The Association and Nonprofit
Strategic Planning and
Research Guide
A Workbook
Of Models,
 Templates,
 Best Practices
for Creating
 Simple,
 Effective,
 Research-Based
Created By:
Stephen C. Carey, Ph.D., CAE
President & Lead Strategist
Association Management & Marketing Resources
www.ammr.com 301.530.9066 scarey@ammr.com
Strategic Plans
 Tied to Operations for
Volunteers and Staff
THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PYRAMID
Strategic planning is an orderly, deliberative and discernful process
that examines the past and present and envisions the future
to prepare and guide the association in remaining relevant and
accomplishing the tasks to come.
Core
Purpose
Vision
Mission
Goals
Objectives
Tactical Initiatives and Operational Plan
Research
•Qualitative
•Quantitative
•Scan
•Alternative Futures
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Strategic Planning and Research Guide Contents
GUIDE SECTION
PAGE

Table of Contents……………………………………….………………………………………………………………3

Forward By David Pearce Snyder……………………………………………………………………………………..6

Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….8

About the Author………………………………………………………………………………………………………. .9

Preface…………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………10

Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………………………………………...12

How To Use This Planning and Research Guide…………………………………………………………………..13

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 14
1. The New Association Strategic and Tactical Planning World……………………………… …………….…...15
2. Key Governance and Strategic Planning and Research Trends………………………..…..........................22
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Planning and Research Guide Contents (continued)
GUIDE SECTION
PAGE
3. Prioritizing Governance and Strategic Planning and Research Issues........................……………………........26
4. Definition of Integrated Strategic Planning — Key Problem Areas and Operational Links………..….. ……….38
5. Step I: Research — The Cornerstone of Strategic Planning Development: Bringing in the Past & Present… 45
6. Steps II, III & IV: Envisioning the Future and Affirming the Guiding Core Purpose, Creating the Vision,
and Establishing the Mission and Goals……………………………………………………………………............. 57
7. Steps V & VI : Developing Objectives and Supporting Tactical Initiatives……………………..………………….86
8. Step VII &VIII: Performing a Program Assessment and Realigning Operations:
Integrating the New Plan with the Budget and Current Work Plans; and Developing Criteria and
Performance Metrics for Ongoing Evaluation of Plan Execution.………………………………………...…..……94

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………..………………….….…103
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TABS: Planning Guide Readings, Guides,
Models, Templates and Examples
TAB No.
CONTENTS
TAB 1 — Key Governance and Strategic Planning and Research Trends To Address and Their
Impact on Your Association’s Ability to Plan Well for the Future
TAB 2 — Templates and Samples of Qualitative and Quantitative Research Designs for Strategic
Planning
TAB 3 — Samples for Planning Components of Vision, Mission, Goals, Objectives and Tactical Initiatives
TAB 4 — Templates Integrating Strategic, Operational Business Planning and Performance Evaluation
TAB 5 — Annotated Bibliography and Ordering Information for Templates and Other AMMR Publications
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Foreword
from David Pearce Snyder, Consulting Futurist
The future is our common destination. It’s where we’re all going to spend the rest
of our lives. But, as a “place” in time, the future differs from a physical destination
in two crucial respects. First, we don’t have any choice about traveling to the
future. We’re all going there whether we like it or not. What’s more, once we get to
the future, if we don’t like it – or are ill-prepared to deal with its realities – we can’t
come back to the present. The future is “for keeps.”
This is why long-range planning merits the investment of our time and attention,
and ultimately, our cash flow. At this moment of accelerating innovation and
change, purposeful planning and leadership must be based on the reliablyforecastable demographic, economic and technologic trends and developments
that will predictably reshape the marketplace realities for all organizations, their
customers and their suppliers. Strategic leadership must provide foresight for all
stakeholders. (continued)
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Foreword (continued)
Any executive will tell you; however, that foresight is useless if it does not become the basis of a long-range plan of
action. And, as futurists like myself will tell you, accurately forecasting long-term opportunities and threats is easy to
do for any industry, trade or profession. What’s really hard is getting organizations to actually design and carry out a
strategic plan of action to take advantage of those long-range opportunities or to head off those long-term threats.
Really effective strategic planning is tough. To begin with, we all live in a short-term world, which pre-occupies us with
immediate problems to solve and immediate deadlines to meet. Just getting people to pay attention to a long-term
trend is a challenge. Moreover, to sustain itself through 5 or 10 years of short-term distractions, a successful
strategic action plan must be built upon an institution-wide consensus. Creating a consensus commitment for longterm action is the greatest challenge to strategic leadership.
This guide to Association and Non-Profit Strategic Planning and Research provides a step-by-step, evidence-based
process for developing and implementing a strategic plan of action by creating a committed, self-renewing consensus
of stakeholders who share a common vision of the future and a common desire to make it happen.
David Pearce Snyder
The Snyder Family Enterprise
david@the-futurist.com
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Dedication
This publication is dedicated to the association volunteers and staff that labor in the
vineyards of our profession every day. They collectively spend countless hours making the
association a better place for all members and stakeholders. Oftentimes, their glory and
satisfaction are only a simple toast to each other at the end of the year at the annual
meeting, but their daily accomplishments are the monuments to their success. To them,
each association stakeholder that finds value in the collective offerings of the association
is most deeply indebted, as are those of us who have the privilege of working with them.
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© AMMR - Association Management & Marketing Resources - ISBN 0-9666966-2-X - www.ammr.com
About the Author
The author is a former international and regional association CEO for 13 years and
has written, published, or edited 100+ articles and several books on association
strategic planning, marketing, communication, governance and management topics,
including several landmark articles on the nature of strategic planning and tying and
benchmarking strategic plans to operations.
Dr. Carey, author of the Marketing and Communications Planning Guide, was
selected as one of the 12 most influential association executives by the Washington
Business Journal, and is among the association industry’s few leading experts on
strategic planning, restructuring, program assessment and marketing and
communications management.
Dr. Carey is a 1986 charter class Fellow of the American Society of Association
Executives and recipient of the Greater Washington Society of Association
Executives' Chairman’s Award. He also was selected for the 2002 and 2004 Circle
of Excellence Awards from the Maryland Society of Association Executives for his
association governance and marketing courses in the Greater Washington Area
and elsewhere, and his publications on strategic and marketing planning, through
which over 2000 association executives and chief staff executives have been
trained. Dr. Carey is an approved facilitator for the ASAE Foundation’s Exploring
the Future series and sits on the ASAE and the Center’s Joint Strategic Planning
Committee. He, his wife and daughter live in the Greater Washington area.
Information about AMMR can be found at www.ammr.com, and he may be reached
at: scarey@ammr.com.
Stephen C. Carey, Ph.D., CAE
President and Lead Strategist of
Association Management and
Marketing Resources
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Preface
AMMR has published three textbooks in association management in the functional areas of association
administration, domestic and international meetings, and marketing and communications. The text, Marketing the
Nonprofit Association (Reprinted 2005) and its related guide, The Association and Nonprofit Marketing and
Communications Planning Guide (2006), provided an organized approach -- a methodology -- to creating marketing
and communications plans for each functional area and, from these, a consolidated plan.
This second guide provides an organized approach – a methodology -- to creating a strategic plan. A strategic plan is
vital if an association is to remain relevant. By far, this is the more important guide. It guides the association
executive and volunteer in anticipating and preparing for probable, possibly differing, future scenarios. It takes into
account past, present and future external and internal impacts. The result of following the approach of this guide is a
blueprint for the future of the association, a blueprint that achieves stability in an uncertain future while allowing the
flexibility to adapt to change the present.
This Association and Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Research Guide is intended to show simply and graphically how
not only to create the strategic plan, but also implement the plan. It comes with models and templates to create the
strategic plan, which acts as the association's "headlights" going forward, and then to integrate it with the operational
plan and budget, down to individual products, programs and services. (continued)
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© AMMR - Association Management & Marketing Resources - ISBN 0-9666966-2-X - www.ammr.com
Preface (continued)
This Association and Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Research Guide and The Association and Nonprofit
Marketing and Communications Planning Guide act in tandem, providing a complete planning sequence, from
creating the strategic plan through assembling the product-line marketing plans for each functional area of the
association. These guides are intended for all nonprofits, large and small. Together, they make you think through
all the strategic and operational planning ingredients you need to consider, and then let you tailor your plan to your
organization.*
* The Strategic Planning and Research Guide and the Marketing and Communications Guide templates, a well as the guides themselves,
are available on CD-ROM and electronically via an e-mail attachment in Word on the order form. Both of these guides are available as a
package – see the order format TAB 5.
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Acknowledgements
The author gratefully appreciates and acknowledges the research, writings and contributions of the many association
executives, societies of association executives, and hundreds of AMMR students and their associations. These individuals,
associations and companies have provided and contributed data, insights, tools and techniques toward understanding and
illuminating the realities of the association and nonprofit strategic planning marketplace used in this guide.
Most of all, I am most deeply indebted and issue a big "thank you" as well, to my colleagues in the association management
consultant ranks, without whom this guide could not have been written. I continue to learn much from them, through their
writings, teachings and facilitations on the association planning journey, and value the contributions from this most helpful
professional cadre towards deepening the understanding of what it means to plan strategically, while operating in the here and
now.
Finally, many thanks to my colleagues and editors, Gloria Naurocki, and Karen Clayton Carey, association executives and
marketing and communications professionals, for reviewing, editing and commenting upon this guide in its entirety.
© Association Management & Marketing Resources
All rights reserved. No portion of this work may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, disk,
hard drive, photocopying, audiovisual or other without license or permission in writing .
Excerpts for classroom use freely granted with permission.
Call AMMR for permissions and rights at 301.530.9066, or E-mail at publications@ammr.com.
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Introduction
Real-Time Planning in a Changing and Uncertain Nonprofit World
Our ability as organizations to forecast and react quickly to changing internal and external forces and conditions will be the future
bottom-line criteria for our survival as organizations representing members, industries and institutions. The following quote sums up
the attitude we must have to plan simply, aggressively and effectively and sounds the call for getting serious about planning as a
daily ongoing activity interwoven into the fabric of the way, in which we do business as nonprofit enterprises.
“Perhaps the bottom line is not so much what we do with our organizations, but how we deal with a changing
world ourselves as leaders and managers. Ultimately, we have a choice. We can decide that the world is too
difficult, too threatening, and retreat from it, taking no chances. Then we will have less of a life. The world out
there, for us hiding in our bunkers, will only become more threatening. Or we can choose to go out and face the
world, maybe being more careful, but nevertheless willing to take risks. This is the way to a fuller organizational
life. And, whichever choice we make, that is what we will mirror and teach our current and future staff and
volunteers.” *
Pro-activity Is The Key
This guide attempts to address, in a clear and simple manner, the importance of pro-activity and “real time” integration and renewal
of strategic and tactical planning on an ongoing basis. By doing so, we might assist association and nonprofit executives in
accomplishing their strategic planning missions of creating a plan for the future, operating in the present and integrating long-range
planning elements and differing futures into the yearly budget and program of work.
*Adapted from the publication Dads and Daughters by Jim Kelly (Random House, New York, NY, 2002) regarding how to deal proactively with change in today’s
uncertain environment.
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Section 1. The New Association Strategic and
Tactical Planning World
Need For Simple, Comprehensive Tool, Templates, Models And Best Practices
As in the case of our first guide, the Association Marketing and Communications Guide, the Association and Nonprofit
Strategic Planning Guide was created as a direct result of the need for a simple, comprehensive, adjustable, easy-tounderstand-and-use strategic planning tool for nonprofits in times as uncertain as these. This guide provides the latest trends
and issues in strategic planning, the latest in methodological thinking about how to plan, and best practices and benchmarks
to compare your association’s planning efforts, as well as templates to use in each area of strategic planning so you can
create your own plan using this guide.
We Are Under Prepared For Rapid Change
Changes are occurring much more rapidly for associations and other nonprofits, and many are not equipped to manage these
changes, and instead, handling them “on the run.” The first and foremost benefit of strategic planning today is the ability it
provides to manage change. In reviewing data from a variety of trade associations, professional societies and other nonprofits
of all sizes and budgets, we have found that less than 50% have a strategic plan. More striking: less than 10% have a
strategic plan, which is tied to the ongoing budget and program of work.
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Use a Professional Association or Nonprofit
Strategic Planning Consultant as
Your Facilitator
.
Rule Number One: Don’t try to go it alone or use staff or members as facilitators
Strategic planning requires the assistance of a competent, trained facilitator to assist the association on its strategic planning journey. Using one of your
own staff or a volunteer stakeholder is to be avoided at all costs simply because of the perception of who it is and the prejudices that they might be
perceived as bringing to the process. Further, staff and volunteers usually are not nonprofit or association trained facilitators, do not have experience
with melding the volunteer and staff components into a strategic planning team, and are not competent to conduct the pre-plan research or integrate it
into the process. Bringing in an independent, trained association strategic planning facilitator – one familiar with conducting such research and
integrating it with the strategic planning process – shows the association’s commitment to the process and the result. The ideal criteria to use in
selecting an experienced facilitator include:

Former Chief Staff Executive of either a trade association or a professional society;

Formal training in facilitative skills;

Formal training in qualitative and quantitative market research techniques and designs;

Experience in the governance, administration, finance, marketing and communications areas of the association;

Experience in facilitating strategic planning assignments for trade associations and professional societies;

Experience in writing marketing or communications plans for different functional areas;

Experience as a volunteer officer in a trade association or professional society, if possible; and most important,

Good comments by former facilitation assignment associations; NOT just recommendations from colleagues, who have not
gone through the experience with the facilitator.
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The Wrong Fit: Mistakes Do Happen
What if we made a mistake the first time?
On the facilitator side of the scorecard, facilitation of strategic plans for nonprofits, professional and trade
associations is an art and not a science, and has a lot to do with “fit.” Regardless of your due diligence,
sometimes the match is not right. Don't let one bad experience make you afraid to try again. However, the
chances of your selecting the right facilitator go up dramatically the more criteria on the preceding page you
have used in your selection. You will certainly have retained a facilitator that has years of experience as an
association executive and also as a management consultant – the keys to understanding and assisting you
with your issues. There are a number of excellent facilitators out there in our business to assist you! Use the
American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) or an ASAE allied society directory, select and interview
consultants and find the right “fit.” Ask for recommendations, but don’t rely solely on them, as sometimes a “fit”
for one association (for example a trade association) may not be a good one for another (a professional
medical society).
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© AMMR - Association Management & Marketing Resources - ISBN 0-9666966-2-X - www.ammr.com
Using a Volunteer from Outside the Association
Last Resort
Finally, if after reading the preceding pages, you do not wish to hire a professional facilitator for any reason,
we would suggest that you find an individual to volunteer to do it for you who is not in the immediate body
politic of the association, and better yet, not associated with the association in any way. Remember that it
takes about one or two hours of preparation for every hour of facilitation you desire, as well as a variety of
member and stakeholder market research and scanning. So ensure you have an individual who is willing to
put in the time and effort to get to know the organization and do the interviewing and scanning necessary to
ensure a positive result. Make certain the individual has the facilitation skills necessary to get you the
positive result you desire and will not abandon you in the process midstream.
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Strategic Planning and Research and Marketing Workbooks Publication Order Form
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