Strategic goals are the roadmap to an association’s future success and longevity. Without them, even the most passionate teams can veer off course, missing out on opportunities for growth, engagement, and impact.

However, when you clearly define your goals, align them with your current resources, and regularly revisit them, you can set your association up for lasting success.

In this post, we’ll outline clear, actionable steps your association can take to set strategic goals that reflect your mission and support your long-term vision.

1. Clarify your mission and vision.

Every effective strategic goal-setting process begins with purpose. Ensure your mission and vision statements are up-to-date and relevant, as these foundational elements should guide goal development. Without this central purpose, even well-executed strategies can drift from your association’s core identity.

For example, let’s say your association hasn’t updated its mission statement in several years, when your organization’s main goal was to “provide professional development opportunities for those in the local area and fully engage members.”

While you likely still want to enrich members’ professional development and keep them engaged, your priorities may have shifted over the past few years. Perhaps you’ve expanded into a multi-chapter association that goes beyond your local area and therefore has different needs now.

Consider hosting a retreat or planning session to revisit your mission and vision each year and update them accordingly. The example mission statement above may morph into something like this:

“Our association’s mission is to provide professional development opportunities to members across the country, encourage networking within the community to boost employment, and advance the industry through discussions of current trends.”

2. Conduct a situational analysis.

Conduct a SWOT analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that could influence your strategic planning. This step helps you better understand your organization’s current state so you can create well-informed goals.

For instance, here’s what a SWOT analysis might look like for a healthcare association:

• Strengths: Trusted within the industry, loyal member base representing various disciplines, and successful annual conferences with high attendance

• Weaknesses: Lack of administrative support for back-office operations like payroll and human resources, minimal revenue diversification, and staffing shortage

• Opportunities: Potential partnership with a local business, young professionals entering the field, and increased demand for resources covering mental health awareness and treatment

• Threats: Economic crisis limiting revenue potential, federal funding cuts, and healthcare burnout preventing members from fully participating in activities

To complete this type of analysis, incorporate a mix of internal and external data. Use your membership software for nonprofits to source engagement and retention data, leverage industry reports to reveal current trends, and interview members to better understand their experiences with your organization.

3. Develop SMART goals.

Once you’ve identified key focus areas, convert them into SMART goals—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This framework ensures your strategic goals are actionable and trackable.

Let’s say you want to increase member engagement and retention. The different components of your SMART goal may look like this:

• Specific: We’re aiming to increase member engagement and retention.

• Measurable: We’d like to increase our member retention rate by 20%.

• Achievable: Last year, we had a 15% increase in membership retention, so 20% seems realistic.

• Relevant: Our association’s mission is to develop a well-rounded community of industry professionals, so boosting member retention will help us achieve our mission.

• Time-Bound: We will aim to reach this goal over the next year.

Consider developing sub-goals or milestones for each objective to break the work into manageable steps. For instance, if your focus is to acquire new members, one of the tasks associated with that goal may be to update your association’s website. Tradewing’s guide to the best association websites recommends implementing search engine optimization (SEO) best practices so prospects can find your site and prioritizing user experience to keep visitors on your site.

4. Align goals with your budget and resources.

Chances are, each of your goals will require some financial investment. Determining what resources you’ll need to execute these goals and translating them into line items ensures you can confidently pursue your objectives.

Perhaps one of your goals is to increase attendance at your annual conference. You may be weighing whether to stick to your regular online promotional strategies or combine them with direct mail.

The latter path would involve committing to a greater investment that may present a greater payoff, considering 60% of marketers reported increased return on investment (ROI) when combining direct mail with digital marketing. Calculate how much it would cost to send physical event invitations, and evaluate whether there is room in your budget.

Consider overhead costs as well. As Strategic Association Solutions’ accounting for nonprofits guide explains, “While you should try to maximize the funds that go toward your cause, you can’t properly pursue your mission without putting enough funding toward the behind-the-scenes processes that keep your organization running smoothly.” 

Continuing with the goal outlined above, you may need to hire additional team members or invest in new technology to effectively increase event attendance. Factor in these additional costs to ensure you have everything you need to pursue your goals.

5. Build in flexibility.

Effective strategic goal-setting isn’t static. Build checkpoints into your planning cycle to evaluate progress and adjust your plan based on new data or changing conditions. Have leadership, staff, and any outsourced consultants meet regularly to analyze current data and agree on next steps.

If your goal is to increase member engagement and retention by 20% over the next year, you may meet quarterly to review engagement metrics and member survey responses about their experiences with your association. You could also evaluate the effectiveness of strategies you’ve implemented to achieve this goal, such as adopting new member engagement tools, hosting new events, or implementing new communication channels.

There may be situations where you need to pivot to reach your goals. Maybe your new member engagement software doesn’t have the functionality members are looking for, or the content you’ve posted on Instagram hasn’t gotten much traction. By establishing regular checkpoints, you can identify these issues early on and take the necessary actions to get your strategy back on track. 

Strategic goal-setting is more than a planning exercise. In reality, it’s a leadership discipline that brings clarity, cohesion, and direction to your association. From anchoring goals in your mission and vision to aligning them with your budget, every step in the process builds toward a stronger, more sustainable future.

By following a structured yet flexible approach, associations can remain mission-focused while evolving to meet new challenges. Whether you’re building your first strategic plan or updating an existing one, these steps will help ensure your goals are clear and actionable.