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Strategy & strategic planning

Business plan development for nonprofits

Signs you need a business plan

You have a strong idea or growth ambition but every time a funder asks for a business plan, you don't know where to start.

What you'll achieve

A credible, evidence-based business plan that makes the case for investment and sets out a realistic path to sustainability.

How a Nonprofit Builder consultant helps

  • Work with your leadership team to define the model, stress-test assumptions, build the financial projections, and write up a compelling plan.

Key deliverables

  • Business plan document, financial model with scenarios, executive summary, supporting pitch materials.

From the resource library

Free tools and guides to get started

  • 14.2C188

    Thinking Through the Business Model

    A short worksheet from Nonprofit Finance Fund that helps a nonprofit team describe its business model. It has 6 prompts: mission, market (who receives services and who pays for them), programmes, expenses, revenue and outreach. Teams fill it in together, often before a budget or strategy session, to see how the parts connect and where money and mission pull apart.

    Start hereClassicTool or templateFree
  • 15.2C191

    Start Your Social Enterprise

    A 28-page start-up guide for people setting up a social enterprise or trading venture. After an introduction to what social enterprise is, it has chapters on mission, market, money, social impact, people, sales and marketing, legal structure, the business plan and looking after yourself, ending with a summary. Founders work through it chapter by chapter as they shape their plan.

    Start hereClassicKey manual or guideFree