The Strategic Planning Blueprint
A Six-Step System to Design and Implement High-Impact Strategic Plans for Nonprofit Organizations
Jennifer R. Madden, PhD
Most nonprofit organizations don't struggle to create strategic plans. They struggle to create plans that are clear, actionable, and actually implemented. Too often, strategic plans become documents that sit on a shelf, disconnected from daily operations, difficult to execute, and quickly outdated. The Strategic Planning Blueprint changes that.
A proven system for bringing ideas to fruition.
Built on the Six D's Strategic Planning Blueprint, this workbook and strategic planning system provides a clear, step-by-step system to help organizations move from early alignment to full implementation. It is designed to help you move from ideas to clarity, strategy to action, and planning to measurable impact.
Inside, you'll find practical tools, frameworks, and guided exercises to help your organization:
Align your team around a clear vision and direction
Engage stakeholders in meaningful and strategic ways
Translate insights into focused priorities and goals
Build a strategic plan that is both inspiring and executable
Develop SMART goals, work plans, and implementation strategies
Establish KPIs and a review cadence to track progress and adapt over time
This system is designed for:
Executive Directors and nonprofit leaders
Board members and leadership teams
Organizations building their first strategic plan
Organizations refining or relaunching an existing plan
"This is a proven system for designing and implementing strategic plans that work. What you build through this process is more than a plan; it's a roadmap for impact. This system has been used to design strategies that secure funding, align teams, and drive measurable results."
Six phases. Six chapters. One complete system.
Each chapter of the Blueprint corresponds to one phase of the Six D's framework — with a full explanation of the phase, the facilitation approach, and every worksheet and template you need to complete it.
Direction Setting
Organize. Align. Launch.Establish the governance structure, clarify roles, and align your leadership team around a shared commitment to the process before a single stakeholder is engaged.
Discover Your Environment
Scan. Listen. Understand.Conduct a rigorous environmental scan — internal and external — through stakeholder interviews, surveys, and data analysis to surface the real challenges and opportunities facing your organization.
Define Who You Are
Assess. Reflect. Clarify.Revisit and sharpen your mission, vision, and values in light of what you learned in D2. This phase ensures your strategy is grounded in organizational identity, not just market opportunity.
Design the Strategy
Synthesize. Model. Frame.Transform your environmental data and organizational identity into a coherent strategic framework — priority areas, strategic goals, and the logic model that connects them.
Draft the Plan
Write. Refine. Commit.Translate your strategic framework into a complete, board-ready Strategic Plan Document — with measurable objectives, accountable owners, and a realistic implementation timeline.
Drive Implementation
Launch. Measure. Adapt.Move from document to action. This phase gives your team the systems to track progress, report to the board, and adapt the plan as conditions change — so it never ends up on a shelf.
The Blueprint, brought to life digitally.
The Tier 1 DIY Toolkit includes the full Blueprint workbook plus four interactive digital tools that replace static spreadsheets and Word documents — so your team can plan, track, and report in one place.
KPI tracker, work plan, and one-click board report generator — used in D6.
Kanban board to track goals from Draft through Completion — used in D4–D5.
Interactive 4-quadrant canvas with strategic themes summary — used in D3–D4.
Quick Scan + deep 8-area instrument with scoring summary — used in D2–D3.
One-time purchase. Includes the full Blueprint workbook + all four digital tools. Priced by organization size.
Already purchased? Your Toolkit credit applies toward a Tier 2 facilitated engagement with Dr. Madden.
Jennifer R. Madden, PhD
President, Leverage Point Development, Inc.
Creator, the Six D's Strategic Planning Framework
Over more than a decade, Dr. Madden has served as a trusted strategic planning consultant to organizations across the full spectrum of the nonprofit sector. Wherever an organization is in its journey, she brings the same approach: co-creating strategy that people believe in and are equipped to execute.
Her clients include Make-A-Wish America, A New Way of Life (ANWOL) Reentry Project, the Formerly Incarcerated, Convicted People and Families Movement (FICPFM), and Starting Over, Inc. — from community-based organizations to complex federated systems operating across hundreds of chapters nationwide.
Ready to build a strategic plan that actually gets implemented?
Choose the path that fits your organization — self-guided with the Blueprint and DIY Toolkit, or fully facilitated with Dr. Madden.