In Today’s Climate, Strategic Planning Feels Like a Luxury
Contingency planning is now the name of the game.
By Ben Gose
Senior Editor
January 13, 2026 | Read Time: 6 minutes
A year ago, Jon Hoffmann saw waning interest in his bread-and-butter consulting work of helping charities draft strategic plans. Nonprofits expected plenty of immediate uncertainty, and few wanted to invest in plans that looked out several years.
In June, Hoffmann gave up independent consulting to join Elevate NP of Southwestern PA, an organization in the Pittsburgh area that helps strengthen local nonprofits. Now he knows what many worried charities do want.
In late November, Elevate NP organized a series of three-hour workshops on how to strategically navigate immediate and near-term challenges. The cost was covered by local foundations, and consultants from the Bridgespan Group did much of the training.
Fifty-three small- and medium-size charities signed up; demand for the program was so great that Elevate NP plans to offer additional sessions this year.
“One of the things we’ve heard from a lot of organizations is that they’re not ready to do long-term strategic plans — they’re not sure that’s the right fit right now,” Hoffmann says. “They’re looking more at operational plans or at scenario planning.”
The many challenges facing charities today — including a federal administration that seems keen on impeding the nonprofit sector rather than lifting it up — have led to a bifurcation: Financially strong charities are continuing to plan for the long term as financially challenged ones look for ways to survive while deciding among difficult scenarios.
A strong balance sheet and dependable revenues can give a charity the time to go through the basics of strategic planning — defining priorities, setting measurable goals, and identifying what’s core and what’s expendable. While plans may look out three to five years, monthly or quarterly check-ins, and potential modifications, have become a necessity in today’s unpredictable environment.
For struggling charities, the planning process has turned into something closer to contingency planning, including finding tools that help them make better decisions when those worst-case possibilities become reality.
Unfortunately, too many foundations and board members treat all groups as if they are deep-pocketed and secure. They fail to acknowledge the stressors forcing many nonprofit leaders to make decisions on the fly, says Chrystal Morris Murphy, a strategy consultant who works with environmental nonprofits.
Morris Murphy says she turns down requests for static five- to 10-year plans. Instead she offers to help create an adaptable plan backed by periodic scenario planning.
“If you’re not adaptive,” Morris Murphy says, “your plan can become irrelevant and obsolete within six months.”
Planning for Uncertainty
Team Rubicon, a veteran-led humanitarian organization that responds to disasters around the world, faces vast uncertainty in its work. Disasters themselves are growing ever more severe and deadly. The Trump administration is considering eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency and shifting more responsibility to local and state governments. But unlike many organizations that have struggled over the past few years, Team Rubicon is in its strongest financial position ever, according to CEO Jim Brooks.
Strategic plans may look out three to five years, but monthly or quarterly check-ins, and potential modifications, have become a necessity.
In just 15 years, Team Rubicon has grown to a staff of 141, with a $45 million budget and some 200,000 volunteers. The charity receives little or no direct federal support.
When it comes to planning, the group has found a way to integrate its relatively strong and stable financial position with the vast uncertainty it faces. It creates a 10-year “horizon scan” envisioning what humanitarian relief might look like in another decade. Then it crafts a three- to five-year growth plan and sets a one-year budget to make progress against the plan. At quarterly strategy sessions, the executive team makes adjustments as necessary.
As part of its planning, the charity envisions how its role might change if cities and states assume a more prominent leadership role in disaster response. The charity maintains strong relationships with state emergency management agencies, local governments, other nonprofits, and private companies so that it won’t be flying blind if FEMA retrenches.
“Uncertainty is baked into disaster response, and our strategic planning reflects that,” Brooks says. “We’re built to operate in dynamic, unpredictable environments.”
Making Tough but Smart Choices
While financial stability allows some charities to plan for the long term, even as they adapt to a chaotic environment, charities that lack dependable revenues must think shorter term and plan for hard times.
A. Rima Dael is CEO of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, which represents 200 community radio stations, some of which get by on budgets as small as $50,000 a year.
The group recently wrapped up a four-part webinar series called Leading through Uncertainty. Dael says the series can help time-pressed leaders of community radio stations think through options.
One of the tools recommended in the series is a version of the Eisenhower Matrix, a decision-making tool that uses four quadrants. The charity-focused version categorizes potential actions by whether they help with survival and whether they’re aligned with the organization’s mission.
Starting a youth broadcast program at a local school is mission-aligned but may drain needed resources. Opening a food truck outside the station’s offices could be an even worse idea — a potential money pit that has nothing do with the broadcast mission.
The simple design of the matrix gives station managers a quick and easy tool for help in making decisions, Dael says.
“Tiny organizations don’t have the capacity and bandwidth to do the bigger-picture thinking,” she says. “They’re wrapped up in the day-to-day grind of serving their communities.”
Adaptable Plans With Shorter Horizons
Maternal and Family Health Services, the largest provider in Pennsylvania of the food aid program for low-income mothers and children known as WIC, recently completed a three-year strategic plan. But specific goals are set for only a year out given the volatile environment, says Maria Montoro Edwards, the charity’s president.
Many of the goals track metrics related to financial sustainability, due to the charity’s dependence on government funding; half of its $25 million budget comes from WIC, which was whipsawed during 2025 but is now fully funded for 2026.
StratSimple, a software company focused on nonprofits, helped design the plan, which includes a dashboard for tracking data points like program enrollment, revenue from third-party payers, and fundraising. Mike Burns, the company’s founder, served on the MFHS board for several years and didn’t charge MFHS while he was piloting the software.
“In the for-profit world, nobody does a five- or 10-year plan,” Burns says. “You have a long-term vision, but you’re iterating every year. I just couldn’t figure out why that wasn’t happening in the nonprofits I was working with.”
Edwards says the charity meets every other month to review metrics, and pivots when necessary. Even its longer-term plan will likely need a substantive update before it expires, she says.
“Strategic planning right now means we have to be very flexible. I’m hoping that our three-year plan is relevant for at least 18 months.”
