NMI 227: Strategic Planning Boot Camp (October 2026)
This course will provide you with an intensive, hands-on experience using the most current practices for effective strategic planning in any nonprofit organization. Course topics focus on assessing internal and external factors that influence program success, conducting strategic planning analyses, setting strategic directions, writing goals and objectives, evaluating the strategic plan and process, and communicating of your strategic plan.
Course Objectives:
- Discuss the importance of the relationship between your organization's core competencies and overall strategic planning strategy.
- Describe the purpose and benefits of SWOT and PESTEL analyses for environmental scanning.
- Apply environmental scanning procedures to support the alignment of your mission, vision, and values with the external context in which your organization operates.
- Develop a strategy to evaluate the process and product of your strategic plan.
- Prepare an effective communication strategy for a strategic plan.
- Prepare a well-formulated strategic plan.
This course will consist of article reading, discussion questions, authentic assessments, and self-tests to enhance learning and build upon prior knowledge.
NMI courses are taught using the Canvas learning management system and include a variety of multimedia tools and resources. To ensure you can successfully access the multimedia tools in your courses, we recommend you use a standard PC or Mac desktop or laptop. Mobile devices are not recommended. Courses are best accessed using a high-speed Internet connection and a modern web browser such as Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Chrome or Safari.
Early Bird special: $380 (ends two weeks before course start date, retail $415).
Program description
Program dates
Delivery method
Time commitment
Cost
The landscape for today’s nonprofit organizations is filled with new and uncharted territory. This boot camp provides participants with an intensive, hands-on experience using the current best practices for effective strategic planning in nonprofit governance.
You will learn:
- how to assess internal and external factors influencing the success of your programs
- how your organization creates value for your clients
- how to envision alternative, future scenarios with strategic responses for optimal organizational planning
You'll start thinking strategically, approach your strategic planning creatively within your organization and create an action plan for implementing what you have learned.
Example tools you will learn during the course:
- PESTEL (for scanning the external environment)
- SWOT (for scanning the internal environment)
- Value Disciplines for a client-focused approach to planning
- Scenario Planning
- Steps for Change Leadership
This course is required for:
Fundraising and Sustainable Financial Management Certificate
Knowledge Specialist
Jennifer Tersigni’s professional career began at The White House, where she worked on a team that supported fundraising, leadership and change management in action after the Oklahoma City bombing, a federal government furlough, and Clinton Administration headlines. Since then, she has helped nonprofit organizations spark growth and transformation through efforts that combine the best in fundraising, organizational development, strategic consulting, and transformational leadership.
While working in the nonprofit sector, Jennifer started Raise the Bar Consulting out of a desire to provide relevant and innovative consulting solutions that help organizations to thrive, so that they could meet their mission and further their goals in contemporary and cost-effective ways.
Jennifer never anticipated becoming a fundraising powerhouse – it just happened that way. In her unforeseen 25-year career, Jennifer has served as a chief development officer, transitional leader, CEO, university instructor, and entrepreneur. Thus far, Jennifer has raised more than $160 million, and she and her team have assisted close to two-hundred organizations to stabilize, grow, and flourish.
When you’ve pulled yourself up by your bootstraps from an early age, chartered your own path, and recognized your own strength and skills, it’s natural to help others do the same. Jennifer is a certified Professional Interim Executive and has held the Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) credential continuously since 2008. She is also a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Association of Nonprofit Specialists, the Third Sector, and adjunct faculty at Arizona State University Lodestar Center for Nonprofit Innovation. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) and a master’s degree from the University of Arizona.
In her free time, Jennifer enjoys travel, cooking, yoga, investing, and spending time with her family and friends. Jennifer has lived in and traveled to more than forty-eight countries to-date, brings cross-cultural experience to her work, and always looks forward to life’s next great adventure.
Other sessions for this program
| Title | Date | Course delivery |
|---|---|---|
| NMI 227 - Strategic Planning Boot Camp (March 2026) | to | Online |
More NMI offerings
| Program | Date | Course delivery | Qualifies for certificate(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Optimizing Human Resource Strategies in Nonprofits Certificate (Next Start Date: 12/8/25) | Online | Optimizing Human Resource Strategies in Nonprofits Certificate | |
| Nonprofit Management Certificate (Next Start Date: 1/5/2026) | Online | Nonprofit Management Certificate | |
| Nonprofit Marketing & Strategic Communications Certificate (Next Start Date: 1/5/26) | Online | Nonprofit Marketing and Strategic Communications Certificate | |
| Fundraising and Sustainable Financial Management Certificate (Next Start Date: 1/5/26) | Online | Fundraising and Sustainable Financial Management Certificate | |
| NMI 230: Tell Your Story Boot Camp (January 2026) | to | Online | Nonprofit Marketing and Strategic Communications Certificate |