Ask a Nonprofit Specialist: Using collaborative inquiry to engage stakeholders
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Question: My board of directors and staff are working, doing their jobs in the day to day, but they don’t seem to have the energy or interest in the overall mission and future of the organization. We need to develop a plan for the future, but I can’t seem to muster up their enthusiasm and creativity for the effort. How can I increase engagement in order to lay strategic groundwork for the future?
A friend of mine once gave me a card that pictured a crisis center, on fire and afloat on a river, about to fall over a cliff. I was the director of a crisis center at the time, so it was amusing and a bit true to my experience. Unfortunately, the portrayal of a crisis center in crisis is not so farfetched. The day-to-day work of nonprofit organizations is often so demanding, the big picture is often overlooked in response to the daily “crisis” of staying afloat.