The SWOT analysis is the place to start when your non-profit organization (or small business) is preparing to do strategic planning. The SWOT (which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) gives you situational awareness. It’s a process of understanding what you’re working with internally and the environment you’re dealing with externally.

I developed this SWOT analysis for non-profit boards to guide themselves through this process. Depending on how your board functions you may have great success doing this exercise yourself, but you may also like to have a facilitator guiding the discussions. I do that!