strategic planThe main purpose of the strategic plan is to provide a structured way for your organisation to achieve key objectives.  Think of it as a road map to lead your chosen destination.

The benefits of effective planning  is not only that it saves time and resources, but importantly it allows key stakeholders people associated with the organisation to work together to achieve a common goal.  These people may be the employees, members, volunteers, subscribers, the committee of management.

It may also include external stakeholders such as government agencies who provide funding, the general public who make donations or the local community who may attend events or utilise the services provided by the organisation.

A well prepared strategic plan identifies priorities in the short, medium and long term.  For example:

  • If you are a sporting club, this may relate to recruiting more members to undertake the activities that the club competes in.
  • If you are a kindergarten, this may relates to obtaining more enrolments.
  • It may be linked to a fundraising strategy.
  • It may relate to the purchase of new or the updating of equipment.

While these are just some basic examples, the important issue is that the strategic plan identifies the key strategic objectives and what needs to be done to achieve them.

Once the strategic objectives have been identified the next step is to outline how each one will be achieved.  This is a critical step as it influences, for example, the budget, whether you need to employee more staff or need more volunteers, when events need to occur, how to promote and market services and activities as well as fundraising strategies.

The next post discusses a simple but effective way to prepare a strategic plan and setting the objectives.