Lupus Foundation of America: Building and Implementing an Integrated Five-Year Strategic Plan

The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) approached Springboard for help in developing an integrated strategic plan. The Foundation has almost 20 chapters in its network; each of those chapters is an independent non-profit organization with its own governance and with often conflicting agendas to the national office. We worked over a 12-month period to identify critical strategic areas of focus for the Foundation, to build consensus across the organization for the new five-year plan, and to establish specific annual goals and tactics.

Throughout the planning process, we worked with the national office management team, the national Board, chapter CEOs, and the national office staff. We also created a scorecard to track their progress against the plan and to report to the Board and other stakeholders. The new strategic plan has wide-spread adoption, ensures alignment across the entire organization, and has created momentum for the Foundation to focus on critical new strategic outcomes.

The LFA published their vision, mission, values, and strategic objectives to their website as a part of a larger branding initiative. They also created a set of operating principles to be used by the management team in meetings. Finally, they developed a set of questions to ask as they make decisions to ensure alignment to their strategic direction. Each member of the staff was given a padfolio for easy access to the new strategic plan, including vision, mission, values, strategic outcomes, an alignment checklist, and more.