Founded in 1967, the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) provides advocacy, education, research, and training for regional development organizations in the United States. The association and its members promote regional strategies, partnerships, and solutions to strengthen the economic competitiveness and quality of life across America’s local communities. The NADO Research Foundation is the 501(c)(3) nonprofit affiliate of NADO that provides professional development training, research and peer networking services.
This visioning and strategic planning project served to strengthen and build existing nationwide capacity of NADO as well as provide a roadmap to new opportunities for growth in the future. The new Strategic Plan aims to drive organization-wide consensus on collaborative strategic initiatives that will guide decision-making for NADO and the NADO Research Foundation for the next five years.
The project included:
- Background research on NADO
- Facilitation of the NADO Future Think-Tank
- Scenarios of the Future Report
- Board and membership engagement including a Pre-Think-Tank survey, a Board Feedback Survey, and the NADO 2018 October Plenary Feedback Survey
- Detailed data collection, analysis and data visualization on Future iQ’s Lab Portal
- Production of NADO and the NADO Research Foundation Strategic Action Plan