How do you write a strategic plan in a quickly changing field? Adaptive Impact Planning

Adaptive planning for arts organizations has been a passion of mine since I wrote my Master’s thesis about strategic planning in nonprofit visual arts organizations as a remedy to mission creep. 

Today, in the wake of COVID-19, this work has a new resonance, as some arts organizations struggle to respond quickly and effectively to the reality of a global pandemic. It has become clear that this is a conversation necessary to be having with the field.

When I wrote my paper, my primary concern was the aforementioned mission creep. I knew it was especially prevalent in the museum space and I wondered if an improved strategic planning process might curb those problems. But I also knew strategic planning had a bad reputation for resulting in a final product that can quickly become irrelevant. Strategic plans often outline a five- to ten-year plan and tentative solutions to anticipated problems, which is helpful if you’re a mind-reader, but decidedly less so in the unpredictable world of nonprofit arts management. 

Strategic plans often outline a five- to ten-year plan and tentative solutions to anticipated problems, which is helpful if you’re a mind-reader, but decidedly less so in the unpredictable world of nonprofit arts management

In the time of COVID-19, my concerns about traditional strategic planning become broader — It is not just a question of how arts organizations can stay true to mission with evolving priorities or new opportunities, but rather “how can arts organizations survive the impact of extreme and rapid changes like quarantines and cancellations?”

The Problem With Traditional Strategic Planning

Many nonprofits began to engage in formal planning when corporate strategic planning was their only model. However, what works for a for-profit corporation does not necessarily address the elements a nonprofit must consider. These differences can be boiled down to mission versus profit — income versus impact.

If a corporate strategic plan ceases to be applicable — say because no one can leave their homes for 2+ weeks — what to do next is primarily driven first by financial objectives: keeping profits up and the metaphorical doors open. There may be a debate about how to accomplish that goal, but not what’s needed for the organization to be successful. 

A nonprofit, meanwhile, has more a subjective objective: what best serves the mission is subjective in the best of times, let alone in a crisis.

A New Way to Plan

In response to the complicated question of how to best prepare a nonprofit for the unknown, I developed the Adaptive Impact Plan – of AIP - to conclude my thesis. I theorized that an AIP would be created through a deliberate planning process that addresses the reciprocity between mission and programming. This process involves reviewing audience and activities in relation to an organization’s mission and then using that to select strategic priorities that guide decision-making.

Once I finished my studies and had a thesis-writing shaped hole in my schedule, I decided to apply my theory and develop a process for actually writing an Adaptive Impact Plan. 

The planning process begins with the mission. Because the mission statement is central to the organization’s formation and continued existence, it must be considered at each step of a planning process. If the mission is not in alignment with what is being discussed, either the mission needs to change or the organization’s activities do.

Theory by and graphic courtesy of Bridget Woodbury / www.bridgetmakesstuff.com

This process generally involves a month of individual interviews with key staff members, as well as group conversations with the rest of the staff and the board of directors. The areas we discuss include:

  • The Mission

  • Target Audience

  • Target Programming

  • Target Impact

  • Current Audience

  • Current Programming

  • Current Impact and Effectiveness of Programming

  • Audience Expectations

  • Core Competencies

  • Key Obstacles

From there, we develop the actual Adaptive Impact Plan – an adaptable tool to aid organizational decision-makers in times of change or crisis. 

We establish five priorities, with the input of the company, which can range from artistic excellence to paying artists a living wage to balancing the budget to serving specific segments of a community. We then write six questions to guide decision-making. 

As new opportunities arise for the company, they can review these six questions to determine whether to move forward, ensuring at all new activity aligns with their priorities without rigidly imposing a traditional 5-year-plan structure on the company.

Planning inherently leads to consideration of the mission’s relationship to programming and development. But creating an Adaptive Impact Plan, specifically, gives arts organizations a tool to respond to change and to make decisions without performing a full strategic assessment any time they are presented with a new possibility and without compromising its mission and vision. 

It makes an organization simultaneously more autonomous, in terms of operations, and more connected to the communities it serves.