Your nonprofit’s mission can be broken down into dozens of smaller goals. Let’s say your organization is dedicated to addressing housing insecurity in your community. Beyond running your programs to provide affordable housing and prevent evictions, you need to acquire donors, plan fundraising events, win grants, and more. All of these activities contribute to your long-term success and impact, but how can you actually accomplish them?
This is why setting SMART goals is so important for nonprofits. By using the SMART framework, you can outline the exact steps, requirements, and expectations your team needs to know to reach your desired outcomes.
In this guide, we’ll discuss the basics of nonprofit SMART goals and walk through some tips for creating your own. The time you put into setting these goals will save you much more energy and effort down the road.
What Are Nonprofit SMART Goals?
SMART is an acronym that you can use to craft clear, actionable goals for your nonprofit. Each of your goals should be:
Specific. Define your goal in as much detail as possible. What are you aiming to accomplish? Who is in charge of accomplishing it? What resources will you need to get it done?
Measurable. Identify metrics or data points you’ll collect to measure progress toward your goal. For example, you might decide that you’d like to increase the number of event registrations for your annual gala by 20% this year.
Achievable. Your goal should be challenging to inspire your team to put in their best effort, but at the same time, it should still be reasonable. Assess your current resources and priorities, then determine whether your goal is realistic or needs to be scaled back.
Relevant. While there are all sorts of goals that your nonprofit can set, they should all ultimately advance your mission in some way. An animal welfare nonprofit’s goal, for instance, might involve securing five partnerships with pet influencers to spread awareness of its cause.
Time-bound. Every goal needs a deadline, which will keep your team accountable and prevent everyday tasks from taking priority over your longer-term goals. If you’re planning to launch an email series to enlist peer-to-peer participants in your next fundraising campaign, setting a deadline for the end of September ensures that you have all of your content drafted and polished well before then.
You can apply the SMART framework to any goal, whether individual or organizational, to maximize clarity and keep you on a straight track to success.
The Benefits of Nonprofit SMART Goals
To break down exactly why your nonprofit should set SMART goals across its operations and initiatives, let’s explore the specific benefits of using this methodology:
Increased focus. Your nonprofit likely has multiple priorities it needs to address at any given time, from community outreach to recruiting new board members. Establishing clear SMART goals ensures that you can strategically allocate the right amount of resources to the right areas and reach the results you want.
Aligned teams. Creating SMART goals that are relevant to your nonprofit’s mission allows you to keep everyone aligned on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. For instance, if your nonprofit plans to implement Salesforce for the first time, communicating how the new platform will improve your fundraising and program management can make the change management process smoother for your team.
Measurable outcomes. By having metrics in place to evaluate progress toward your goals, you can maintain accountability and momentum along the way. Plus, collecting data related to your goals makes it much easier to report on your success and set more ambitious goals in the future.
Since specificity and outcome measurement play a key role in SMART goals, you can monitor your progress and quickly determine if you need to adjust your strategies along the way. Let’s say you want more managers to take advantage of your nonprofit management training resources, but very few people are listening to the podcasts you’ve sent out. With this in mind, you might expand your offerings to include online courses to boost engagement.
Tips for Setting SMART Goals for Nonprofits
Drafting your nonprofit’s SMART goals is a collaborative, iterative process. To make the most out of your planning, keep these basic tips in mind:
Involve your stakeholders. According to Laridae’s strategic planning guide, engaging stakeholders allows you to take their experiences and concerns into account when making decisions for your nonprofit. Surveying your staff, board, beneficiaries, donors, and other community members can provide valuable insights to inform your goal-setting, ensuring that you’re generating the impact they’re hoping to see.
Review your goals regularly. Depending on the timeline and scope of your goals, meet with your team to review them weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Look at the data you’ve collected and identify whether you need to alter your strategy. In doing so, you can remain flexible and adaptive should any circumstances change or priorities shift.
Celebrate and report your successes. SMART goals place a lot of emphasis on deadlines and results. By celebrating and sharing your successes with your team and community, you can keep them invested in your mission and inspire further efforts to build on everything you’ve achieved. eCardWidget recommends incorporating several recognition ideas into your strategy, such as eCards and social media shoutouts, to celebrate a job well done.
To walk through a complete example, suppose that a nonprofit is hoping to recruit more volunteers. It might set a SMART goal like, “Increase our volunteer base by 20% within the next six months by creating a dedicated page on our website and promoting it across social media.”
During that timeframe, team members will meet monthly to assess the number of volunteer registrations they’ve acquired and decide on any updates they should make to their social media strategy. Once they’ve hit their goal, they’ll spotlight both the team and new volunteers in a series of celebratory social media posts.
By taking a thoughtful and collaborative approach to setting nonprofit SMART goals, you can open up new doors to growth and funding for your organization.
If you’re about to create a strategic plan for the next few years or simply need an outside perspective to pinpoint which of your strategies needs improving, you can always reach out to a consulting firm for support. These experts can challenge your status quo and help you develop goals that align with your mission, vision, and resources to amplify your overall impact.
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Check out these downloadable guidebooks and activity sheets to help you brainstorm on a variety of topics!
If you are interested in learning more about goal-setting and planning, check out this upcoming training:
Program Planning & Scaling: How to Build, Scale & Manage Programs to Reach Your Goals
Learn more and register here!