March 28, 2025 • 31 mins
Join me as we explore how nonprofits can break free from the limitations of traditional strategic planning. In this engaging episode, we delve into the valuable insights of Sophia Shaw and Adam Wolford from PlanPerfect, who discuss how their innovative tool empowers organizations to create dynamic plans that grow with their mission instead of collecting dust. We begin by addressing the pain points of static planning processes often seen in nonprofits, leading to a burden on leaders who just want to make a positive impact. Thankfully, tools like MonkeyPod streamline operations, allowing nonprofits to reclaim their focus and energy. The essence of this episode lies in the exploration of agile methodologies and how they can be successfully integrated into nonprofit strategies. Our discussion emphasizes the growing necessity of data management for nonprofit leaders, who are under increasing pressure to showcase their impact transparently. By utilizing effective tracking systems and dashboards offered by PlanPerfect, organizations can enrich their strategic processes with essential feedback from stakeholders, enabling them to adjust plans actively and measure success directly. This episode is a must-listen for all nonprofit professionals looking to transform their strategic planning and deepen their community impact.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Non-profit professionals are motivated to
make a difference, but theminutia of non-profit operations
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do.
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Monkeypod helps non-profits getback to their mission by
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Their all-in-one softwareincludes a CRM, non-profit
accounting, email marketing,online fundraising and grant
(00:23):
management.
Email marketing, onlinefundraising and grant management
.
Nonprofit Hub listeners can get15% off the first year of a
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nonprofithub.
Welcome back to the NonprofitHub Radio Podcast.
I'm your host, megan Spear.
Joining me today are SophiaShaw and Adam Wolford from
(00:43):
PlanPerfect.
Joining me today are SophiaShaw and Adam Walford from
PlanPerfect, very excited to digin to a really interesting
conversation, I think, around AIand technology, as it relates
specifically to strategicplanning.
So I'm very excited for thisone.
Guys, welcome to the show.
Thanks for joining me, thankyou so much Thank you.
Absolutely so, Sophia.
Let's start with you.
Tell us a little bit about yourjourney, kind of an
(01:03):
introduction to who you are andyour background in nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Absolutely.
It is really exciting to be anentrepreneur in the tech sector
in my mid-50s.
I've had my entire career inthe nonprofit world.
I worked my way up literallyfrom a mailroom to becoming CEO
of the Chicago Botanic Gardenand I worked at the Field Museum
and the Museum of ContemporaryArt in Chicago and the Art
(01:28):
Institute of Chicago.
I've been a board president ofa nonprofit and then I ran the
Kellogg program at Northwesterntheir board governance program
for five years and been aconsultant to nonprofits and
strategic planning.
So really there's no part ofthe strategic planning or
nonprofit world I haven't seensome part of.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Wow, that's great.
And Adam, what about you?
What's your nonprofit journeylooked like?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yes, definitely.
So I've always had kind of athrough line of nonprofit work,
even when I was in managementconsulting before I went to
business school.
So I worked at Accenture andDeloitte and their management
consulting practice is helpingto build technology for the
federal government at Accentureand then more massively doing
M&A transactions at Deloitte.
But while I was with both ofthose firms I was part of their
(02:11):
social impact consulting worldas well.
So it's always been a throughline.
When I went to business school,I was fortunate enough to be
part of Sophia's incredibleprogram, which places MBA
students on boards of localnonprofits.
In my case it was an art museumin Chicago called Intuit.
I'm still a proud board memberof that art museum today.
When I left Kellogg, I wasrunning a product team at a
(02:35):
Series A startup that wasactually taking a product from
the for-profit endurance spaceand moving it towards the
nonprofit space.
So I was helping to build outsome of the nonprofit components
.
Left that role two years agoand started my own small
consulting practice where Ilinked back up with Sophia.
We worked on a client together,really reignited our joy of
working together.
That's what we called Sophiaand Adam.
(02:56):
2.0 and then 3.0 was reallyspinning up and perfect.
So asking ourselves how do wetake what we're doing as a
service and turn it into asoftware to increase our impact
for nonprofits that can't affordor don't have access to the
traditional strategic planningconsulting route?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I love that and that's actually kind of where
we're going to start ourconversation.
So it's an excellent segue andsetup Well done.
In the nonprofit space, we getso caught up in this idea of
strategic plan that it has to bethis massive five-year product
that, for the most part, justgives us a nice book that lives
on a shelf and doesn't actuallyimpact anything.
(03:34):
But you're right, that is anextremely expensive process for
most folks that ultimately, Ifeel like, has very little
impact in the way that it'ssupposed to, unfortunately.
So, sophia, start there, let'stalk about that.
So if an organization isthinking that strategic planning
(03:54):
might be something that they'relooking for, right, if that's
kind of their, we're ready togrow, we're ready to take that
next step.
What are some things that youwould say maybe, like as an
introduction to that?
What are some things that anorganization has to be ready for
or to think about in thestrategic planning process?
(04:15):
I think one of the things Ireally appreciate about what you
guys have done with PlanPerfect is like it makes it more
visible, right.
We can actually see the impactthat a plan could have, but I
feel like the beginning stagesof that maybe are overwhelming
to folks.
So what's something that anorganization should consider if
(04:36):
they're thinking about doingstrategic planning?
When is it right for anorganization to start thinking
about that, and when are theymaybe just not ready for that
process?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Organizations, of any size, at any stage, need a plan
.
Just as you wouldn't go out ofyour house on a trip not knowing
where you're going, yeah, andyou wouldn't start a, let's say,
even a new ice cream shop inyour neighborhood without having
a business plan, nonprofitsalso need to have a plan in
(05:11):
order to get going to meet theirdreams, to have impact.
There's been no time like thepresent to ensure that our
nonprofit sector is wellsupported, ensure that our
nonprofit sector is wellsupported.
But to best support anorganization, you need to know
why you're supporting them, whatthey're intending to deliver,
(05:34):
how they will impact people, howthey'll measure that impact,
where are they spending yourmoney, what are their goals?
And in order to be able tobetter invest our dollars in
nonprofits, we then neednonprofits and I say this with
all the love in the world,because I am a nonprofit leader.
At the end of the day and in myheart, we need our nonprofits
(05:57):
to make those plans to provetheir value.
So we have people who areworking with us in Plan Perfect
who are literally six months old.
Our first customer called Pearlyand Adaptive.
I met at a paratriathlon clinicin Chicago and he wanted to
start a nonprofit the founderand he actually is a success
(06:19):
story.
He made a plan in our productand now he is actually starting
to really build out hisorganization.
But on the other side, youcould be an organization that's
been around for 75 years andmoving along and resting on your
laurels and everybody thinksyou're great.
But you need to have a plan toget to your destination.
(06:39):
Period in life that doesn'tmean to say you can't change,
and I know Adam can talk aboutagility.
Life that doesn't mean to sayyou can't change, and I know
Adam can talk about agility, andI think that's one of the nice
things that you can do when youmake a plan that's not on the
shelf is you can change it.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I think and, adam, I'm going to toss this to you
because I do think Agility thatyou just used is such a word or
such a common word in thefor-profit space, but almost a
little scary in the nonprofitspace, right, this is something
that we have yet to embrace onthe whole.
I mean, we tend to maybe be alittle behind, but agility, I
(07:15):
feel like, is a scary word forsome folks.
So, adam, speak to that if youdon't mind folks.
So, adam, speak to that if youdon't mind.
What are some of those agilitybest practices for creating an
agile plan that we can, eitherexamples that you've seen work,
or how do we get over thathurdle of agility?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I think it's a great question and something you said
earlier in the question you hadto Sophia, which is like this is
a scary undertaking fornonprofits to come and create a
strategic plan.
I think we really are atPlanPerfect working to flip that
on its head Like we don'tbelieve it has to be this drawn
out 12 to 18 month plan whereyou spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars getting someone tocome in and kind of reiterate
(07:54):
what you probably already knowand need to just go and do.
So we really, in our system,take that long process and make
it something that can be done ina matter of weeks or months,
depending on which parts of thesystem you use.
So it really allows you to, youknow, keep that five-year,
three-year vision which I thinkyou can set in your mission and
vision statements, but revisitsome of those more specific
(08:15):
goals and objectives in smallerincrements, and you can revisit
them annually, quarterly,monthly, because you have this
tool in place which will ridesidecar with you as an executive
director, somebody who'srunning a strategic planning
process, to really execute uponthat plan.
So for us that's, and for mespecifically it feels super
important because I do think inthe for-profit space, that idea
(08:37):
of agility, or moving quickly,trying things, breaking things
and then ultimately growing fromit, is really well-oiled in
some organizations, and I'll saythere's some for-profits that
don't have it right either.
But I think in the nonprofitspace, thinking that you need to
spend a year to create afive-year plan, to your point,
megan, that sits on a shelf andthen five years from now you
(08:58):
dust it off and you say like, oh, we're going to kind of use the
same thing, but with a coupleedits, that for us feels really
wrong because it's not reallyhelping you to execute your
vision or your mission or yourstrategy in general.
So for us that living piece ofthe plan is so important and I
(09:25):
mean it's been baked into ourproduct since day one which
includes kind of the tracking,dashboarding, making sure that
what you're creating is actuallyliving and you're making the
rubber hit the road of yourstrategic plan and really
helping to bring it to life foryour board your donors,
ultimately your beneficiaries.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I think that's an important piece too.
Right To Sophia's point now isnot the time to rest when it
comes to funding sources.
Right, there's so much going onand there's so much change
happening literally day by daythat the ability to prove that
you're actually doing whatyou've told your donors you're
going to do is only going tobecome more critical.
(09:54):
To be able to have like a hey,here's what we said, here's what
we did, and now this is whatwe're going to do.
Because of that and having thatkind of data available to be
able to show to people, I thinkis going to become an even more
critical piece moving forward.
So, if you speak to that alittle bit, if you would, when
we think about data and how weshow impact, what does that look
(10:18):
like and what are you kind ofseeing as maybe some trends we
want to make sure that we'reaware of in that regard?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
In data in the nonprofit sector has always been
such a challenge.
When I was CEO of the ChicagoBotanic Garden, my greatest
pleasures came when somebodywould say you know, I came for a
walk at the garden and I thenwrote a poem to a friend or I
(10:45):
started to reflect on you know,somebody I'd loved.
You can't quantify that, I mean.
So one could argue well, somany of our nonprofits.
Actually, there's absolutely noway to say how many poems have
been inspired by what I mean.
So you get your point there.
But there are so many things wecan quantify.
(11:05):
We can quantify whether let'sjust take it very simply whether
we did something yes or no.
Yeah, what's quantifyingsomething?
We can quantify how many.
Let's say you are a non-profitthat's trying to put helmets on
the heads of cyclists who areriding to work every day,
perhaps in towns where housingis hard or traffic is bad and
(11:29):
you can't get all of yourworkers to work.
You can quantify how manyhelmets you are putting on
people as you're giving themaccess to.
So donors are requiring impactmeasurements and we need to give
them those.
But we don't need to give theminto how many pencils we sold or
(11:49):
widgets or whatever we need togive them in ways that are
translated for the language ofnonprofits, which includes
tangible things like helmets,but also soft things like poetry
and love and uplift and prideand caring.
And you know.
Going back to your question,megan, about non-profit
(12:12):
strategic planning being scary,like I, I really feel like so
many people who run non-profitsoperate out of a place of love.
They operate because they wantto heal something, they want to
make people come together.
So let's meet the strategicplanning process where they are,
(12:33):
which is in that place of love,in that place of optimism, by
giving them a partner.
Because majority of people gointo nonprofit leadership or
founding a nonprofit, let's say,are doing so because they have
had a personal experience thatchanges them or they have a
technical skill that they wantto share the world with the
(12:56):
world.
So why expect them to be ableto do a business plan?
Sure, let's give them a partner.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, that's a great point, because I do think we get
hung up.
Unfortunately, we think about askill set, right?
Somebody who has thatcompassion, who has that vision
for having an impact in theircommunity and the world around
them, is not always going tohave the depth of business
knowledge, and the world aroundthem is not always going to have
the depth of business knowledgeto be able to kind of flesh
(13:25):
that out and move it forwardfully.
Sometimes I think, though,where we get hung up in that
data process is in some of ourprocesses, right, where we are
still stuck.
I know we've talked a little bitbefore the show about some of
the AI and tech components ofthis process, right, and so we
(13:45):
talk about, okay, well, ai canhelp do this particular task in
tracking.
You know, it could help keepyou on track by putting these
reports together, and I hear alot of pushback from nonprofits
that say, okay, yeah, but that'ssomebody's job.
Pulling that manual data andputting this report together is
(14:06):
their job.
So then, what would this persondo what humans need to do in
this process, versus what couldthey do if we freed them up to
(14:27):
not have to pull manual data andsort it in Excel sheets all the
time as we go to prove theseimpact statements.
What does that look like?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Interesting Megan to hear the resistance to it, and I
don't think that this is just aproblem in the nonprofit sector
.
I think the for-profit sectoralso has some resistance into
adopting AI tooling.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Well, because change is scary, no matter who you are.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And I think where we've always thought about this
living is really alongside ofthe person, and whether that be
the person who owns thestrategic plan at the nonprofit,
whether that be with their dataanalysts, as they're starting
to pull this data like howbeautiful would it be if they're
not spending all day, every day, making manual reports, but
they're able to actually sit andanalyze the data and they can
(15:08):
level up the human aspect of it,or the human experience, by
leveraging a new tool set thatis coming at the world at an
unprecedented pace.
I think it's going to changethe way that a lot of us do our
jobs.
I mean even this, even thispodcast I'm assuming there'll be
parts of it that will be AIedited right or when we use our
Firefly's note taker.
There's just a lot of thistooling that I think is coming
(15:29):
into the fold, and we've alwaysthought about plan perfect
really riding sidecar with thehuman experience.
I think there's a piece ofstrategic planning, which Sophia
so beautifully captured in whatshe described, which includes
kind of the human aspect of thenonprofit.
It's not as easy as just saying, okay, we'll set this bot free,
they'll give me a strategicplan and then they'll be able to
(15:51):
execute it.
There's such a human componentthat I think is picking both
words that matter, but alsobeing able to really think about
those initiatives that aregoing to push people forward.
So I think, instead of livingin fear of the tooling, I think
a better approach is really tolook at it and understand where
it fits into your organizationand what that ultimately means.
I think nonprofit leaders aregoing to have to do the work to
(16:14):
understand, as AI tooling iscoming into the fold and you're
freeing up capacity amongst yourstaff, what that means for the
next step for them, both intheir careers, but also for your
organization as a whole, andwhere you can start to use these
tools to unlock more capacity,which only helps to grow your
organization and ultimatelylifts it to a higher place.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's kind of like saying like if you're a chef in
a top end kitchen, you wouldn'thave everybody just hand
beatingbeating the batter.
You would use an electric mixerand the person who used to be
just hand-beating can maybe godo something else.
Yeah, I like to bring them morejoy as well as well.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
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(17:26):
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(17:49):
Let's talk specifically aboutthe strategic planning process,
because I think we all are kindof still ingrained in the.
It's a five-year plan, it's athree-year plan.
It's this massive undertaking.
Talk to me a little bit aboutwhat you see within
organizations when they start toembrace this idea that it's
actually a living, breathingthing.
(18:10):
What do you start to see inthat organization, either
culturally or from an impactstandpoint, when they can wrap
their head around that?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I think it lifts a huge burden off of their
shoulders, actually, and plansthat are living and breathing
and yet and this is reallyimportant do have fundamental
goals and objectives in sight,because I'm not advocating and
neither is Adam when he uses theword agile, I'm not advocating
(18:42):
for a plan that's just allamorphous, right.
So I think it liberates theorganization to say something
like okay, we've had this metricfor the past two years that we
continue to come short on, comeshort on, come short.
Well, how about?
(19:08):
Maybe we just don't do thatanymore?
I mean, how liberating couldthat be?
Or, wow, you know, we'reconstantly talking about how
we're in competition with thisother organization that does
something sort of similar.
Hmm, but maybe we merge.
I mean, a fantasy in thestrategic planning field is well
, maybe we could actually bringtogether organizations that are
(19:30):
of like-minded culture and goaland try to see where there are
synergies between them.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Interesting Adam.
What do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Yeah, I totally agree .
I actually don't.
I think our tool is just a lotmore approachable, as you think
about launching these largerplans, and I don't think the
issue is actually with the threeto five year plan.
I think it's the previousapproach to spending, you know,
a lot of time in admin effort,really, frankly, getting to that
plan and I think, by the timeit's launched and stood up, the
(20:04):
only way to revisit it is to doit manually.
Right?
It's to sit down every year andtake a look at the goals and
objectives, which can feel quitescary if it took you 12 months
to get there in the first place.
So what I think, sophie, and Irecommend, is that there is that
three to five year vision,right, like you do want to make
some large shift or large change, but instead of approaching it
(20:24):
by trying to set out the wholeentire course of the five years,
right the first day that you'reon the journey, it's more so
keeping in mind this broadervision, but being willing to
look at your goals, objectives,what steps you're actually
taking to get there, andadjusting those based on, you
know, macro factors, things thatare happening way outside of
your control, but also you knowmicro factors, things happening
(20:47):
in your organization, grantsthat you had access to that you
no longer do, or grants youdidn't that you now do and
writing.
You can grow the aperture ofyour impact and I think having a
process in place where you canrevisit this plan almost
challenge it but really ask andmake sure that what you're doing
makes sense, versus just sayingyou know we spent x tens of
thousands or hundreds ofthousands of dollars building
(21:08):
this, so we have to follow theplan or else I think that is
probably that gives me pause andmakes me fearful as a you know,
coming from the for-profitsector is having that rigidity
and I think what's nice is thata tool whatever tool you would
like to use or process you wouldlike to use that allows you to
revisit sort of the goals andobjectives in a cadence that
(21:30):
makes sense for yourorganization can be really
powerful for sort of reducingthat burden or that stress that
you have to know all the answersat the outset.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Well, and I would think it would lead to higher
visibility of that plan as well.
I was part of a strategic planprocess, probably 15 years ago
now, at a private school here inthe Pittsburgh area, probably
15 years ago now at a privateschool here in the Pittsburgh
area.
We went through this whole sixmonth process and a year later
those of us I would say those ofus that were involved in the
(22:01):
process still understood what itwas driving where we were
headed.
But if you, I feel like if youwere to go ask Jane Doe, teacher
in the classroom, she had noidea what was happening.
She didn't know that the planhad ever been completed.
It didn't necessarily, itdidn't impact her day to day in
(22:21):
terms of here I am teachingthird graders, right, and so
there was very little visibilityto the people who are actually
on the front lines doing themission of the school.
It just kind of lived up here.
But I would think that if we'retalking about something that's
a little more concrete and hassome dashboard visibility to it,
that makes it a little easierto actually permeate culture or
(22:44):
to actually get down to thepeople who are on the front
lines doing the mission, right,right, Megan, You're absolutely
right, and a strategic plan isonly valuable if every person I
mean every person, every personcan quote at least one thing.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Let's just take the mission statement.
I mean, if every person in theorganization can't quote the
mission statement and I'm nottaking word for word, it doesn't
have to be perfect, butgenerally speaking, then there's
been a huge, a huge mess.
You know, there's the old storyabout the boardroom meeting
that's taking place and a womancomes in the room and says I
(23:26):
will give you $10 million if youanswer one question.
And they say, okay, definitely,why your $10 million?
What's the one question?
She said I'm going to ask theboard chair and the executive
director both to tell me what isyour number one priority.
You both whisper it in my earand if you both say the same
(23:49):
thing, you get my $10 million.
Now, isn't that interesting?
Even be a question, eventhere'd be an old joke and story
about this.
So we all need to be on the samepage and a good plan is, as you
said, which is socialized,which is part of the culture and
fabric of the organization,from the board level all the way
(24:10):
to the level of the people whoare actually getting out there
and doing the hard work everyday on the front lines, all the
way to the level of the peoplewho are actually getting out
there and doing the hard workevery day on the front lines of
the organization, is one that'sgoing to take hold and bring the
organization forward.
However, that's done and wehave a software product.
But we're certainly verysupportive of consultants in
this role.
There are I have been one, Ihaven't been one.
(24:31):
We've all had consultants inour lives who've done
transformative work.
We're absolutely not trying totake consultants out of the
picture, but just again, justkind of like the mixer, we can
all add a little bit of extrafuel to our work and get better
results.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree, and I love
that illustration of theboardroom with the donor because
it does have to be everybody onboard.
Now, a soapbox that I will geton any day and maybe as a
conversation for another day isno one can quote your mission
statement because it is too danglong.
It is too dang long Like ifthey can't do it word for word
(25:15):
because it's longer than maybesix or seven words.
You've missed the boat.
This is a hill I will die on.
Our mission statements are toolong.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Or it starts with, in the middle of a sentence, a
mission statement.
It does should not start withthe word two, in my opinion,
because you can't remember asentence with the word two in
the beginning, because it's nota real sentence.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
It's not a real sentence.
It's not a real sentence, right, yeah, so right, that's I
completely.
I'm with you on that hill.
Yes, I will die on this hill.
It is a soapbox.
I get on regularly with folks,so I'm glad to have some backing
and support on that one forsure.
All right, so we have just acouple minutes left, but talk to
me a little bit aboutPlanPerfect.
Who should be looking at thisKind of?
Tell me a little bit about whatthe software does itself.
But then also who, like?
(26:00):
Is it the executive director?
Is it the board?
Is it director of development?
Who should be involved in thisprocess of evaluating that and
to see if it would be a good fitfor their organization?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
We see that the user could be the executive director,
could be the founder, it couldbe a board member, it could even
be a consultant who is workingwith nonprofits and wants to
expand their capacity to servenonprofits and wants to expand
their capacity to serve.
So we are focused squarely inthe for now as we're growing in
(26:36):
the small to mid-sized nonprofitspace.
So let's broadly say, under $10million.
There's probably a place inthere, maybe a little smaller or
a little bigger, if theorganization has a very clearly
focused mission, if they'reworking on a goal, that's very
clear.
Not if they're working on 50different things at one time,
which they shouldn't be anyway,but that's another story we
could talk about another day.
(26:58):
So, people really, from allaspects of the organization, I'd
really like to think of usbeing disruptive in the space,
and disruptive in a positive way, not because we're using
there's a like component of AIor not, because it's a software
tool, but it really puts thereins of strategic planning in
the hands of the people in theorganization who know the topic,
the mission, best.
(27:20):
So whoever that person orpeople are, they are the ones
that should be using it, becausesitting down at the computer by
themselves or with a group andthen using the interview tool to
get really broad constituentfeedback.
That can be done in a few hoursreally, really.
(27:41):
That's not to say the wholeplan probably can be baked in a
few hours, but it can be really.
You know, the seeds can beplanted and sprouting in a few
hours in a way that's verysatisfying for the user who has
the vision for the organization.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I think, just to piggyback on what Sophia said, I
think she hit the nail right onthe head about our target
customer base.
Being the executive director, Ithink we've had board members,
consultants, other people whoare interested in using the tool
or at least seeing the outputsof the tool.
But the tool itself kind of hasthree main components, just to
answer your questions specificabout the product.
The first is this concept ofinterviewing or interview
(28:21):
functionality.
That's really getting yourfeedback from both internal and
external stakeholders, so beingable to get context from your
board members, your volunteers,your beneficiary staff, etc.
To help you inform thestrategic planning process.
Then there's a functionalitybuilt in that helps you actually
generate it.
So, like Sophia said, it'shands on keyboard.
It's really getting that typemission statement, type vision
(28:44):
statement, developing thosegoals and objectives that are
measurable and actionable andare really powerful as you're
thinking about approaching thisfor the next year.
And then the most importantpiece to me, or the part I
always tout on, is really thetracking and the dashboarding.
Like you said at the verybeginning, megan, that the plan
on the shelf is a real problem,I think in the space of creating
(29:05):
these plans and tucking themaway.
I mean, sophia's husband, art,tells an amazing story about
this in the for-profit sector aswell, I think it's not atypical
that plans are developed andthen never executed.
So for us that's so importantbecause we don't want to just be
churning out plans that nothingis done with.
For us, it's most importantthat we can say, or that we left
(29:28):
this world, that we developed atool that not only helps people
think about how to becomebigger, but actually helped them
to become bigger.
So for us, that tracking andreporting piece is of utmost
importance and where we spend alot of the time in the demos is
just saying, yeah, once you haveyour plan, this is really where
it comes to life.
So that's kind of the three bigbuckets of the work and just
(29:49):
another piece of the system.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I love it, and if somebody wanted to find out more
information about it, check youout, connect with any of you.
How would we go about doingthat?
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yeah, you can visit our website, which is
planperfectco, not com co, sodon't make that mistake.
And then our emails are justadam at planperfectco and then
Sophia's is sophia atplanperfectco.
And we also have an inbox thathits both of us, which is
founders at planperfectco.
And one last plug is this tool.
(30:19):
Like I said, the goal of it isto be accessible for nonprofits,
no matter your size, whetheryou're six months fresh into the
nonprofit world or you've beenaround for 75 years.
So we do have a scholarshipprogram in place for smaller
nonprofits, based on just theirbudget.
That makes the pricing a littlebit more accessible.
So did just want to say thatplug.
(30:39):
I think a lot of people areconcerned when they hear AI and
strategic planning, that thiswill break the bank, and that's
definitely not our intention.
We want to make sure that youknow the small nonprofits are
able to build their plans andexecute and then become one of
our full price big, bignonprofit clients.
So that's also something of oursystem.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I love it.
That's great.
Well, thank you both.
This has been a reallyinteresting conversation.
I think much needed in thespace for folks to realize that
there is another option and adifferent way to think about
strategic plan.
So I appreciate both of yousharing all of your wisdom with
us today on that idea.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Thank you so much, Megan.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah, my pleasure having you Really enjoyed it.
Guys, this has been anotherepisode of the Nonprofit Hub
Radio Podcast.
I'm your host, Megan Spear, andwe'll see you next time.
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nonprofithub.
Welcome back to the NonprofitHub Radio Podcast.
I'm your host, megan Spear.
Joining me today are SophiaShaw and Adam Wolford from
(00:43):
PlanPerfect.
Joining me today are SophiaShaw and Adam Walford from
PlanPerfect, very excited to digin to a really interesting
conversation, I think, around AIand technology, as it relates
specifically to strategicplanning.
So I'm very excited for thisone.
Guys, welcome to the show.
Thanks for joining me, thankyou so much Thank you.
Absolutely so, Sophia.
Let's start with you.
Tell us a little bit about yourjourney, kind of an
(01:03):
introduction to who you are andyour background in nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Absolutely.
It is really exciting to be anentrepreneur in the tech sector
in my mid-50s.
I've had my entire career inthe nonprofit world.
I worked my way up literallyfrom a mailroom to becoming CEO
of the Chicago Botanic Gardenand I worked at the Field Museum
and the Museum of ContemporaryArt in Chicago and the Art
(01:28):
Institute of Chicago.
I've been a board president ofa nonprofit and then I ran the
Kellogg program at Northwesterntheir board governance program
for five years and been aconsultant to nonprofits and
strategic planning.
So really there's no part ofthe strategic planning or
nonprofit world I haven't seensome part of.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Wow, that's great.
And Adam, what about you?
What's your nonprofit journeylooked like?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yes, definitely.
So I've always had kind of athrough line of nonprofit work,
even when I was in managementconsulting before I went to
business school.
So I worked at Accenture andDeloitte and their management
consulting practice is helpingto build technology for the
federal government at Accentureand then more massively doing
M&A transactions at Deloitte.
But while I was with both ofthose firms I was part of their
(02:11):
social impact consulting worldas well.
So it's always been a throughline.
When I went to business school,I was fortunate enough to be
part of Sophia's incredibleprogram, which places MBA
students on boards of localnonprofits.
In my case it was an art museumin Chicago called Intuit.
I'm still a proud board memberof that art museum today.
When I left Kellogg, I wasrunning a product team at a
(02:35):
Series A startup that wasactually taking a product from
the for-profit endurance spaceand moving it towards the
nonprofit space.
So I was helping to build outsome of the nonprofit components
.
Left that role two years agoand started my own small
consulting practice where Ilinked back up with Sophia.
We worked on a client together,really reignited our joy of
working together.
That's what we called Sophiaand Adam.
(02:56):
2.0 and then 3.0 was reallyspinning up and perfect.
So asking ourselves how do wetake what we're doing as a
service and turn it into asoftware to increase our impact
for nonprofits that can't affordor don't have access to the
traditional strategic planningconsulting route?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I love that and that's actually kind of where
we're going to start ourconversation.
So it's an excellent segue andsetup Well done.
In the nonprofit space, we getso caught up in this idea of
strategic plan that it has to bethis massive five-year product
that, for the most part, justgives us a nice book that lives
on a shelf and doesn't actuallyimpact anything.
(03:34):
But you're right, that is anextremely expensive process for
most folks that ultimately, Ifeel like, has very little
impact in the way that it'ssupposed to, unfortunately.
So, sophia, start there, let'stalk about that.
So if an organization isthinking that strategic planning
(03:54):
might be something that they'relooking for, right, if that's
kind of their, we're ready togrow, we're ready to take that
next step.
What are some things that youwould say maybe, like as an
introduction to that?
What are some things that anorganization has to be ready for
or to think about in thestrategic planning process?
(04:15):
I think one of the things Ireally appreciate about what you
guys have done with PlanPerfect is like it makes it more
visible, right.
We can actually see the impactthat a plan could have, but I
feel like the beginning stagesof that maybe are overwhelming
to folks.
So what's something that anorganization should consider if
(04:36):
they're thinking about doingstrategic planning?
When is it right for anorganization to start thinking
about that, and when are theymaybe just not ready for that
process?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Organizations, of any size, at any stage, need a plan
.
Just as you wouldn't go out ofyour house on a trip not knowing
where you're going, yeah, andyou wouldn't start a, let's say,
even a new ice cream shop inyour neighborhood without having
a business plan, nonprofitsalso need to have a plan in
(05:11):
order to get going to meet theirdreams, to have impact.
There's been no time like thepresent to ensure that our
nonprofit sector is wellsupported, ensure that our
nonprofit sector is wellsupported.
But to best support anorganization, you need to know
why you're supporting them, whatthey're intending to deliver,
(05:34):
how they will impact people, howthey'll measure that impact,
where are they spending yourmoney, what are their goals?
And in order to be able tobetter invest our dollars in
nonprofits, we then neednonprofits and I say this with
all the love in the world,because I am a nonprofit leader.
At the end of the day and in myheart, we need our nonprofits
(05:57):
to make those plans to provetheir value.
So we have people who areworking with us in Plan Perfect
who are literally six months old.
Our first customer called Pearlyand Adaptive.
I met at a paratriathlon clinicin Chicago and he wanted to
start a nonprofit the founderand he actually is a success
(06:19):
story.
He made a plan in our productand now he is actually starting
to really build out hisorganization.
But on the other side, youcould be an organization that's
been around for 75 years andmoving along and resting on your
laurels and everybody thinksyou're great.
But you need to have a plan toget to your destination.
(06:39):
Period in life that doesn'tmean to say you can't change,
and I know Adam can talk aboutagility.
Life that doesn't mean to sayyou can't change, and I know
Adam can talk about agility, andI think that's one of the nice
things that you can do when youmake a plan that's not on the
shelf is you can change it.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I think and, adam, I'm going to toss this to you
because I do think Agility thatyou just used is such a word or
such a common word in thefor-profit space, but almost a
little scary in the nonprofitspace, right, this is something
that we have yet to embrace onthe whole.
I mean, we tend to maybe be alittle behind, but agility, I
(07:15):
feel like, is a scary word forsome folks.
So, adam, speak to that if youdon't mind folks.
So, adam, speak to that if youdon't mind.
What are some of those agilitybest practices for creating an
agile plan that we can, eitherexamples that you've seen work,
or how do we get over thathurdle of agility?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I think it's a great question and something you said
earlier in the question you hadto Sophia, which is like this is
a scary undertaking fornonprofits to come and create a
strategic plan.
I think we really are atPlanPerfect working to flip that
on its head Like we don'tbelieve it has to be this drawn
out 12 to 18 month plan whereyou spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars getting someone tocome in and kind of reiterate
(07:54):
what you probably already knowand need to just go and do.
So we really, in our system,take that long process and make
it something that can be done ina matter of weeks or months,
depending on which parts of thesystem you use.
So it really allows you to, youknow, keep that five-year,
three-year vision which I thinkyou can set in your mission and
vision statements, but revisitsome of those more specific
(08:15):
goals and objectives in smallerincrements, and you can revisit
them annually, quarterly,monthly, because you have this
tool in place which will ridesidecar with you as an executive
director, somebody who'srunning a strategic planning
process, to really execute uponthat plan.
So for us that's, and for mespecifically it feels super
important because I do think inthe for-profit space, that idea
(08:37):
of agility, or moving quickly,trying things, breaking things
and then ultimately growing fromit, is really well-oiled in
some organizations, and I'll saythere's some for-profits that
don't have it right either.
But I think in the nonprofitspace, thinking that you need to
spend a year to create afive-year plan, to your point,
megan, that sits on a shelf andthen five years from now you
(08:58):
dust it off and you say like, oh, we're going to kind of use the
same thing, but with a coupleedits, that for us feels really
wrong because it's not reallyhelping you to execute your
vision or your mission or yourstrategy in general.
So for us that living piece ofthe plan is so important and I
(09:25):
mean it's been baked into ourproduct since day one which
includes kind of the tracking,dashboarding, making sure that
what you're creating is actuallyliving and you're making the
rubber hit the road of yourstrategic plan and really
helping to bring it to life foryour board your donors,
ultimately your beneficiaries.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I think that's an important piece too.
Right To Sophia's point now isnot the time to rest when it
comes to funding sources.
Right, there's so much going onand there's so much change
happening literally day by daythat the ability to prove that
you're actually doing whatyou've told your donors you're
going to do is only going tobecome more critical.
(09:54):
To be able to have like a hey,here's what we said, here's what
we did, and now this is whatwe're going to do.
Because of that and having thatkind of data available to be
able to show to people, I thinkis going to become an even more
critical piece moving forward.
So, if you speak to that alittle bit, if you would, when
we think about data and how weshow impact, what does that look
(10:18):
like and what are you kind ofseeing as maybe some trends we
want to make sure that we'reaware of in that regard?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
In data in the nonprofit sector has always been
such a challenge.
When I was CEO of the ChicagoBotanic Garden, my greatest
pleasures came when somebodywould say you know, I came for a
walk at the garden and I thenwrote a poem to a friend or I
(10:45):
started to reflect on you know,somebody I'd loved.
You can't quantify that, I mean.
So one could argue well, somany of our nonprofits.
Actually, there's absolutely noway to say how many poems have
been inspired by what I mean.
So you get your point there.
But there are so many things wecan quantify.
(11:05):
We can quantify whether let'sjust take it very simply whether
we did something yes or no.
Yeah, what's quantifyingsomething?
We can quantify how many.
Let's say you are a non-profitthat's trying to put helmets on
the heads of cyclists who areriding to work every day,
perhaps in towns where housingis hard or traffic is bad and
(11:29):
you can't get all of yourworkers to work.
You can quantify how manyhelmets you are putting on
people as you're giving themaccess to.
So donors are requiring impactmeasurements and we need to give
them those.
But we don't need to give theminto how many pencils we sold or
(11:49):
widgets or whatever we need togive them in ways that are
translated for the language ofnonprofits, which includes
tangible things like helmets,but also soft things like poetry
and love and uplift and prideand caring.
And you know.
Going back to your question,megan, about non-profit
(12:12):
strategic planning being scary,like I, I really feel like so
many people who run non-profitsoperate out of a place of love.
They operate because they wantto heal something, they want to
make people come together.
So let's meet the strategicplanning process where they are,
(12:33):
which is in that place of love,in that place of optimism, by
giving them a partner.
Because majority of people gointo nonprofit leadership or
founding a nonprofit, let's say,are doing so because they have
had a personal experience thatchanges them or they have a
technical skill that they wantto share the world with the
(12:56):
world.
So why expect them to be ableto do a business plan?
Sure, let's give them a partner.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, that's a great point, because I do think we get
hung up.
Unfortunately, we think about askill set, right?
Somebody who has thatcompassion, who has that vision
for having an impact in theircommunity and the world around
them, is not always going tohave the depth of business
knowledge, and the world aroundthem is not always going to have
the depth of business knowledgeto be able to kind of flesh
(13:25):
that out and move it forwardfully.
Sometimes I think, though,where we get hung up in that
data process is in some of ourprocesses, right, where we are
still stuck.
I know we've talked a little bitbefore the show about some of
the AI and tech components ofthis process, right, and so we
(13:45):
talk about, okay, well, ai canhelp do this particular task in
tracking.
You know, it could help keepyou on track by putting these
reports together, and I hear alot of pushback from nonprofits
that say, okay, yeah, but that'ssomebody's job.
Pulling that manual data andputting this report together is
(14:06):
their job.
So then, what would this persondo what humans need to do in
this process, versus what couldthey do if we freed them up to
(14:27):
not have to pull manual data andsort it in Excel sheets all the
time as we go to prove theseimpact statements.
What does that look like?
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Interesting Megan to hear the resistance to it, and I
don't think that this is just aproblem in the nonprofit sector
.
I think the for-profit sectoralso has some resistance into
adopting AI tooling.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Well, because change is scary, no matter who you are.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And I think where we've always thought about this
living is really alongside ofthe person, and whether that be
the person who owns thestrategic plan at the nonprofit,
whether that be with their dataanalysts, as they're starting
to pull this data like howbeautiful would it be if they're
not spending all day, every day, making manual reports, but
they're able to actually sit andanalyze the data and they can
(15:08):
level up the human aspect of it,or the human experience, by
leveraging a new tool set thatis coming at the world at an
unprecedented pace.
I think it's going to changethe way that a lot of us do our
jobs.
I mean even this, even thispodcast I'm assuming there'll be
parts of it that will be AIedited right or when we use our
Firefly's note taker.
There's just a lot of thistooling that I think is coming
(15:29):
into the fold, and we've alwaysthought about plan perfect
really riding sidecar with thehuman experience.
I think there's a piece ofstrategic planning, which Sophia
so beautifully captured in whatshe described, which includes
kind of the human aspect of thenonprofit.
It's not as easy as just saying, okay, we'll set this bot free,
they'll give me a strategicplan and then they'll be able to
(15:51):
execute it.
There's such a human componentthat I think is picking both
words that matter, but alsobeing able to really think about
those initiatives that aregoing to push people forward.
So I think, instead of livingin fear of the tooling, I think
a better approach is really tolook at it and understand where
it fits into your organizationand what that ultimately means.
I think nonprofit leaders aregoing to have to do the work to
(16:14):
understand, as AI tooling iscoming into the fold and you're
freeing up capacity amongst yourstaff, what that means for the
next step for them, both intheir careers, but also for your
organization as a whole, andwhere you can start to use these
tools to unlock more capacity,which only helps to grow your
organization and ultimatelylifts it to a higher place.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's kind of like saying like if you're a chef in
a top end kitchen, you wouldn'thave everybody just hand
beatingbeating the batter.
You would use an electric mixerand the person who used to be
just hand-beating can maybe godo something else.
Yeah, I like to bring them morejoy as well as well.
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(17:26):
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(17:49):
Let's talk specifically aboutthe strategic planning process,
because I think we all are kindof still ingrained in the.
It's a five-year plan, it's athree-year plan.
It's this massive undertaking.
Talk to me a little bit aboutwhat you see within
organizations when they start toembrace this idea that it's
actually a living, breathingthing.
(18:10):
What do you start to see inthat organization, either
culturally or from an impactstandpoint, when they can wrap
their head around that?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I think it lifts a huge burden off of their
shoulders, actually, and plansthat are living and breathing
and yet and this is reallyimportant do have fundamental
goals and objectives in sight,because I'm not advocating and
neither is Adam when he uses theword agile, I'm not advocating
(18:42):
for a plan that's just allamorphous, right.
So I think it liberates theorganization to say something
like okay, we've had this metricfor the past two years that we
continue to come short on, comeshort on, come short.
Well, how about?
(19:08):
Maybe we just don't do thatanymore?
I mean, how liberating couldthat be?
Or, wow, you know, we'reconstantly talking about how
we're in competition with thisother organization that does
something sort of similar.
Hmm, but maybe we merge.
I mean, a fantasy in thestrategic planning field is well
, maybe we could actually bringtogether organizations that are
(19:30):
of like-minded culture and goaland try to see where there are
synergies between them.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Interesting Adam.
What do you think about that?
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Yeah, I totally agree .
I actually don't.
I think our tool is just a lotmore approachable, as you think
about launching these largerplans, and I don't think the
issue is actually with the threeto five year plan.
I think it's the previousapproach to spending, you know,
a lot of time in admin effort,really, frankly, getting to that
plan and I think, by the timeit's launched and stood up, the
(20:04):
only way to revisit it is to doit manually.
Right?
It's to sit down every year andtake a look at the goals and
objectives, which can feel quitescary if it took you 12 months
to get there in the first place.
So what I think, sophie, and Irecommend, is that there is that
three to five year vision,right, like you do want to make
some large shift or large change, but instead of approaching it
(20:24):
by trying to set out the wholeentire course of the five years,
right the first day that you'reon the journey, it's more so
keeping in mind this broadervision, but being willing to
look at your goals, objectives,what steps you're actually
taking to get there, andadjusting those based on, you
know, macro factors, things thatare happening way outside of
your control, but also you knowmicro factors, things happening
(20:47):
in your organization, grantsthat you had access to that you
no longer do, or grants youdidn't that you now do and
writing.
You can grow the aperture ofyour impact and I think having a
process in place where you canrevisit this plan almost
challenge it but really ask andmake sure that what you're doing
makes sense, versus just sayingyou know we spent x tens of
thousands or hundreds ofthousands of dollars building
(21:08):
this, so we have to follow theplan or else I think that is
probably that gives me pause andmakes me fearful as a you know,
coming from the for-profitsector is having that rigidity
and I think what's nice is thata tool whatever tool you would
like to use or process you wouldlike to use that allows you to
revisit sort of the goals andobjectives in a cadence that
(21:30):
makes sense for yourorganization can be really
powerful for sort of reducingthat burden or that stress that
you have to know all the answersat the outset.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Well, and I would think it would lead to higher
visibility of that plan as well.
I was part of a strategic planprocess, probably 15 years ago
now, at a private school here inthe Pittsburgh area, probably
15 years ago now at a privateschool here in the Pittsburgh
area.
We went through this whole sixmonth process and a year later
those of us I would say those ofus that were involved in the
(22:01):
process still understood what itwas driving where we were
headed.
But if you, I feel like if youwere to go ask Jane Doe, teacher
in the classroom, she had noidea what was happening.
She didn't know that the planhad ever been completed.
It didn't necessarily, itdidn't impact her day to day in
(22:21):
terms of here I am teachingthird graders, right, and so
there was very little visibilityto the people who are actually
on the front lines doing themission of the school.
It just kind of lived up here.
But I would think that if we'retalking about something that's
a little more concrete and hassome dashboard visibility to it,
that makes it a little easierto actually permeate culture or
(22:44):
to actually get down to thepeople who are on the front
lines doing the mission, right,right, Megan, You're absolutely
right, and a strategic plan isonly valuable if every person I
mean every person, every personcan quote at least one thing.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Let's just take the mission statement.
I mean, if every person in theorganization can't quote the
mission statement and I'm nottaking word for word, it doesn't
have to be perfect, butgenerally speaking, then there's
been a huge, a huge mess.
You know, there's the old storyabout the boardroom meeting
that's taking place and a womancomes in the room and says I
(23:26):
will give you $10 million if youanswer one question.
And they say, okay, definitely,why your $10 million?
What's the one question?
She said I'm going to ask theboard chair and the executive
director both to tell me what isyour number one priority.
You both whisper it in my earand if you both say the same
(23:49):
thing, you get my $10 million.
Now, isn't that interesting?
Even be a question, eventhere'd be an old joke and story
about this.
So we all need to be on the samepage and a good plan is, as you
said, which is socialized,which is part of the culture and
fabric of the organization,from the board level all the way
(24:10):
to the level of the people whoare actually getting out there
and doing the hard work everyday on the front lines, all the
way to the level of the peoplewho are actually getting out
there and doing the hard workevery day on the front lines of
the organization, is one that'sgoing to take hold and bring the
organization forward.
However, that's done and wehave a software product.
But we're certainly verysupportive of consultants in
this role.
There are I have been one, Ihaven't been one.
(24:31):
We've all had consultants inour lives who've done
transformative work.
We're absolutely not trying totake consultants out of the
picture, but just again, justkind of like the mixer, we can
all add a little bit of extrafuel to our work and get better
results.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree, and I love
that illustration of theboardroom with the donor because
it does have to be everybody onboard.
Now, a soapbox that I will geton any day and maybe as a
conversation for another day isno one can quote your mission
statement because it is too danglong.
It is too dang long Like ifthey can't do it word for word
(25:15):
because it's longer than maybesix or seven words.
You've missed the boat.
This is a hill I will die on.
Our mission statements are toolong.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Or it starts with, in the middle of a sentence, a
mission statement.
It does should not start withthe word two, in my opinion,
because you can't remember asentence with the word two in
the beginning, because it's nota real sentence.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
It's not a real sentence.
It's not a real sentence, right, yeah, so right, that's I
completely.
I'm with you on that hill.
Yes, I will die on this hill.
It is a soapbox.
I get on regularly with folks,so I'm glad to have some backing
and support on that one forsure.
All right, so we have just acouple minutes left, but talk to
me a little bit aboutPlanPerfect.
Who should be looking at thisKind of?
Tell me a little bit about whatthe software does itself.
But then also who, like?
(26:00):
Is it the executive director?
Is it the board?
Is it director of development?
Who should be involved in thisprocess of evaluating that and
to see if it would be a good fitfor their organization?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
We see that the user could be the executive director,
could be the founder, it couldbe a board member, it could even
be a consultant who is workingwith nonprofits and wants to
expand their capacity to servenonprofits and wants to expand
their capacity to serve.
So we are focused squarely inthe for now as we're growing in
(26:36):
the small to mid-sized nonprofitspace.
So let's broadly say, under $10million.
There's probably a place inthere, maybe a little smaller or
a little bigger, if theorganization has a very clearly
focused mission, if they'reworking on a goal, that's very
clear.
Not if they're working on 50different things at one time,
which they shouldn't be anyway,but that's another story we
could talk about another day.
(26:58):
So, people really, from allaspects of the organization, I'd
really like to think of usbeing disruptive in the space,
and disruptive in a positive way, not because we're using
there's a like component of AIor not, because it's a software
tool, but it really puts thereins of strategic planning in
the hands of the people in theorganization who know the topic,
the mission, best.
(27:20):
So whoever that person orpeople are, they are the ones
that should be using it, becausesitting down at the computer by
themselves or with a group andthen using the interview tool to
get really broad constituentfeedback.
That can be done in a few hoursreally, really.
(27:41):
That's not to say the wholeplan probably can be baked in a
few hours, but it can be really.
You know, the seeds can beplanted and sprouting in a few
hours in a way that's verysatisfying for the user who has
the vision for the organization.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
I think, just to piggyback on what Sophia said, I
think she hit the nail right onthe head about our target
customer base.
Being the executive director, Ithink we've had board members,
consultants, other people whoare interested in using the tool
or at least seeing the outputsof the tool.
But the tool itself kind of hasthree main components, just to
answer your questions specificabout the product.
The first is this concept ofinterviewing or interview
(28:21):
functionality.
That's really getting yourfeedback from both internal and
external stakeholders, so beingable to get context from your
board members, your volunteers,your beneficiary staff, etc.
To help you inform thestrategic planning process.
Then there's a functionalitybuilt in that helps you actually
generate it.
So, like Sophia said, it'shands on keyboard.
It's really getting that typemission statement, type vision
(28:44):
statement, developing thosegoals and objectives that are
measurable and actionable andare really powerful as you're
thinking about approaching thisfor the next year.
And then the most importantpiece to me, or the part I
always tout on, is really thetracking and the dashboarding.
Like you said at the verybeginning, megan, that the plan
on the shelf is a real problem,I think in the space of creating
(29:05):
these plans and tucking themaway.
I mean, sophia's husband, art,tells an amazing story about
this in the for-profit sector aswell, I think it's not atypical
that plans are developed andthen never executed.
So for us that's so importantbecause we don't want to just be
churning out plans that nothingis done with.
For us, it's most importantthat we can say, or that we left
(29:28):
this world, that we developed atool that not only helps people
think about how to becomebigger, but actually helped them
to become bigger.
So for us, that tracking andreporting piece is of utmost
importance and where we spend alot of the time in the demos is
just saying, yeah, once you haveyour plan, this is really where
it comes to life.
So that's kind of the three bigbuckets of the work and just
(29:49):
another piece of the system.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I love it, and if somebody wanted to find out more
information about it, check youout, connect with any of you.
How would we go about doingthat?
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yeah, you can visit our website, which is
planperfectco, not com co, sodon't make that mistake.
And then our emails are justadam at planperfectco and then
Sophia's is sophia atplanperfectco.
And we also have an inbox thathits both of us, which is
founders at planperfectco.
And one last plug is this tool.
(30:19):
Like I said, the goal of it isto be accessible for nonprofits,
no matter your size, whetheryou're six months fresh into the
nonprofit world or you've beenaround for 75 years.
So we do have a scholarshipprogram in place for smaller
nonprofits, based on just theirbudget.
That makes the pricing a littlebit more accessible.
So did just want to say thatplug.
(30:39):
I think a lot of people areconcerned when they hear AI and
strategic planning, that thiswill break the bank, and that's
definitely not our intention.
We want to make sure that youknow the small nonprofits are
able to build their plans andexecute and then become one of
our full price big, bignonprofit clients.
So that's also something of oursystem.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
I love it.
That's great.
Well, thank you both.
This has been a reallyinteresting conversation.
I think much needed in thespace for folks to realize that
there is another option and adifferent way to think about
strategic plan.
So I appreciate both of yousharing all of your wisdom with
us today on that idea.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Thank you so much, Megan.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah, my pleasure having you Really enjoyed it.
Guys, this has been anotherepisode of the Nonprofit Hub
Radio Podcast.
I'm your host, Megan Spear, andwe'll see you next time.
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