Strategic Management for Nonprofit Organizations: How to Align Mission, Vision and Resources to Build a Thriving Organization

This course examines ways to determine whether an organization is living out its mission, how to make the best use of scarce resources in service to that mission, whether programmatic objectives are stepping stones toward a well-crafted vision and whether the organization's resources are aligned with its mission and vision.

For those pursuing the full certificate, Strategic Management is recommended, but not required, as the introductory course.

This intensive five-week course explores the following topics:

• What is strategic management?
• Fundamentals of strategic planning
• Managing the planning process
• Implementing the strategic plan: Achieving results
• Flying in formation: Aligning mission, vision and resources

Special features of this course include:

• Learn how to critique an organization's mission statement
  
  
• Links to useful web content from leading organizations in nonprofit strategic management such as Alliance for Nonprofit Management, Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, and National Council on Nonprofit Associations.
  
  
• Small group projects that will give you hands-on experience in developing a strategic plan.
  
  
• In-depth weekly discussions with peers around the world.
  
  
• Small class size of 25 participants.

Learning Objectives

What you and your organization will gain from this course:

• An understanding of the organization's mission, objectives and resources that will foster intentional decisions about what to do, how to do it and when to do it, so that the organization can provide more efficient service
  
  
• An understanding of the value of better coordination across organizational units
  
  
• An understanding of the need for proactive management