Strategy That Outlasts You
A practical ten-step guide for charity boards and leaders. It is about strategy that a board actually decides, can pay for, and keeps to after the away day is over.
PDF and EPUB · 120 pages · 25 diagrams · the free sample covers how to use the book, the preface and the opening of Chapter 1
Every copy comes with seventeen editable Word and Excel templates, the Board Readiness and Strategy Diagnostic with a full PDF report, and a free 30-minute call to talk it through.
Most charity strategies fail after the workshop, not in it
The good books on charity strategy are long, mostly American, and treat strategy as a planning exercise. In twenty years, as a charity chief executive and as an adviser to boards, I have rarely seen a strategy fail because the SWOT was done badly. Strategies fail because the board was not ready to own one, because nobody chose anything, because the money pulled in another direction, or because nobody had time to deliver it.
This book is short enough to read before an away day. It works for charities, foundations and non-profits of any size, in any country, draws on the UK regulator where regulation matters, and takes the circumstances of faith-based and Muslim-led organisations seriously throughout. Every step has an exercise you can run yourself, and an example from real engagements over the last twenty years.
A readiness check, ten steps, and how to run the day
Why strategies fail. Whether your board is ready. Reading your current strategy back as named tensions, and the one question it has to answer.
Where you are now, done properly. A vision that is an end state, a mission that rules things out, and values written as decision rules.
Four to six goals that are real choices, objectives with numbers and dates, and actions with one owner each.
Not all money is the same. Zakat, sadaqah, reserves, waqf and campaign income, and why seasonal giving makes institutions fragile.
Risk against the choices you have made, what the regulator now looks for, and how to keep the strategy in front of the board.
Decide, don't ratify: the pre-read, the private vote, the decision grid, and six cases with what happened next.
Seventeen working templates, ready to use on Monday
Not lists of questions: real Word forms and Excel workbooks that calculate as you go. Complete them on screen, send them round your board, or print them and fill them in by hand. Download them with the code in the book.
Risk register
Identify, categorise and score risks before and after controls, with heat maps and a chart for the board pack.
Strategy workbook
Goals, objectives, actions with owners, and a board dashboard that charts progress.
Money map
Income by type and season, what the strategy needs, the gap, and a reserves check.
Board skills matrix
Skills scored against the strategy, terms and attendance flagged, and a recruitment brief.
Policy tracker
Every key policy with an owner and review date. Shows what is overdue the moment you open it.
Register of interests
Declarations, conflicts at meetings, and gifts and hospitality, in one place.
Strategy on a page
Everything the board has agreed, on one A3 sheet.
Readiness check
Seven questions for the chair and chief executive before you book a strategy day.
The strategy-day set
Pre-workshop questionnaire, 48-hour primer, trustee response form, decision grid and parked items.
Tensions and values
Read your strategy back as named tensions, and turn values into decision rules.
Governance set
Board agenda, model conflicts of interest policy and a declaration form.
Start here
A two-page guide to completing every template.
The diagnostic and full report
Take the Board Readiness and Strategy Diagnostic and receive a PDF report written for your organisation: your profile, red flags, what each gap puts at risk, where to start, and the question for your board. Every action names a template from the pack.
A free 30-minute call
Everyone who completes the diagnostic can book a free 30-minute call with Kashif Shabir to walk through the report and agree what to do first.
The book
The method behind it all, in ten steps, as PDF and EPUB, with a sample to read before you buy.
Kashif Shabir
Founder and CEO of Ethical Consulting Group. Kashif has spent more than twenty years in the commercial and charity sectors, including strategic transformation work for the British Red Cross and Oxfam, co-founding Mercy Mission, and leading Muslim Aid UK as chief executive. He is Strategic Advisor for Islamic Philanthropy to UK for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency's UK charity. He advises charities, foundations and family offices on strategy, governance and faith-based giving, and coaches chief executives.
