What is Strategic Planning?

Simply put, strategic planning determines where a community group or organization is going over the next year or more, how it's going to get there and how it'll know if it got there or not.

The way that a strategic plan is developed depends on the nature of the group’s leadership, culture, complexity of the environment, size of the group, expertise of planners, etc. For example, there are a variety of strategic planning models, including goals-based, issues-based, organic, scenario etc. Goals-based planning is probably the most common and starts with focus on the organization's vision and/or values), goals to work toward, strategies to achieve the goals, and action planning (who will do what and by when). Issues-based strategic planning often starts by examining issues facing the organization, strategies to address those issues, and action plans. Some plans are scoped to one year, many to three years, and some to five to ten years into the future. Some plans include only top-level information and no action plans. Some plans are five to eight pages long, while others can be considerably longer.

The development of the strategic plan greatly helps to clarify the organization's plans and ensure that everyone is working to the same goals .

Benefits of Strategic Planning

Strategic planning serves a variety of purposes, including to:

1. Clearly define the purpose of the group and to establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with that mission in a defined time frame within the organization’s capacity for implementation.
2. Communicate those goals and objectives to the group’s constituents.
3. Develop a sense of ownership of the plan.
4. Ensure the most effective use is made of the group’s resources by focusing the resources on the key priorities.
5. Provide a base from which progress can be measured and establish a mechanism for informed change when needed.
6. Help build consensus about where an group is going
7. Build strong teams and provide the glue that keeps the group together