Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last, Third Edition

Summary

Strategic planning ensures your relevance by defining and renewing your relationship with the community. And your relationship with the community is the second of four relationships that are essential to effective fund development.

Planning is an ongoing activity. Planning is also a well-devised campaign, on a broad scale, conducted to achieve an end. Effective planning is a process whereby an organization or group decides where it wishes to be in the future and how to reach that future. You map out modes of related action and invest and mobilize resources to attain your goals.

Strategic planning helps your organization accept ambiguity and uncertainty and develop a high tolerance for complexity, learning, and change. Planning focuses your organization’s activities, determines priorities, and sets limits.

Strategic planning takes the long view. Your organization will likely decide things today whose effect will not be felt for five or even 10 years. The plan’s time frame is generally three to five years, no longer because we live in such a swiftly changing world.

Your written plan answers the following questions.

The Questions You Ask	Your Answers Articulated as …
Where is our organization going and why?	Values, mission, and vision
How will we get there?	Program and infrastructure goals and strategies
What is our blueprint for action?	Budget, time frames, and assignments of accountability
How will we know if we are on track?	Accountability and control (measures ...