Strategic Planning

Lesson Learned Guiding Points

Strategic planning is multi-faceted; being reflective, present-oriented, future-oriented, as well as action-oriented all at the same time.
Good strategic planning facilitates good governance, financial management, and program effectiveness.
To feel a sense of pride and “ownership”, everyone (staff, management, Board) must feel they contributed to the plan and their voices are reflected in it. The strategic plan is the AGENCY’s plan (not just a Board, staff or management plan).

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Lesson Learned Steps to Developing a Strategic Plan

1. Strike a Strategic Planning Committee. Review relevant documentation and conduct initial interviews with the E.D. and Board chair. Plan for strategic planning: who will be involved, who will actually be responsible for it, the time requirements, whether or not to hire a consultant.

2. Conduct interviews, focus groups and surveys with a broader base of stakeholders. Stakeholders may include Board members, managers and staff; representatives of funding agencies; representatives of umbrella groups, representatives of partner as well as competing agencies, and clients. Interviews, focus groups and surveys can shed light on…

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Lesson Learned Key Success Factors in Strategic Planning

Keep the plan simple, achievable and easily understood by others. Focus on the things you do really well. Set realistic timelines and revisit your plan annually. The Strategic Plan must be dynamic and be able to evolve over a period of time. The plan must be able to accommodate change and contingencies.
If it is your agency’s first time doing a strategic plan, consider it a learning process. For instance, after the first time using a consultant, many agencies find they can do their strategic plan themselves or with minimal external assistance.

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Food For Thought

Often agencies become too reliant on a strategic plan. It is important to set clear intentions and to have an idea of where you want to go, but don’t get too tied to the results. There are too many things that we have no control over. Only try to control what you can control and do that well.

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Notes from the Field

“Sharing our feeling of successfully achieving goals set the previous year is a great boost for Board and staff and volunteers. We developed a blueprint 20 years ago for the direction of the Agency as our vision. It was in the form of a schematic. We always take a look at it as a benchmark of how far we have come and congratulate ourselves on our achievements.”

Niagara West Employment & Learning Resource Centres, Beamsville

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Recommended Resources

From the Free Management Library, an on-line service which provides free and easy-to-access resources regarding the leadership and management for the non-profit sector. This document is a well-written guide to strategic planning for non-profits that has a very detailed section on SWOT analysis.

visit Free Management Library

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