Learning agenda

A learning agenda is a codification of the most important questions (or knowledge gaps) that an organization doesn’t currently have answers to but must address in order to achieve its goals for impact. It includes a set of associated activities (or experiments) to help the organization develop answers to those questions over time. 

A learning agenda can help align key stakeholders (including board, funders, and staff) on what the organization hopes to learn, as well as lay out a common set of metrics that can be used to assess progress and move the organization forward. It is especially useful for organizations operating amid significant uncertainty in their external environment and that need to quickly test, learn, and adapt accordingly.

Operating model

A nonprofit’s operating model is the blueprint for how to organize and deploy people and resources. It serves as a bridge between strategy and execution. 

Every nonprofit has an operating model, even if it is not named as such, that describes where and how critical work gets done to achieve an organization’s goals. It includes four interrelated elements: 

1. Structuring the organization and distributing accountabilities, which clarifies where key work is done and who does it. 
2. Managing priorities and allocating resources, including the executive forums, managerial processes, and metrics that support high-quality decision making. 
3. Aligning leaders, talent, and culture. Organizational culture is shaped by how leaders guide their teams and how colleagues behave and interact with one another. 
4. Building your critical capabilities, which optimizes performance across the other priority elements of the operating model. Critical capabilities include recruiting and talent development, data and technology, expertise in critical areas, learning and innovation, and supports to ensure partnerships with other organizations are successful.

For more on this topic, see “Operating Models: How Nonprofits Get from Strategy to Results.”

Performance dashboard

A performance dashboard tracks the vital few metrics that your organization needs to measure and monitor to understand and manage performance. While program and functional staff often track dozens of indicators to understand whether their work is on track, the best dashboards for senior leadership and boards typically focus on the vital few metrics across those units that are critical to the entire organization’s success.

Performance dashboards enable an organization to continuously learn and improve, consequently helping it achieve better results. The metrics (data points) should be derived from an organization’s intended impact and theory of change—what the organization is holding itself accountable for achieving and how to get there. By measuring performance, nonprofits can:

• Track progress toward and be held accountable for their impact goals 
• Identify opportunities for improvement and celebrate areas of strength
• Understand their impact among different populations by disaggregating data (e.g., by race, ethnicity, gender, etc.) and identifying opportunities to address disparities
• Communicate progress and successes internally and externally to staff, beneficiaries, funders, peer organizations, and the broader community
• Gain insights over time about program effectiveness and what works, and, if appropriate, prepare for rigorous program evaluations

For more on this topic, see “Performance Measurement and Improvement.”

Program strategy map

A program strategy map (also known as a matrix map) is a visualization of each program’s financial sustainability and its fit with the impact the organization is pursuing, generally with specific populations of focus in mind.

Using a program strategy map, an organization can visualize how each of its programs contributes to both financial sustainability and impact. The map illuminates trade-offs such as, “If we did less of Program A, could we better allocate our unrestricted funds to Program B, having greater impact?” A leadership team can use a program strategy map to assess its programs in comparison to one another. This assessment also considers who else is doing similar work and how the organization’s own programs fit into the larger landscape of services and needs for the people and communities it serves.

For more on this topic How Nonprofits Can Map Their Programs to Their Strategies.”

Theory of change

A theory of change explains how your organization will achieve its impact—the approaches you will undertake and the other actors you will work with or alongside. Hallmarks of a strong theory of change include:

• It should be a target, not a mirror—articulating what your organization will do to achieve its intended impact, not merely listing your current programs and activities. Of course, much of what your organization does today is likely to be important, but you might need to add, remove, or change some elements to achieve your impact.
• It should capture the approaches and capabilities that make your organization distinctly good at what it does. These may exist at the organizational level (e.g., our practices are informed by a deep understanding of the communities we serve) or at the program level (e.g., our programs are grounded in a rigorous base of evidence).
• It should be specific enough to help the organization understand which elements are driving or impeding progress toward its goals. For example, if progress is slow, is it because your theory of change is not producing the desired results, or because you are not fully implementing your theory of change?

For more on this topic, see “What Are Intended Impact and Theory of Change and How Can Nonprofits Use Them?”