We're Launching a Survey (And Need Your Help)
Share your experiences to help build a collective understanding of decision-making practices across the sector.
Hello everyone! We’re excited to bring you the fifth installment in our “Strategic Agility Reboot” series. As we reach this midpoint in our journey together, we want to thank you for engaging with these tools and practices designed to help you operate more strategically even when everything around you feels urgent.
The State of Strategic Thinking in Nonprofits
We’ve been thinking about strategic thinking lately. Obviously, because we’ve sent you lots of newsletters about it.
And it sounds redundant, but we mean it. We’ve been observing how nonprofits make decisions: how they choose what to do next, and how they decide when something isn’t working.
What we see is that most nonprofits care deeply about their work. They want to make good decisions. They want to focus on what matters. But the actual mechanics of strategic thinking, the habits and practices that lead to clarity and good choices, are all over the map.
Some organizations ask “what change will this create?” before launching a program. Others skip that question until they’re already knee-deep in implementation. Some pause mid-project to check if they’re solving the right problem. Others keep moving forward because stopping feels like failure.
We don’t think this is about smart people versus less-smart people. We think it’s about which habits have taken root in an organization and which haven’t.
Introducing Our Strategic Fitness Survey
So we’re launching a survey to figure out what’s actually happening out there, and it will culminate in a report we will release early in 2026.
The survey asks about the behaviors that we think signal strategic fitness. We’ll be seeking data on questions such as:
Whether teams define the outcome they want before jumping into action.
Whether they consider how different parts of their work influence each other.
Whether they look for leverage points instead of just working harder.
Whether strategic decisions get enough time and attention or get rushed.
We want to understand the current state. What’s common practice? What’s rare? And most importantly, do these habits connect to better outcomes?
The survey takes less than 10 minutes. It’s for nonprofit staff, leaders, board members, and consultants who work in the social sector. There are about a dozen questions about strategic behaviors, more about Board and leadership alignment and communications, questions about about how decisions actually play out, and a handful of open-ended questions where you can share what you’re experiencing.
What We’ll Do With Your Responses
We’re not trying to grade anyone. Our objective is to create a baseline, see patterns, and identify what separates organizations that feel strategically fit from those that feel stuck.
We’ll gather responses through the end of the month. Then we’ll analyze the data and release a report in early 2026. The report will describe what we found, identify different approaches to strategic thinking, and offer some practical starting points based on where an organization currently stands.
We have a favor to ask.
First, if you work in or with nonprofits, please fill out the survey. Your responses will help us all understand the landscape better.
Second, share the survey with others! Post it on LinkedIn. Forward it to your network. Send it to your board chair or your executive director. We want to gather at least 50 responses to make this meaningful, and the more diverse perspectives we gather, the more useful the report will be.
Building a Collective Understanding of Strategic Practices
We’ve spent years working with nonprofits on strategy. We’ve seen what happens when strategic thinking is strong and when it’s weak. But we’ve never had data that shows the full picture across the sector. This survey is a chance to build that picture together.
Thanks for being part of this journey with us. If you’ve missed any of our previous newsletters in this series, you can find them in our archives, starting with our introduction to the Strategic Agility Reboot and continuing through our practical tools like the Pause Protocol.
Looking forward to the next phase of our series!
Sam and Susannah