Every organization gets to this point
A strategic plan is a fundamental requirement of governance bodies. And it can be fun to do.
It’s easy to get caught up in supporting the Executive Director and focusing on finances. But keeping our heads down doesn’t help our organizations thrive, grow and evolve.
I use strategic planning to build perspective, pat ourselves on the back, and create a plan for fixing what’s not working is good. But the real value comes from assessing our environment, stakeholders, partners and the changes that will affect us (and which we can affect) to build a solid foundation for the next few years.
The result should be something that everyone has a part in shaping, all your internal and external stakeholders understand, and provides a clear pathway forward for the next three years.
These Strategic Planning resources and tools can help you get started and to prepare your group for the work of building a strategy to guide you into the future.
Strategic Planning Tools
In this set of tools, I include an overview and plan for a Strategic Planning process for non-profits, generally in the community services space. It is not a standard process but rather one that I have evolved and adapted over years of working in and with non-profits.
Note that my process is unique: rather than trying to pack the work into one-or two day-long sessions, it consists of shorter meetings of 90 minutes to 2 hours, over several weeks. I find that meeting weekly keeps the work fresh and also gives participants an opportunity to reflect between sessions.
This can be valuable, especially as we craft the core of the strategic plan:
1. Vision, Mission and Values Statements
2. Strategic priorities
3. Workplan for implementation.
Spacing out the meetings also provides time to engage staff in the development of the plan. This is an important step because staff have community connections and direct contact with the beneficiaries of the organization.
Finally, I have included examples of public-facing documents that summarize the plan for the next few years. When doing this, it’s important to have a crisp look, simple language and to show people who are supported by the organization.
I’m happy to answer questions, and also to help your group go through this process.
