Strategic Planning: an Overview

Strategic Planning is a feature of good practice in community organisations. It provides:

• A strong structure to determine priorities over several years
• Guidance for staff to help maintian the organisation's direction
• A monitoring tool for the board/committee

A strategic plan can be for any length of time - in the community sector it is usually about three years, but it might also be up to five or longer.

The process of strategic planning can vary from organisation to organisation, however, there are some steps that can be included in each process to ensure a useful working document is produced.

1. What does the organisations stand for?

• Check that the vision or mission statement is still applicable or whether it needs adjustment. Sometimes it may need complete revision, although this is not usually the case. Often the language is just a bit stale and needs modification.
• Identify the ethical framework of the organisation by clarifying the organisations values and beliefs. The framework will inform the priorities that are determined for the plan.
• Check against the Objects in your constitution, they are your original guide to the reason for your organisation existing.

2. What has the organisation learnt?

• Reflect on work that has been achieved and lessons learnt, refer to the previous version of the strategic plan and work plan to help.
• Keep in mind any structural changes that you have made, including growth and major change. This helps to ground your process in knowing where you are right now before you move forward.

3. What does the organisation want to achieve?

• what are your key areas of work? Think about the main parts of your organisation and the underlying direction of those areas. Don't forget your internal processes like governance and management when doing this.
• what actions would you like to undertake to progress those key areas over the next few years? Be realistic when doing this so that you can actually achieve what you set out to do. Keep the list within your resource capacity.

Strategic planning isn’t rocket science but it does take commitment and a strong understanding of your organisation and its capacities. It will help you to identify key targets for membership growth, and funding sources.

Most importantly, strategic planning provides your organisation with an independent sense of direction and that helps to build resilience. Rather than simply reacting to external forces you have some control of your agenda and what comes next.


Back to Strategy: Strategic Thinking and Planning for Community Organisations

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