Over the last few months I’ve facilitated several planning retreats for our nonprofit clients and have been a participant in our own agency’s retreat. I hear the genuine concern boards and staff have for the future. I know this is driven by our current economic downturn. Nonprofits have always been at the mercy of charitable giving, but the economy looms even larger as we make our best attempts to lay out reasonable goals and objectives for the future.
The Maori New Zealanders have a phrase for planning for the future “ katiakitanga,” which means that the management actions you foster today will create benefits for the future. Or put more simply, the small actions we take today will root and grow if they are nurtured. It’s important to infuse some katiakitanga in both our plans and our actions. We want to create planning documents that include compelling action items as part of our stewardship, my western interpretation of katiakitanga. Stewardship is managemen...