Strategy and impact

What you need to know

Strategy

A robust and meaningful strategy will help you stay on top of changes around you and ensure your organisation is heading in the best direction to achieve the most for your users or cause in the coming years.

Impact

Real impact reporting is the key to knowing - and showing - what you're doing well and what you need to improve. Demonstrating the effects of your work, both internally and externally, will attract all sorts of support for your organisation, helping to ensure your continued success.

This section introduces these topics and also provides information on:

• managing change
• quality assurance
• involving people in your work
• tools, techniques and resources
• working with your funders.

Our Third Sector Foresight website helps you to identify key trends that may affect your organisation and includes pointers to help you respond.

Frequently asked questions

What is strategy?

An organisational strategy is a set of principles and assumptions about why your organisation exists, what it hopes to achieve in the next few years, how it wants to achieve it, and how it will interact with its environment and deal with change.

Why does my organisation need a strategy?

Strategic planning can help you gain clarity on where your organisation wants to be, take control, manage uncertainties, improve relationships, motivate your team, encourage creativity and innovation, and track progress. Read more on the benefits of strategy.

What does strategic planning actually involve?

Take a look at our five-step strategic planning process.

What is impact?

Your organisation exists to make a difference. The difference you make is your impact. Discover why planning and assessing your impact is crucial to your success.

What's the difference between an outcome and an output?

Outcomes are the benefits or other changes that happen as a result of your activities. Outputs are the services or products you provide in order to achieve the desired change. Find out more about outcomes.

What is full value?

Full value is a way of thinking about and appreciating the total impact that an organisation has on the world. It includes the outcomes you create for your users or cause, the effects you have on other people or things, and the satisfaction your work brings.

What quality system should I choose?

Our Quality Selector compares and contrasts some of the leading quality systems and frameworks, but before opting for a particular approach, make sure you are clear what your organisation wants to achieve from assessing its quality. Read more about quality. 

What happened to the Quality Standards Task Group (QSTG)?

This NCVO-hosted project (1997-2004) provided a catalyst to help voluntary and community organisations to engage in quality improvement. Read the key learning from QSTG's work.

What happened to the Performance Hub?

The Performance Hub (2005-2008) was one of six national hubs of expertise, established as part of the ChangeUp programme. A range of national support services for infrastructure organisations have since been created. You can download a guide to the resources produced by all six ChangeUp Hubs (PDF 5.5MB).

Publications

Our strategy and impact publications range from free Achieve More magazines (a great introduction to these topics), to pocket guides on key trends affecting voluntary organisations, and handbooks for involving users, identifying your full value, managing change and strategic planning.

Improving your performance, a guide to resources

This catalogue includes over 40 resources to help your organisation achieve more. Many of these publications are free. Download the Performance Hub resources guide (PDF 1MB) or, to request a paper copy, contact Kate Damiral, tel: 020 7520 2540, email: kate.damiral@ncvo-vol.org.uk.

Contact us

The NCVO Consultancy service offers direct support to help organisations develop practical ideas for real, lasting change. We can support you with strategic planning, impact reporting, user involvement and a range of other areas.

More questions? NCVO's helpdesk provides information and support for NCVO Members, as well as an order line for NCVO publications. Freephone: 0800 2 798 798 / Minicom: 0800 01 88 111. The helpdesk is open Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm.