Why bother?

 Developing and using a strategic plan can be an exciting way of helping your organisation to be more successful.

A strategic plan can help you:

Focus on your mission

A strategy can help your organisation gain clarity on where it wants to be. Developing a strategy will involve standing back from day-to-day challenges and ensuring that your efforts and resources are focused on those tasks most crucial to delivering your mission and achieving the right impact.

Take control

Many managers in voluntary and community organisations feel that they are often more reactive than they would like to be, responding to incidents, emergencies and short-term funding decisions. A strategy can help an organisation plot out key steps that it needs to take to make its vision a reality and take control of its own future.

Improve relationships

The process of developing a strategy can bring your organisation closer to your users, to other organisations operating in your field, and to your other stakeholders, creating stronger mutual respect and understanding. Identify your stakeholders.

Motivate your team

The process of creating a strategy can bring everyone - both staff and volunteers - together to discuss big issues, challenge assumptions and question existing practice. It can also give them a sense of ownership so that they know where the organisation is going and how their day-to-day work fits into the bigger picture.

Encourage creativity and innovation

Forming or reviewing a strategy can be an opportunity to look both inside the organisation and outside it for new ways of delivering your mission, and to consider how to adapt what you do in changing circumstances.  

Manage uncertainties

Thinking about what sort of future environment your organisation will exist in, can help you to identify potential risks and opportunities, so that you can devise methods for dealing with them. Find out more about managing uncertainty.

Track progress

Your strategic plan should contain clear milestones and targets, which will help you track your progress and keep your organisation on course to deliver its mission. This will also give you an early warning if things aren't going to plan, and an opportunity to make internal improvements. Find out more about monitoring and evaluation.

Find out what strategic planning involves.