Cohort 1

Master the art and craft of nonprofit strategy during uncertainty.   Become a more effective leader during these unprecedented times.  

Sushma Raman

Strategy Masterclass for Nonprofit Leaders

Harvard University

Ford Foundation

Open Society Foundations

Tufts University

UCLA

Your ability as a nonprofit leader to shape, implement, and communicate strategy is essential for your success–and the organization’s survival and impact.&nbsp; We are in unprecedented times--and leaders are being put to the test. We'll deep dive into adaptive planning, scenario planning, building organizational resilience--all while building buy-in and tackling resistance. You will learn from a leading expert in social impact strategy and leadership who has taught at leading universities, launched and scaled multi-million dollar programs globally and domestically, and coached and advised numerous leaders. You will be part of a peer cohort working on live examples, projects, and deep dive discussions with leading experts.

What you will learn

You are a leader of a nonprofit organization. Your title might be executive director, board member, or a member of the leadership team.

Your program or nonprofit organization is facing significant shifts in the external landscape.

You are leading or part of an organization with new or established programs, and are desperately in need of fresh, creative, strategic think

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

Learn to stand out as a strategic thought leader.

Establish and strengthen your personal strategic leadership expertise and credentials

Understand how to gather and prioritize key information and translate into collective action.

Lead Strategic Change Amidst Uncertainty

Are you and your team overwhelmed by lack of clarity, conflicting priorities, and new emergencies? We will take a step back to assess the key internal and external forces affecting your strategic and impact using a template I have created specially for this course.

Analyze and interpret the internal and external forces that affect the strategy for your organization

Do you have a mission and vision? What about a theory of change? We'll construct, analyze, and hone these key building blocks of strategy.

Construct and hone your theory of change

What makes your work unique? Project work, worksheets, and deep dive collaboration will help you with distinctive positioning.

Prioritize and apply the concept of “distinctive positioning” to help you design and communicate your unique value-add

The frameworks, templates, and concepts I have developed for this course and will share in the pre-reads, during the live class, and after will be available for you to download and use during the course and after the conclusion of the course.

Access one-of-a-kind frameworks and actionable tactics to help you create, sharpen, or revisit strategy

Provide a brief description for each module as a way to sell the value of what students will be learning throughout the course.

First Module

Second Module

Third Module

Course syllabus

Director of Strategy and Communications, Harvard EdRedesign Lab

What folks are saying 

Meet your instructor

Thursday, September 11th - Wednesday, September 17th 

Thursday, Sep 11: Strategy amidst Uncertainty Friday, Sep 12: Assessing a Rapidly Shifting Landscape Monday, Sep 15: Adaptive &amp; Scenario Planning Tuesday, Sep 16: Building Buy-In, Tackling Resistance Wednesday, Sep 17: Show Me the Money

Thursday, May 29 - Wednesday June 4, 2025

Work on projects that apply the learnings from the course. Materials can be accessed beyond the course timeline, allowing participants to deepen learning over time.

Weekly projects

Course schedule

This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects

Active hands-on learning

You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams

Interactive and project-based

Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you

Course completed by

About this course

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