Strategic Initiative Evaluation Matrix: Choose What to Prioritize
February 5, 2026 | By David M. Wagner
It has been said: effective strategy isn’t just about deciding what to say “yes” to. It’s also about deciding what to say “no” to.
Nonprofit and library staff and boards often face challenges when deciding which ideas to pursue, which ideas not to pursue, and which to prioritize above other worthy options. Choosing from several good options may be a problem of luxury. It is nonetheless, a problem -especially when time, staff (and board and volunteer) capacity, and financial reserves are fixed resources.
This article introduces a concrete, repeatable process that staff and boards can easily implement to make confident decisions about candidate projects and initiatives. Clear Mission Consulting clients use this process to:
Discern ideas that are a good fit for their organization from those that are not a good fit,
Identify opportunities to improve ideas so they can be a better fit for their organization, and
Prioritize ideas that are the best fit for their organization over other good ideas.
To use this process successfully, the decision makers involved must already have a clear, unambiguous, shared understanding of your organization’s (in priority order) values, vision, mission, goals, and plans. The proposed process can also be used to create new plans if the organization is weighing which strategic initiatives to pursue, such as during a strategic planning process. In that case, the questions below regarding “existing plans” can be interpreted to mean a collection of candidate plans under consideration.
Clear Mission Consulting offers a free, reusable tool - the Strategic Initiative Evaluation Matrix - to implement this process. To access the tool, simply fill out the brief form below. In addition to obtaining the worksheet, you will receive a subscription to Lens on Leadership, a weekly newsletter with actionable, 2-minute tips on strategic leadership. You may unsubscribe at any time.
The rest of this article offers more context and implementation tips to serve as a kind of “how to” for making use of the Strategic Initiative Evaluation Matrix and a guide for designing your own process, even if you decide not to download the tool.
5 Key Factors to Weigh for Candidate Initiatives
The process of evaluating a candidate initiative involves answering five key questions about the idea’s alignment with your organization’s strategy.
1. Does this conform with our non-negotiables?
Your shared values are the unchanging, unyielding principles at the bedrock of every strategic choice. If a project would force your team to compromise your values – like accepting restrictions from a funder that would conflict with your organization’s commitments to equity – that’s a clear no-go.
On the other extreme, an initiative might make it possible to strengthen and further your values – like an opportunity to enhance equitable access to services.
Expect that most projects will fall in the middle: they’ll be neutral (no conflict with) or mildly supportive of your values.
2. Does this advance our vision?
Your vision can include your ideal for the better world you hope to create as well as your enduring concept for what your organization could become.
A clear no-go: any initiative that undercuts your vision. Trying to reduce hunger in your community? Partnering with an organization that places barriers on food access is a nonstarter.
The highest priority opportunities are those that are critical to achieving your shared vision. Many projects may support your vision, if less critically; others will simply not conflict with your vision.
3. Are we the right ones to do it?
When you’re crystal clear about what your specific mission is (and what it isn’t), it’s much easier to recognize what’s in your wheelhouse and what’s in someone else’s. Equally important is your team's capacity - both bandwidth and skills.
Say “no” to opportunities that fall outside your mission lane (avoid mission creep!) or that your team simply lacks the capacity to take on. Direct food distribution to people in need might be better left to food pantries (where it’s core to their mission) than to food banks (where it’s not).
Your best fit: projects that only your team could tackle and that are core to accomplishing your mission.
The grey area in the middle spans initiatives that fit your mission and your team could pull off extremely well, to ideas that are mission-adjacent and may be a stretch to execute.
4. Does this support our existing goals?
Sound strategic goals add specificity to the priorities you’ve decided to invest in as a team.
While you could take on an initiative that runs counter to those goals (and is a strong fit for every factor above), it would indicate a reversal in strategy. Saying “yes” to converting half your warehouse into cold food storage doesn’t just mean you won’t meet your goal to increase (dry good) food distribution – it reflects a total shift in approach.
Best-fit initiatives will check every box above and be critical to achieving your established goals. Other good fits may vary from slightly modifying your expected outcomes to firmly advancing your goals.
5. Does this build upon our existing plans?
If you have a strategic plan, your chosen initiatives demarcate what you’ve decided to focus your energy and resources doing.
As with existing goals, tread lightly with initiatives that would undermine planned projects. If you already committed to building that new warehouse close to one community, recognize that shifting the resources to respond to a request to build it elsewhere might mean dealing with cascading changes, delays, and burned bridges.
Ideal initiatives will accelerate or simplify (or even be better replacements for) your existing plans. Still-good ideas could integrate well with projects underway or simply be added without conflict.
Process Implementation Suggestions
Here are some ideas for how to use the questions above in practice.
Have someone present the candidate initiative to evaluators.
Before answering the above questions, have someone familiar with or a champion of the candidate initiative present the initiative to the decision makers. This doesn’t need to be anything elaborate, just a clear explanation of what is being proposed.
This gives a chance for evaluators to ask questions and ensure they understand the goals, scope, resource requirements, and likely steps involved in executing the project. The presentation gives evaluators a sound basis for making their assessment. It is also an opportunity to avoid surprises later stemming from misunderstandings about what was approved.
Complete assessments individually, then compare notes.
Ask everyone involved in evaluating a candidate initiative to prepare their own answers to the five questions above. When complete, compile the results or ask each individual to share their responses. Discuss any differences of opinion.
If reviewers came up with wildly different ratings for alignment with a factor, it could indicate conflicting understandings of the candidate initiative, of that factor (do we have the same vision after all?), or both. Either way, there’s something important to discuss!
Use scoring as a general guide, not a precise tool.
Consider using numerical ratings to score each question above and for rating initiatives all together. Clear Mission Consulting’s Strategic Initiatives Evaluation Matrix suggests a simple scoring rubric for each factor.
However – remember that scores are subjective. Total scores for initiatives might help you assign different priorities to candidate projects, but also consider whether each factor above deserves to be weighted equally (as in Clear Mission Consulting’s worksheet) or not.
Discussion over dogma.
The purpose of this framework is to encourage discussion among decision makers using shared principles and vocabulary.
Clear Mission Consulting recommends against using this tool the basis for strict policies to rule candidate projects in or out. Hard-and-fast rules are often unhelpful here. The questions above, and the suggestions for what constitutes a great fit or a no-go for your organization, are just guidelines. The goal is to make decisions deliberately and with informed understanding of their implications – not to let fixed policies drive choices by default.
Conclusion
As with any new tool or framework, the most effective way to implement this process is likely by discussing it among your team of decision makers and deciding together what will work best for your needs. If you download the Strategic Initiative Evaluation Matrix, Clear Mission Consulting would welcome your feedback - simply contact the author using the information provided in the document.
If your organization is still undecided or unclear on parts of its strategy - values, vision, mission, goals, and plans - and might benefit from the assistance of professional facilitator to develop shared clarity, schedule a time for a free consultation to explore opportunities to partner with Clear Mission Consulting.