Creating Your Strategic Plan: A Workbook for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, Third Edition

Step 2

Clarify Organizational Mandates

Purpose of Step

The purpose of Step 2 is to clarify the nature and meaning of externally imposed mandates that the organization is required to meet. Mandates may be expressed formally or informally. Formal mandates prescribe what must or should be done under the organization's current charter and policies and under federal, state, and local laws, codes, bylaws, and regulations. Informal mandates may be embodied in election results, internal culture and belief systems, or community or key stakeholder expectations.

As the organization sets its future course, planners need to take both formal and informal mandates into account as constraints on the goals the organization can achieve and the ways it can achieve ...