An NGO or nonprofit's strategy determines whether the organization will sink or swim. Nonetheless, nonprofit leaders are often unable or unwilling to plan in the short-term to achieve long-lasting social change. This free, online nonprofit strategy course will help you develop successful strategies to achieve your organization's goals and make strides towards meaningful impact.
Using the social problem of homelessness as a real-world example, you will learn how to undertake the basic elements of nonprofit strategy: defining the problem, identifying the needs and interests of beneficiaries, designing a theory of change and implementation plan, and establishing assessment criteria. With this foundation, you will be able to develop strategies that will ensure long-term impact for your own organizations — rather than just the illusion of results.
Course Topics:
Module 1: Define the Problem
Clarify the problem that you want to solve
Module 2: Identify Beneficiaries' Needs and Interests
Identify your beneficaries and consider how their needs should inform your understanding of the problem
Module 3: Causes of the Problem and Approaches to Solving It
Assess different approaches to solving the problem after you have identified its causes
Module 4: Theory of Change and Planning to Implement
Define the intended ultimate outcome for solving your problem and build a series of causal links to identify how you will get there
Module 5: Changing Beneficiaries’ Behavior and Anticipating Failure
Identify barriers to changing behaviors and conduct a basic pre-mortem of your strategy to anticipate and plan for risks and barriers
Module 6: Preparing for Feedback
Specify how your organization will evaluate its effectiveness
Module 7: Program Evaluation
Review how to determine whether your strategy caused its intended outcomes
