Description

Request for Proposals: MCC Strategic Planning Consultancy

Below is the terms of reference for a consultancy to provide counsel to senior staff and the boards of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) on models for governance-level goal setting and reporting on MCC-wide strategic objectives and how management-level reporting can feed into such governance-level reporting. The consultancy will consist of up to 20 days of work spread out between January and December 2024. Send questions and expressions of interest, including CV, a description of your previous experience consulting about strategic plan reporting processes (including at the governance level), information about your availability during 2024, and your daily rate, to MCC planning and learning director, Alain Epp Weaver. Deadline: December 20.

Terms of Reference: MCC Strategic Planning Consultancy

Summary

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) seeks an external consultant to help its senior staff and national boards think through models for governance-level strategic planning and reporting and how such governance-level strategic plans and reports relate to and draw from management-level planning and reporting.  The consultant will provide feedback on the strategic planning structure, process, and model generated by a staff/board strategic planning committee and will offer their own ideas for models of governance-level strategic planning and reporting that build on management-level plans and reports.

Background

MCC is an Anabaptist relief, development, and peacebuilding organization, working in 45 countries globally in the name of Christ. The MCC system is made up of 1) two national MCCs, MCC Canada and MCC U.S., who together jointly oversee MCC’s international program outside Canada and the U.S.; 2) five provincial MCC entities; and 3) four regional MCC entities. The relationship between MCC Canada and the provincial MCC entities is guided by a covenant, as is the relationship between MCC U.S. and the regional MCC entities. MCC U.S. and MCC Canada collaborate together on the basis of a covenant agreement.

MCC-wide strategic planning is relatively new. The first strategic plan to encompass all 11 MCC entities (provincial, regional, and national, including MCC’s international program) ran from April 2015-March 2020. The MCC system is now in the fourth year of a second five-year strategic planning period, which started in April 2020 and is scheduled to end in March 2025. The MCC Canada and MCC U.S. boards are slated to extend MCC’s current strategic directions (objectives) for another five-year period (through March 2030), affirming that MCC has more to do to live into these strategic directions.

Three related challenges with the MCC-wide strategic plan have surfaced over the past four years. First, MCC has not set global goals for its MCC-wide strategic targets. A second, related challenge has been board and staff dissatisfaction with current governance-level reporting on the MCC-wide strategic directions, along with a corresponding desire for new forms of governance-level strategic plans and reports. Third, MCC provincial, regional, and national entities have expressed uncertainty about how their management-level reporting feeds into governance-level strategic plans and reports.

Consultancy Tasks and Deliverables

1. Review documentation and meet with members of MCC’s strategic planning coordinating committee and potentially other senior staff and board members to develop understanding of how MCC has worked at governance-level strategic planning and reporting over the past decade and of the tensions and challenges those efforts have faced.
2. Review and offer feedback on strategic planning structure, process, and models developed by MCC’s strategic planning coordinating committee for improved MCC governance-level involvement in strategic planning and reporting and for improved connection between management-level and governance-level reporting on the strategic directions. This feedback will include helping the committee think through models for governance-level strategic goal-setting and strategic plan reporting used within the non-profit sector.
3. Present at meetings of MCC’s national boards in 2024 to help introduce a proposed structure and process for governance-level participation in strategic planning and reporting and to explain how broader best practices of how non-profit boards provide governance-level oversight of staff implementation of strategic directions can be applied by MCC boards.

Consultancy length

Up to 20 days of work between January and December 2024.

Oversight

The consultant’s efforts will be guided by MCC’s strategic planning coordinating committee, consisting of staff leadership and representatives from MCC’s national boards.

Timetable

• November 2023: Finalize terms of reference for external consultant. Solicit expressions of interest. Identify and sign agreement with consultant.
• December 2023-February 2024: Review draft models and proposals for governance-level strategic planning and reporting developed by strategic planning coordinating committee and meets with committee members to offer feedback on that material.
• Mid-March 2024: Join MCC strategic planning coordinating committee members in presenting model for MCC governance-level strategic planning and reports to MCC’s national boards, framing the proposal for board members within broader non-profit approaches to governance-level strategic planning and reporting.
• April-May 2024: Review and offer feedback on governance-level strategic plan and report templates.
• Mid-June 2024: In collaboration with strategic planning coordinating committee, present governance-level strategic plan and report templates to MCC’s national boards.
• July 2024-March 2025 Available for consultation as needed as staff develop strategic plans for submission to national boards for their March 2025 joint meeting.

Requirements

At least 5-7 years' of experience consulting with non-profit organizations about governance-level goal-setting for and reporting on strategic objectives.

Experience consulting for international NGOs on strategic planning a plus.