2024 – 2027 Strategic Plan
The Grateful Way
Mission Statement
We empower people to live meaningful lives through the transformative practice of grateful living.
Strategic Vision
Grateful Living will serve an expanded community of 250,000 engaged members by offering meaningful learning opportunities and tools that build the grateful “network of networks” both online and in-person.
Goal: to grow to 250,000 engaged community members
How: by offering meaningful learning opportunities and tools that build the grateful network
Where: online and in-person
Grateful living keeps me grounded and has carried me well through joyous days and has truly lifted my soul through my most difficult days.
Grateful Living Community Member
Executive Summary
The 2024-2027 Strategic Plan arrives during a period of transition. A Network for Grateful Living emerged from the global pandemic with new leadership and new branding under the name of Grateful Living. As Grateful Living looks to its future and solidifies its identity in this next organizational life cycle, we are calling this plan “A Grateful Way” in honor of Br. David’s popular teaching, “A Grateful Day.”
In addition to many stakeholder conversations that contributed to our strategic plan, our conclusions were also influenced by the Fetzer Institute and their multi-year research on the spiritual status of Americans, which identified:
- 84% of Americans are spiritual to some degree
- 87% engage in at least one spiritual activity at least once a week
- 80% have a spiritual experience most days
- 71% practice gratefulness
- 88% who experience spiritual growth feel grateful
With the anticipated success of this plan will come additional opportunities including, but not limited to Grateful Living’s ability to:
- Build sustainable, earned revenue streams
- Emerge as a go-to resource with strong brand recognition
- Partner with well-established institutions for programmatic delivery and co-creation
- Build a gratefulness movement in keeping with Br. David’s vision of a “network of networks”
Grateful Living is at the threshold of enormous possibility as we continue to actualize our mission in a period of re-emergence following the global pandemic. As Br. David says, “in every moment is an opportunity.” This moment requires Grateful Living to proceed with strategic intention in order to further open itself to the opportunities that await. As you read this summary of our strategic plan, we invite you to join us in building a more grateful world.
Three Strategic Pillars
Program Expansion
Grateful Living will invest in program expansion of both in-person and virtual offerings in order to 1. increase access to programming, 2. expand our audience reach, 3. meet the needs of a rapidly changing society, and 4. build community for grateful practitioners so that every seeker has an opportunity to move deeper into the transformative practice of gratefulness.
Outcomes
- Professionalization and prioritization of programmatic offerings
- Audience growth
- Multifaceted entry points into Grateful Living
- Partnership growth
- Programmatic engagement loops
- Mission-connected audience
- Experiential learning
- Stewardship of Br. David’s teachings, story, and audience
How We Get There
- Build the gratefulness movement
- Offer new in-person programs
- Develop partnerships
- Expand virtual programs
- Expand course and workshop offerings
I am such a fan of grateful.org and all that you offer. I pass along your information to many and have taken numerous sessions with you. For online courses, they have been THE BEST…amazingly personal, creative, and always worthwhile.
Thought Leadership
As stewards of Br. David Steindl-Rast’s work and the preeminent voice on gratefulness, we will continue to develop his teachings and contemporize grateful living for a rapidly changing society. We will carry on the legacy of the “Grandfather of Gratitude” through increasing and diversifying evidence-based content creation across media channels, publications, in-person and virtual programming, and thought partnerships.
Outcomes
- Br. David’s legacy is contemporized and sustained
- Grateful Living continues as preeminent voice on gratefulness
- Grateful Living offers evidence-based programs with supporting metrics
How We Get There
- Establish a framework for practicing grateful living
- Diversify media offerings
- Develop partnerships for gratefulness research
- Establish a gratefulness think tank
- Create evergreen content
- Actively promote gratefulness across multi-disciplinary conferences
Grateful Living has positively influenced my life for many years. Living gratefully is the best way to be a blessing not only to myself, but more importantly to others. Living gratefully has surely helped me to be alive and well. Thank you for keeping me on track.
Financial Stability
To ensure the health of the organization we will secure its financial stability with tactics, metrics, and opportunities that diversify our fundraising portfolio, donor engagement, and fundraising campaigns while effectively communicating our life-changing impact.
Outcomes
- Grateful Living will have capacity to face financial adversity
- Team and mission will be funded adequately with proper resources
- Organization will be able to sustainably, responsibly, and strategically grow
How We Get There
- Enhance fundraising strategies, partnerships, and giving programs
- Establish a one-year operating cash reserve
- Create a fundraising team
I am grateful for Grateful Living. I wish my monetary gift could reflect how much I appreciate all you do.
Join our Guardian Giving Circle
With an annual gift of $5,000 or more, Grateful Living is able to reach more communities, grow our programs, and advance the Grateful Living movement. Established in 2004, our Guardian Giving Circle helps us deepen the teachings that support grateful living and promote the joy, meaning, and abundant opportunities that we can all discover in our lives. Your generosity makes our future and growth possible!
