, co-design sessions with community members and customers, desktop research, document review, as well as strategy workshops with the Board, Executive, and broader team.

Strategic planning: Refresh your strategy

Strategic planning can be complex, costly and time-consuming process, but it doesn’t have to be. Our strategic refresh simplifies the strategic planning process and is perfect for organisations short on time or with limited resources. A strategic refresh typically takes about three weeks and is centred around a handful of 1:1 interview discussions and two leadership workshops.

Strategic planning: One day facilitation

We have also conducted hundreds of one-day strategy facilitations, wherein we conduct a full-day workshop and then step back. This arrangement is often in partnership with organizations that have already undertaken most of the strategic thinking or have budget constraints.

Strategic planning: An overview, our insider insights and how to do it well

What is a strategic plan?

A strategic plan is an organisation’s guiding light. It sets out why an organisation exists, its priorities and goals for the coming years, and what brings the team together. This supports decision-making and activity at all levels so the organisation is clear about what it will and won’t focus upon, and what behaviours and ways of working are expected.

In the for-purpose sector, a strategic plan is particularly important because it articulates the wicked social or environmental problem (or opportunity) being addressed and an organisation’s role in solving that issue. For example, a not-for-profit might be working towards a society in which everyone is safe and housed, and their specific focus is upon supporting those experiencing homelessness who are living and sleeping on the street.

Many organisations now have a one-page version of their strategy that conveys their key concepts as well as a more detailed strategic plan. The length of a strategic plan can range from one page to 100 pages or more. We find that strategies from five to 15 pages tend to be a good length as they are compelling and accessible, whilst also containing some of the key detail.

Key elements of a strategic plan

Different people use different words for the components of a strategic plan but, in our experience, it generally boils down to the following elements.

In addition, there are a number of strategy components that may be included within the elements listed above or not explicitly mentioned at all.

Some strategic plans also have a section about their organisation, which may include its history, a summary of services or products, and key strengths and weaknesses. In addition, there is often a section about the external environment, which may highlight strategic trends, disruptions, predictions, opportunities, challenges and other considerations.

Key elements of a strategic plan

In our opinion, the things that define a great strategy:

Accessible and user-friendly This is about having a strategy that is easy to read and understand. Think short sentences, simple language and a clear layout. Your strategy should be accessible to everyone in your organisations, clients and customers, beneficiaries and partners. You may also want to think about how to make your strategy available to people who are blind or low vision, such as through a video format or ensuring high contrast with font colours on backgrounds.

Compelling and engaging A strategy, particularly not-for-profit strategy, should be inspiring. This is about why you exist – why your organisation is necessary or beneficial. In the for-purpose space, this is about the wicked challenges our societies are facing, and how to counter that. It can be helpful to think about whether your statements are powerful – do they convey inequality and hope?

Relatively short Long strategies have a tendency to sit on a shelf and gather dust. We find that strategies from five to 15 pages tend to be a good length as they are compelling and accessible, whilst also containing some of the key detail.

Visual and easy on the eye Densely written reams of paper also have a tendency to get shelved. So, consider how you can translate key strategy concepts into a visual format, through icons, photos and other images. Effectively using colour and white space also have an important role to play here.

Strategic planning

To define the strategy elements listed above, organisations undertake strategic planning. Essentially, strategic planning is the process of reviewing why an organisation exists and determining key focus areas for the years ahead. This demonstrates the importance of strategic planning, with more detail provided below.

Strategy development is the responsibility of an organisation’s leadership, typically its executive team and board. However, effective strategic planning generally involves a broader range of stakeholders, such as staff, customers or clients, beneficiaries, partners, suppliers, funders, policy-makers and potentially even competitors.

There are different approaches to and types of strategic planning, and it comes in all different shapes and sizes. Strategy development includes everything from a one day workshop through to a largescale project that lasts for many months. Regardless, in general, strategic planning involves a combination of desk-based work (e.g. research and analysis) and stakeholder engagement (e.g. 1:1 conversations, small group discussions, meetings and workshops).