The Importance of Strategy for International Organizations: Turning Mission Into Impact

The current level of volatility in the development world is unprecedented. International organizations are facing more challenges and more scrutiny  than ever before. Whether it is addressing social challenges, advancing education, improving healthcare, or protecting the environment, non-profit international organizations were created for a mission larger than themselves. But passion alone isn’t enough to create lasting change. To truly maximize impact, international organizations need to sharply hone their essential tool: a clear strategy.

It is sometimes easier to think about effective strategies in the business world. Companies receive a clear market indication about the strengths and weaknesses of their strategies and implementation. Some of the largest and most profitable companies are successful because of the ruthlessly effective way in which they conceived and pursued the implementation of that strategy. Here are a few that consistently top the charts for strategic effectiveness:

 Companies with Exceptionally Effective Strategies[1] [2]:

These strategies are effective because they embody the following key principles:

• Clear Vision: Each company knows exactly what it wants to achieve.
• Execution Discipline: Strategy isn’t just a plan—it’s a practice. These companies execute relentlessly.
• Customer-Centricity: They build around user needs, not internal convenience.
• Adaptability: They evolve with markets, tech, and consumer behavior.
• Measurable Impact: Their strategies are backed by KPIs, dashboards, and feedback loops.

Why Strategy matters for International Nonprofit Organizations

So, how can these concepts from the business world help international nonprofit organizations? In the nonprofit development world, strategy documents are usually prepared, but there is a wide range of clarity, and implementation effectiveness of these prepared strategies. Unlike the business world, however, market responses to international nonprofit organizations’ strategies have not been historically that strong. The mandates of international non-profits, the dire need of the world’s population, were the driving force for overseas development aid and funding. Strategy was not the determining variable for whether these organizations received funding or not.

These dynamics have changed rapidly and drastically of late. The traditionally large sources of funding for international organizations, overseas development aid, has had many recent shocks in direction and volumes. At the same time, the composition of donors have shifted with new country donors and private philanthropies; however, the engagement of international organizations with new donors and changing dynamics have been met with mixed success.

A compelling strategy can be one of the most effective ways to communicate with donors and stakeholders. It communicates the roadmap that connects the organization’s mission to measurable outcomes. It ensures that limited resources—funding, staff, and volunteer time—are directed toward the programs and initiatives that create the greatest impact. And it communicates effectively to its audience, whether they are customers/beneficiaries, donors/financiers/investors, and partners/stakeholders. The strategy answers the overarching questions of the organization’s raison d’être: Who are we serving? How will we create change? How do we measure success?

I know this works because I have experienced it firsthand. Some years ago, I managed the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), a partnership between the World Bank Group and the United Nations Development Program. The program ran for over 30 years with an important mission: to ensure that water and sanitation services are available sustainably to the poorest people around the world. While WSP faithfully prepared strategy documents to guide its work in 25 countries within 4 regions around the world, in practical terms, the work programs were reset yearly dependent on the funding that was raised that year. There was a disconnect between the impact WSP was striving for, long term sustainable institutional change, and the short term nature of its funding. To break through this disconnect, we built a multi-year strategy to allow for multi-year resource mobilization. This enabled the largest resource mobilization effort for the program in its history, with a healthy reserve for the future.

A clear and well-articulated strategy can be the lifeblood of a nonprofit organization, because it:

• Aligns Mission and Action – One of the most positive outcomes the strategy had for WSP was the effect it had Because the strategy was built on both the global reach and the in-country conditions, staff were able to see exactly how their work fit into the strategy, and if not, how to adjust their work program to do so. A strong strategy ensures that every program, campaign, and partnership supports the nonprofit’s mission. It prevents mission drift and keeps the organization focused on what matters most.
• Strengthens Fundraising and Donor Confidence – Donors want to invest in organizations that have a clear plan for impact. A well-defined strategy demonstrates accountability and builds trust. The systematic approach of the 5 year business plan, and the clear monitoring against the program’s targets, allowed existing and new donors to fully fund the $200 million business plan.
• Creates Measurable Impact – Strategy breaks down ambitious missions into actionable steps with measurable outcomes. This not only helps nonprofits track their progress but also communicate their value.

Strategy with Substance: Measurable Indicators Matter in Global Success

A strategy needs measurable indicators, and a rigorous way to measure them, in order to have impact. In a world increasingly driven by data, intuition alone no longer cuts it. Whether you’re leading a nonprofit in Nairobi, scaling a startup in São Paulo, or managing a government program in Stockholm, one truth remains universal: a strategy without measurable indicators is like sailing without a compass. You might be moving, but you won’t know if you’re heading in the right direction.

Clear, measurable indicators are essential to any strategy—and how organizations around the world are using them to drive impact, accountability, and innovation. In WSP, while the monitoring framework and indicators communicated to all stakeholders the outcomes that the program was striving for, the  most important stakeholders were the governments and communities where the program was working. The process of identifying the desired outcomes strengthened the accountability between WSP and the countries it served. The countries knew exactly what the money was being used for.

Strategy’s Impact on People

It is important to recognize that success often depends less on the written strategy and more on the people tasked with executing it. Once WSP staff realized that these indicators would measure the success of the entire organization, they rigorously started to use them, apply them rigorously to any activity they would have done previously, with the question, “Will this activity help me to move the needle on indicator X?” and “How can I redesign, or adjust this program in order to move the indicator even further along than before?” It was an amazing way to empower staff to act, without micro-management.

By contract, if management is more concerned about protecting their own positions than driving organizational change, then the strategy will inevitably stall. Staff hires must be aligned and focused on long-term institutional needs, otherwise, this will lead to underperformance across the board. Staff, rather than taking initiative, often default to a culture of “sitting on their hands,” avoiding accountability and responsibility. This is particularly evident in certain support functions—where performance is poor, service standards unacceptable, and nothing is done to correct it.

The broader issue is the risks posed by absence of meaningful incentives for staff to embrace and sustain change. Without clear rewards for improvement, and consequences for inertia, there is simply no motivation to alter entrenched behaviors. Any strategy, however well designed, risks becoming a paper exercise if the organizational culture tolerates passivity and resists accountability.

Another benefit of WSP’s monitoring and evaluation framework was to strengthen the trust with donors. The annual monitoring of these indicators gave the opportunity to have a discussion about the organization’s strategy and the basic theory of change. Perhaps counterintuitively, the more useful and impactful discussion happened when one or more of the indicators was not met as anticipated. This created an opportunity to learn together the factors that increase sustainability of water and sanitation programs on the ground. The process of discovery, done jointly with staff and donors, strengthened the trust between the two groups to strive jointly for a shared outcome.

Indicators act as early warning systems. If something is off-track, data can prompt timely pivots before failure becomes expensive. Tracking results helps organizations learn what works and what doesn’t. This fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

I used the WSP example to illustrate that a clear strategy backed up with measurable indicators works. But that was some years ago. A current example of an organization that is putting this in action right now is theGlobal Water Partnership (GWP). GWP was created some twenty years ago, to advance the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The network has a rigorous Theory of Change to support this original core mission. With a global network that spans over 175 countries and over 2700 network members, GWP does not move swiftly.

Nonetheless, it was clear that some components of its Theory of Change needed to shift. The organization’s new CEO seized on this moment of industry volatility to put into place a dramatic and exciting strategy that codifies an updated Theory of Change and clear and measurable indicators. Some components of the new strategy, such as active mobilization of Heads of State for the water agenda, are a dramatic evolution of the Theory of Change under which the network has historically operated. While it is early days, the results have been met with astounding and positive response, raising the profile of water management as announced by the first African country to host the G20, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa during the first G20 Water Investment Summit in Cape Town, South Africa in August 2025.

Final Thoughts

For nonprofits, strategy is not about paperwork or bureaucracy—it’s about impact and about communicating its impact. Strategy transforms passion into measurable change, builds trust with funders, and empowers organizations to serve communities more effectively. In these days of rapid change, volatility, and heightened competition for resources, international non-profit organizations must rigorously analyze their strategies to ensure that the most important results are targeted. A robust strategy is a must to help international organizations move from good intentions to global change.

[1] T. Wright, Cascade, Oct., 2024

[2] http://www.firmpavilion.com

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this blog reflect the personal opinion of the author and do not represent the position or policy of GBPG or entities we are affiliated with. While we strive to ensure the accuracy of the information presented, we make no guarantees regarding its completeness, reliability, or accuracy.