The president of the 42-year old nonprofit was pleased to finally meet with the foundation trustee. By all accounts, this should’ve gone well and begun a long relationship of ministry funding. After all, the foundation’s funding passion included local ministry. But it took only minutes for the trustee to see that the organization was still operating as it had 45 years ago with no real vision for doing more. Worse yet, the nonprofit was pulling hundreds of thousands from the escrow account each year for general operating expense.

What did the foundation trustee want to see? Signs of leadership. In his book, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog, Admiral Willaim H. McRaven describes leadership as “accomplishing a task with the people you have while maintaining the integrity of your institution.” He goes on to write, “A good leader knows both how to inspire the men and women that work for them and how to manage the people and resources necessary to complete the task. But leadership is not just about getting the job done. It’s also about maintaining or advancing the reputation of your institution.”

If the mission for the organization is sound, how does a leader advance, or at the very least maintain, the reputation or impact of the organization in a climate of donor funding that is ever changing? The answer begins with #Strategic Planning – the arduous task of self-examination and strategic planning for maximizing strengths, shoring up weaknesses, seizing opportunities, and mitigating threats.

Six months later, the nonprofit president secured another meeting with the foundation trustee, armed with the results of their exercise in strategic planning — five critical initiatives. Surely this would garner funding. The challenge is that the trustee had funded countless strategic planning efforts only to see critical initiatives left on the back burner as nonprofit teams focused on the “whirlwind” of the business of serving people in need.

You see, nonprofits do good things. And by their very nature, they put their resources not into extra staff but into helping others. They are generally poorly compensated and overworked but view their work as a calling. Adding “more” is often not practical.

While the strategic planning process is the starting point for leaders, execution is where the rubber meets the road. A strategic plan offers a map for where the organization needs to go, how they will get there and how long it will take. Nothing happens until everyone gets onboard and takes the journey. It can’t be delegated or left to volunteer teams. The leader needs to inspire their men and women to join him/her, and then “drive” the team through the execution process.

What’s the rest of the story? Teams were formed, goals were met and the very trustee that was so hesitant three years earlier not only funded their progress but praised the organization to the other trustees.