As nonprofits continue to navigate a rapidly changing landscape with shifts in funding and policy changes, funders are grappling with how best to support their grantees. One possibility could be through supporting grantee capacity for scenario planning.
Scenario planning is a practical tool that helps organizations anticipate change and build resilience, building from our experience supporting scenario plans for a range of nonprofits and our expertise in strategy, Community Wealth Partners has launched a scenario planning workshop series that funders can offer to cohorts of grantees. The offering includes 3 90-minute virtual workshop sessions that will guide organizations through a five-step process for scenario planning as well as dedicated coaching support to help leaders work through the steps of the scenario planning process. At the end of the program, participating organizations will have completed scenario plans and capacity and knowledge to repeat the process on their own.
To help funders better understand the value of this offer, we’ve outlined frequently asked questions we hear along with what you can expect grantees to gain from participating.
FAQs
Q: What is scenario planning? How will it help my grantees?
Scenario planning is a tool that can help nonprofits manage uncertainty, envision new opportunities, and spot unexpected threats.
Our blog unpacks how scenario planning works in five steps.
Q: What does the workshop include?
3 90-minute virtual workshop session, up to 3 hours of coaching, frameworks and tools to support scenario planning and monitoring, a complete scenario plan that explores possible scenarios related to 2-3 key trends that could impact the organization, and capacity and knowledge to repeat this process on their own.
Funders purchasing the offer will receive a summary report that describes how the workshops and coaching helped participating organizations.
See our one-pager for more information.
Q: Who is best positioned to participate?
The framework is flexible enough to be valuable for nonprofits of any size and working in any issue area. Because scenario planning involves considering pivots the organization may make to operations, finances, and/or programming, ideal participants would have knowledge and understanding of the organization’s finances and operations and authority to make decisions about possible pivots. If possible, we encourage two representatives from each organization to participate so they can work together in developing the scenario plan.
Q: What frameworks and tools are included?
Our team will walk participants through a five-step template that will help them build their scenario plan.
Here is a visual example of our process:
Adapted from Diana Scearce, Katherine Fulton, and the Global Business Network community’s “What If? The Art of Scenario Thinking for Nonprofits.”
Q: How do I determine which of my grantees are best for this opportunity?
Consider your nonprofits that are anticipating any type of change in the external environment that could have a significant impact on their organization’s funding, service delivery, and/or operations.
Q: What level of support should my grantees expect to receive?
Workshops and coaching will provide participants with tools and frameworks for developing a scenario plan for their organization. We will present each step of the process over the course of the three workshops and provide time during workshops for participants to begin to put ideas into practice. Participating organizations can use the coaching hours to develop their plans with a member of our team, or they can develop plans on their own and use the coaching time for feedback and iteration. We are not positioned to offer legal counsel, and this cohort does not include time for in-depth research to inform each organization’s plans. However, if funders are interested in providing grantees access to thought leaders from specific fields and/or legal advice, we could discuss ways to modify the program to meet those needs.
Q: What other services does Community Wealth Partners offer?
We partner with funders, nonprofits, and their stakeholders on organizational resilience and systems change, strategy development and implementation, and culture change.
To learn more about our services click here. For insights and tools for funders and nonprofit organizations click here.
If you are interested in learning more about how this workshop can benefit your nonprofit partners, reach out to Simone Swanson at sswanson@communitywealth.com.