“My staff member said they had no idea what to do next.”
“I asked my staff why we should increase engagement, and they said they had no idea.”
“I’m in a silo when prepping for Board meetings, and no one seems to understand what kind of tangible information we need to report.”
“Every time we have a board meeting, either I’m humbled by questions I can’t answer, or I feel like the whole meeting was entirely unproductive, like it didn’t move the needle anywhere.”
These are all real statements I’ve heard from real clients. Nine times out of ten, the underlying issue for all has been the unpopular, often delayed yet necessary work of attaching the right metrics and indicators to their strategic plan.
In over fifteen—dare I say twenty—years as a management consultant, I’ve worked with all kinds of organizations. Whether large pharmaceutical companies, small community hospitals, or major federal agencies, they all share one thing in common: the struggle to clearly define, measure, and communicate impact.
The only thing nonprofits do not share with those organizations is the budget to address this struggle. This is why I believe it’s critical for management consultants to dedicate part of their careers to supporting the nonprofit organizations that hold our communities together.
And this is also why setting the wrong metrics for your strategic plan (or none at all) will almost always lead to disaster.
Disaster looks like uncertainty, lack of clarity, low engagement or disengagement, stalled growth, and low community impact. Disaster translates into denied funding applications and worse, communities that either cannot find you or wonder why you even exist.
In this article, my goal is to provide five practical takeaways you can apply today to:
(1) determine whether your organization has the right metrics in place, and
(2) provide an idea of how to set metrics that align your work with your purpose and your community’s needs
By doing so, you can move your organization closer to measurable growth, sustainable funding, and meaningful impact, the kind that fully reflects your strategic values and vision.
Why Many Organizations Struggle with Metrics
Nonprofit leaders often have a strategic plan that looks fantastic on paper, but there’s little connection between that plan and everyday action. Taking it a step further, team members within those organizations often do not know what the strategic plan is, or where to find it.
I know this because when I ask team members about their awareness of the strategic plan or broader goals for the organization, rarely does anyone know. (For the record, I always ask, because it helps me understand where to start.)
The inability to answer this question is not a criticism, as these individual contributors are often inundated with an incredible amount of operational work. However, it is an indicator of a disconnect between strategy and operations within the organization. That disconnect has become the primary source of staff disengagement, uncertainty around key priorities (usually those priorities which leaders find most critical), and the inability to measure whether your organization is successful.
So, how does this happen? Often, organizations fall into one of two traps. Either they are:
- creating few or no metrics for the strategic plan, leaving staff without clear priorities and leaders without a reliable way to measure progress or impact, or
- creating too many metrics for the strategic plan, resulting in overwhelm, confusion, or organizational paralysis.
In either case, this leaves leaders in a lurch with either nothing valuable to report, or reports that look busy but fail to tell a clear story of meaningful progress.
When metrics are chosen well, they are more than numbers; they are tools for alignment, progress, and empowerment. They tell your team why their work matters, how to move the mission forward (without being asked), and what true success looks like. Solid metrics tell your stakeholders what the organization aims to accomplish and what resources are needed to achieve sustainable impact in your community.
Five Steps to Choosing the Right Metrics and Creating Alignment
1. Start with Purpose, Not Paperwork
Before choosing any metrics, return to your why. Why do you need to focus on a particular goal? What problem is your organization trying to solve? Why does that problem exist in the first place? Every measure should trace back to the organization’s mission and the community impact to be achieved. If a metric doesn’t clearly connect to the “why,” it’s probably not worth tracking.
TIP: Do a 5-minute strategic touchpoint at the top of every staff meeting to reorient team members to your why. Discuss updates in the context of specific elements of the strategic plan that each person articulates.
2. Focus on What Makes a Tangible Difference
Ask: “If we could only measure three things this quarter, what would they be?”
Fewer, focused metrics force clarity. Choose indicators that show meaningful movement, whether in client outcomes, fundraising effectiveness, or stakeholder engagement. Let go of vanity metrics that look impressive but don’t reflect real change.
Three seems like a small number, but it is a perfect starting place for many organizations. It enables organizations to hyper-focus on the most critical aspects that will make a measurable difference in the community. Plus, three tangible items are easier for individuals to remember than a spreadsheet of thirty.
TIP: Spend the last 5 minutes of each staff meeting reviewing those three items and ask your staff to bring to the next meeting ways that tangible difference can be achieved.
3. Translate Strategy into Action for Staff
A strategic plan shouldn’t sit on a shelf. It should be the basis for daily work.
For every strategic goal, define clear performance indicators that link directly to individual or departmental responsibilities. For example:
Goal: Improve community awareness of XYZ resources.
Team metric: Increase workshop participation by 20% through outreach partnerships.
When staff see their efforts connected to larger outcomes, they gain a sense of purpose, ownership, and accountability.
TIP: For individual professional review meetings, ask staff members to come up with at least one measurable, timely goal that directly connects to the strategic plan.
4. Create a Rhythm of Review
Metrics only matter if they are tracked and used. Schedule regular, monthly reviews where staff can share progress toward achieving specific metrics, identify barriers, and adjust strategies. This isn’t just about accountability—it’s about learning as an organization. In these sessions, encourage curiosity and improvement as a broader organization versus calling out individual limitations. This time allows for collaboration and analysis on how to move the needle forward, and brainstorming ways to address barriers.
TIP: Cumulatively compile the output of these review sessions as input for future board meetings.
5. Use Metrics as a Development Tool
One of the most overlooked ways to empower staff is to invite them into the process of defining and refining metrics. Not only does this expand their capabilities, it helps them understand how decisions are made and appreciate the impact their individual work makes in achieving the mission. When employees can see how their daily actions influence organizational impact, they grow as professionals and as mission-driven contributors…both of which are critical for developing leaders within your organization.
TIP: Assign team members to individual metrics, with the responsibility of researching (and sharing) refinements targeted to the strategic vision.
Bringing It All Together
When nonprofits choose the right metrics, they do more than check boxes on a spreadsheet. Metrics build clarity, confidence, and cohesion across teams. Metrics also underscore the need for resources and connections vital to organizational impact. Metrics enable staff to understand why their work matters. Metrics enable leaders to clearly articulate progress to funders and boards. Metrics allow the organization to move with greater purpose and precision toward its mission and impact.
Strategic plans aren’t meant to collect dust—they are the foundation for action. Choosing the right metrics is the first step for bringing that action to life.
Shauna Rowland