Your Path to Nonprofit Leadership

376: Who Should Be Part of Your Strategic Planning Process? (Renee Rubin Ross)

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Episode 376: Who Should Be Part of Your Strategic Planning Process? (Renee Rubin Ross)


Episode Summary

Too many strategic plans end up gathering dust on a shelf, or worse, frustrating the very people who were left out of building them. In this episode, Renee Rubin Ross, Ph.D., Founder of The Ross Collective and author of the new book Inclusive Strategic Planning, makes the case that who you involve in planning matters just as much as the plan itself. Drawing on more than twenty planning processes, she walks through her five-step spiral, kickoff, discovery, prioritization, planning, and implementation, and introduces a simple framework for deciding who belongs in the room: deciders, builders, and sharers. Renee explains how to know whether your organization is even ready to plan, how to scale the work up or down when capacity and funding feel shaky, and how to keep a plan alive through consistent communication and disciplined implementation. Nonprofit leaders will come away with a practical, inclusive approach that turns planning into a source of energy, alignment, and focus rather than another document destined for the shelf.


About Renee

Dr. Renee Rubin Ross is a recognized leader in board and organizational development and strategy, and the founder of The Ross Collective, a consulting firm that designs and leads inclusive, participatory processes for social sector boards and staff. Committed to racial equity in the nonprofit sector, she guides leaders and organizations through strategic plans and governance processes that deepen social change, racial justice, engagement, and community strength. Renee is the author of Inclusive Strategic Planning: A Five-Step Process to Expand Energy, Alignment, and Opportunity. She also directs the Nonprofit Management Certificate program at Cal State University East Bay, where she teaches strategic planning and board development. A past board member of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management and a member of the Technology of Participation facilitators’ network, she earned her doctorate in education and Jewish studies from New York University, where her research explored parent participation in schools. She lives in Northern California.


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