Nonprofits & Foundations
A strategic plan your board and staff will use.
We help mission-driven organizations plan smarter and lead better. Plans are co-created with your board, staff and community, and built to be acted on.
How it works
A disciplined approach to strategic planning.
We bring outside perspective, inclusive stakeholder voice and data-rich inputs to build plans with measurable commitments.
01
Listen
One-to-ones, surveys, focus groups and listening sessions with the people you serve, plus a look at funding and what is changing.
In the room
Board
Staff
Partners
Community
02
Diagnose
What we heard, where views differ, and the questions the plan must answer.
In the room
Executive director
Planning committee
03
Decide
Working sessions set mission, vision, three to five pillars, and the goals and measures under each.
In the room
Planning committee
Staff
Board committee
04
Adopt
The board adopts the plan, and it rolls out to staff and partners with measures to track.
In the room
Full board
Staff
Partners
Choosing what to do
A plan that says no
as well as yes.
Every good idea competes for the same staff and money and a good strategy is about making choices.
We give your board a simple way to score each initiative, so ideas that don’t fit can be declined or handed to a partner, with a clear reason.
Keystone
Foundational moves
The few moves the rest of the plan depends on.
Visible win
Change people can see
Change people notice in the first year.
Enabler
The support underneath
The people, systems and funding behind both.
In their words
“[Upland's] approach fostered the discussion of new trends and perspectives, while also having a solid strategic planning process that provided us a mission, vision, and shared values we have referred to often. The plan they helped us create was indispensable to me as a leader to provide a shared roadmap for our strategic initiatives.”
Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan
Our work
Plans that changed how organizations work.
Huron River Watershed Council
· Nonprofit strategy
A five-year roadmap for broader community reach
Read the Huron River case →
Michigan League of Conservation Voters
· Nonprofit brand
A new brand and strategy for greater influence
Read the MLCV case →
Board retreats, board development and succession
We also work with boards on the questions a plan can’t settle on its own: what it means to serve on this board, how members come and go with integrity, how new board leaders are developed, and the guardrails you need. The result is a set of board agreements and a governance framework.
Great strategy starts with a conversation.
We’d love to learn where your organization is headed and the choices ahead. Upland is a WBENC-certified woman-owned business.