Annual Organizational Goals: It’s The SMART Thing To Do

Over the past 15 years, I’ve worked for or with hundreds of nonprofits. I can count on one hand the number of them that set annual programmatic goals. 

As a grant writer, program or project goals are required for every proposal I submit. For most nonprofits, this section of the application is a head-scratching moment, followed by educated guesses to fulfill the requirement. I can’t recall a single instance when someone referred to a document that outlined the nonprofit’s annual goals and used that information to derive the project goals for the grant application. 

A recent major study found that half of all nonprofits lack a strategic plan. This resonates with my experience. If an organization does have a strategic plan, it’s typically an archived file or perhaps on a web page, and it was developed by the Board when the organization was founded. More often than not, it hasn’t been updated, so it’s never referenced. More often than not, it hasn’t been updated, so it’s never referenced. 

On the other hand, every nonprofit I’ve ever worked with sets annual fundraising goals. They know how much money they want to raise, broken down by source, such as grants, events, major donors, annual campaign, earned income, etc. There is often a disconnect between annual fundraising goals and the annual programmatic goals that are being funded.  

Nonprofit leaders know what they want to accomplish during the year, how many people they want to serve, and the impact they want to have on those people. Yet, it’s not always spelled out in numbers and tracked regularly. If you’re a nonprofit leader, your work is too important not to set annual program goals with milestones. 

For all but the most complicated nonprofits, these annual goals can be determined in a single meeting. Here are some guidelines: 

• Get buy-in from key program staff. You want the dreamers and the Eeyores. Your goals should be aspirational yet attainable. They are goals, after all, so they should assume a “best-case scenario.”

• Reference your mission and vision during the goal-setting process. 

• Use SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

• Assign a person as the overall owner of each goal. If you can’t determine who owns the goal, then the goal is too vague. 

• Add quarterly milestones for each goal.

• Share the goals with your board and your staff. Publish them on your website.

• Track the goals. You can track them simply, on a spreadsheet, or get fancy and use software.

When your grant writer comes to the goals section of a grant application, they won’t scratch their head and make something up. They’ll have annual goals to reference and derive project and program goals. 

Your goals will keep your organization on track. They will guide your staff performance reviews. They will motivate your team. Hopefully, they will give you successes to celebrate. 

Now, isn’t that smart?