Strategic planning is a key leadership skill that lets you achieve desired outcomes by connecting the needs of your target population with program activities. This entails identifying what program activities will promote systemic change supporting your positive outcomes over time. Being able to make a strategic plan involves knowing how to formally identify the needs you want to address (e.g, demonstrating what level of need exists in your community for infant mental health services so that abused or neglected preschoolers do not develop behavioral problems), showing how existing services are inadequate, and explaining how the implementation of your program will provide the needed services and achieve the desired goals. Many models of strategic planning exist, and some are be better suited to your circumstances than others; but they should all include needs assessment, resource mapping, program goals and objectives, and timelines for program implementation.
How can strategic planning help to sustain program activities? Involving key stakeholders in strategic planning early in your project's life can help sustainability strategies emerge and take hold before grant funding expires. For example, a strategic planning process will help to identify the goals and objectives that your project and your partner's programs share, and point out opportunities where programs can work together and share functions. Strategic planning with a broad stakeholder group can also help embed your project's goals and activities in the community's long-range work, helping to make other potential supporters such as policy makers or local legislators aware of your project. Finally, strategic planning can help identify ways the whole group's resources can support your project.
For an example of how grantees have used Strategic Planning as a sustainability tool, read this Grantees at Work story:
Click on any of these listings for more information:
- Conducting a needs assessment and understanding community context
- Resource Mapping
- Developing a strategic plan
- Choosing models of strategic plans
Conducting a needs assessment and understanding community context
Assessing local needs and assets in your school and community (Word Document)
http://notes.edc.org/HHD/MSC/mscres.nsf/0/7dbab17c50765d7
a852568e800538e16/$FILE/Topic4-%20Assessment.docGetting to outcomes 2004: Promoting accountability through methods and tools for planning, implementation, and evaluation (Planning Manual)
http://www.stanford.edu/~davidf/GTO_Volume_I.pdf
Strategic Planning (in nonprofit or for-profit organizations) The Management Assistance Program for Nonprofits
http://www.managementhelp.org/plan_dec/str_plan/str_plan.htm
Designing programs to meet your desired results (Word Document)
http://notes.edc.org/HHD/MSC/mscres.nsf/0/518fe33dc178
469d852568e80053d65b/$FILE/Topic5-Outcomes.docGetting to outcomes 2004: Promoting accountability through methods and tools for planning, implementation, and evaluation (Planning Manual)
http://www.stanford.edu/~davidf/GTO_Volume_I.pdfNew initiatives: Considerations related to planning, implementing, sustaining, and going-to-scale
http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/briefs/sustainbrief.pdfStrategic Planning in Smaller Non-Profit Organizations: A Practical Guide for the Process
http://www.wmich.edu/nonprofit/guide7.htm
Choosing models of strategic plans
2003 Community Health Summit Toolkit: Program Planning and Fundraising
http://www.aecf.org/upload/PublicationFiles/AR3622H366.pdfStrategic planning FAQs
http://www.allianceonline.org/FAQ/strategic_planningLogic Model Development Guide
http://www.wkkf.org/Pubs/Tools/Evaluation/Pub3669.pdf
