Social Innovation Forum
We at Social Innovation Forum (SIF) have partnered with CFAR (Center for Applied Research, Inc.) on our strategic planning process, which launched in September 2025. Our goals are to understand SIF’s unique value proposition, to clarify how we communicate our role in the sector, and to ensure our program execution aligns with our core values. We are moving through the phases of the strategic planning process, just having entered the third phase, with the approximate timeline as follows:
- September 2025: Official launch
- September - October 2025 (Phase 1): Gathering stakeholder input through one-on-one interviews and focus groups
- November - December 2025 (Phase 2): Synthesize input and develop draft goals (including mission, vision, and strategic priorities)
- January - June 2026 (Phase 3): Develop and finalize the plan with the staff and Board
- July - September 2026: Close out the process
We’re grateful to the many stakeholders who shared their perspectives with the CFAR team as part of our data gathering process. Perspectives ranged from nonprofit leaders, past track partners, SIF staff and Board members, Innovator Alumni, program participants, funders, and other capacity-building organizations.
CFAR facilitates the Strategic Planning Working Group, which is a comprehensive planning committee with staff and board representatives. Two SIF staff members in the Strategic Planning Working Group share what they’ve found interesting about the strategic planning process thus far.
Personally, I have enjoyed participating in SIF’s strategic development and goal setting. As a member of the program team, I'm usually focused on program delivery, rather than developing organizational strategy. The opportunity to peek behind the curtain and participate in this process has been rewarding! I’ve also appreciated the chance to share my perspective as someone who works closely with our nonprofit program participants. I have been able to uplift what they’ve shared with me – their anxieties about the state of the world, their needs in a rapidly changing sector, and their hopes for meaningful partnerships –to better inform how SIF provides transformational capacity building.
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Malathi Reddy, Senior Program Coordinator, SIF
I think what I’ve found interesting about the strategic planning process is how critical our vision and mission are to the decisions we make as an organization. I had known they were our ‘North Star’ and fundamental, but having our mission framed as something that guides our team towards programmatic decisions felt particularly salient and useful. Now I know to look towards the mission when I’m deciding between strategic options and seeking guidance on the through line of our work. Throughout this process, we’ve engaged in exercises that challenge us to think about what we want SIF’s impact to be ten years from now and to consider the strategic options that may bring us closer to or farther from accomplishing our goals. Having this time to step back and reflect has been helpful to think about our unique value proposition and how we can best serve funders, nonprofits, and the sector at large.
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Carina Traub, Funder Learning Manager, SIF
By including staff members like Malathi and Carina, the working group brings in other perspectives of those proximate to the communities that SIF serves. We’re excited to finalize our revised vision and mission statements and to move forward to the next phase of identifying tactics to execute on our strategic priorities.