Stop Designing Programs Backwards with Sarah Olivieri [Episode419]

Most nonprofit leaders sit down to design a program and start by mapping the steps. The modules. The services. The flow. That work is real, and it belongs at step four, not step one.

The three steps that should come before it are usually missing entirely, which is why so many programs are hard to run, hard to improve, and hard to explain to funders.

Sarah goes solo in this episode to walk through a four-part program design framework that flips the order most organizations are using.

• Executive directors whose programs feel hard to explain to funders

• Nonprofit leaders staring at modules they built before they ever defined "done"

• Boards and leadership teams about to launch a new program and tempted to skip the upstream work

• Any organization whose pitch keeps landing as "we serve everybody"

• Set your existing program modules aside (Sarah offers her fire bucket) and answer the four questions in order before you look at the modules again.

• Define done as a state of being for your client, not a count of completed sessions or modules.

• Pick one program this quarter and name the specific audience it is the best fit for, even if you serve a broader population.

• Use the magic-wand exercise: design the program with unrestricted funding first, then build version A from current resources and pitch version C to your donors.