This workshop will cover the how to’s of business planning, along with the benefits, and examples of successful business plans for small and medium nonprofits. Presenters will share how their organizations use business planning to attract and retain competent staff, attract diverse funding sources, and deliver needed services to their communities.

1. Business Planning for Successful
Nonprofits
Presented by
Carol Rodriguez,
Program Director, NALCAB

2. Types of Planning
Why Planning?
Many different types of plans:
• Long Range Planning- strong emphasis on established
trends into the future, “linear model”, projects present into
the future
• Operational Planning- organizing all the tasks, actions,
to carry out goals from strategic plan
• Project Planning- specific task, shortened timeline;
narrow focus, provides limited basis for long-term decisions;
also action plan (i.e. fundraiser)

3. Focus for Today
• Strategic Planning
• Business Planning

4. Strategic Planning
• Focuses on most critical issues of organization
• Identifies high leverage directions that allow
org to renew/reinvent itself, preserve viability
and its competitive edge
• Allows thinking of long-term responses to
internal/external issues (changes in services,
trends, politics, community needs)
• Clarifies the organization’s core identity
Citation: Institute of Cultural Affairs,
1991-2005

5. Strategic Planning
• Future Oriented
• Identifies strategies for success
• Sets direction of the organization and
improves long-term prospects to thrive
and grow
• Inclusive and participatory: board, staff,
stakeholders

6. Strategic Plan
Elements of a Strategic Plan include:
• Mission & Vision Statement
• Environmental Scan/SWOT
• Specific goals to be accomplished
• Key action steps
• Clear priorities and implementation plan

7. Business Planning
• A detailed description of how an organization
intends to produce, market and sell a product or
service.
• Whether housing, commercial or other
enterprise, plan describes details of how you will
operate and expand your business.
• Goal may be: expand housing activities,
commercial business venture to generate
revenue, create business opportunities,
strengthen/revitalize neighborhoods.

8. Business Planning
• Who you are, what you do, how you will do it,
your capacity to do it, what financial resources
are necessary, how you will secure those
resources.
• Serves as a guide through start-up, establishes
benchmarks to measure performance,
importantly, helps attract financing by
demonstrating feasibility and level of planning

9. Business Planning
• First step in planning is establish goals to achieve
with business
• Goals come from Strategic Plan and are Mission
based
• Examples: Revenue Generation; Employment
Creation; Neighborhood Development Strategy
• Goals should be quantifiable, “Rehabilitate 50
single-family homes over 3 years”
• Let’s refer to the handouts for plan components:

10. Business Planning
Elements of a Business Plan:
• Executive summary
• Company and product description
• Market description
• Operations
• Management and ownership
• Financial information and timeline
• Risks and mitigation

11. Contact
Carol Rodriguez
Program Director
NALCAB
crodriguez@nalcab.org
210/227-1010