Planning
Why Plan? What is Strategic Planning?
Planning helps an organization
Who? What? When?
Common Elements of Strategic Planning Models
Levels of Strategic Planning
Planning Resources
Fundamentals of Local Arts Management: The Language of Planning
Why Plan? What is Strategic Planning?
Strategic planning is a systematic process through which an organization agrees on-and builds commitment among key stakeholders to-priorities which are essential to its mission and responsiveness to the operating environment. (from Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations: A Practical Guide and Workbook by Michael Allison and Judy Kaye. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1997.
The essence of planning rests in the simple principle that board members,
staff and volunteers need a guide as they develop and carry out programs.
A
good plan provides indicators to evaluate how well the organization serves
the community and helps you make hard choices when the need exceeds
available resources. A commitment to planning is critical for every organization.
Simply put, it's hard to know if you are headed in the right direction
if you don't know where you're going.
Planning Helps an Organization:
- Identify whom it should serve with what programs
- Articulate what it may accomplish in the future, what needs it hopes
to
meet, and how it plans to do so - Communicate the potential impact of its work to funders, potential
funders,
and audiences - Allocate scare resources to accomplish goals.
To respond to the changing needs, you should have a system to constantly assess those needs. Every successful organization operates under a three to five year plan that is regularly evaluated and updated. Without good planning, a successful organization today can become irrelevant tomorrow.
Arts organizations can use many kinds of plans. For instance, a project
description and budget, or an annual budget, are considered plans. More
formal plans include long range, strategic and community cultural plans.
There are also numerous planning methods. Some plans are developed with
assistance
from an outside consultant and others are done by the organization itself.
Other types of planning include: Project, Program, or Component Plans;
Annual Operating Plan; Budget; Long-range Plan; Strategic Plan; Community
Cultural Plan.
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Who?. What? When?....
Good planning includes naming the primary contact person, committee chair or staff member responsible for each item.
The materials included in this section include detailed descriptions of planning, a sample planning process and a calendar/timeline to develop an annual workplan. The annual work plan details what activities, programs and deadlines you are committed to in the next 12 months. Be sure to include major grant deadlines, regular board meetings, and annual budget deadlines in your calendar.
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Common Elements of Strategic Planning Models Include:
- Plan to plan
- Self-study, organizational analysis
- Identify critical issues
- Agree on strategic directions
- Develop plans of action for strategic directions
- Develop measurable objectives to implement plans
- Review progress and revise plan
Levels of Strategic Planning:
The level of our planning effort is likely to be:
- Abbreviated
- Moderate
- Extensive
Time available:
- 1-2 days
- 1-3 months
- 6 months or more
Personnel involved:
- If smaller organization, usually entire board & staff
- If larger, usually entire board & staff representatives (usually only internal stakeholders)
Some external stakeholders provide input (e.g. clients or funders) Large number, including extensive input from all major internal and external stakeholder groups
Depth of analysis/new information to be gathered:
- Little or none
- Some
- A lot: at a minimum includes data from stakeholder and objective data
about operating environment
Primary outcomes sought from strategic planning process:
- Consensus among board & staff on mission, core future strategies,
list of
long-term and short-term program, and management/operations priorities - Guidance to staff on developing detailed annual operating plans
- Consensus among board & staff on mission, core future strategies,
list of
long-term and short-term program, and management/operations priorities - Articulation of program and management/ operations, goals, and objectives
- Greater understanding of the organization's operating environment
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) - Some discussion of strategic choices
- Guidance to staff on developing detailed annual operating plans
- Consensus among board & staff on mission, core future strategies,
list of
long-term and short-term program, and management/operations priorities - Articulation of program and management/ operations, goals, and objectives
- Greater understanding of the organization's operating environment
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) - In-depth discussion of strategic choices
- Guidance to staff on developing detailed annual operating plans
(From: Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations: A Practical Guide
and
Workbook, by Michael Allison and Jude Kay, Support Center for Nonprofit
Management, San Francisco, CA.)
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Fundamentals of Local Arts Management: The Language of Planning
-
Values and vision
-
Stakeholder analysis, needs assessment, and market research
-
Mission (or purpose) and goals
-
Long-range planning: goals and objectives
-
Organizational assessment, program evaluation, assessment of strengths and
weaknesses -
Environmental scan or SWOT (analysis of strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats) -
Analysis of opportunities and threats
-
Strategic planning and scenario planning
-
Monitoring and evaluating
-
Flexible adaptation, informed or strategic opportunism
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In what do we believe?
-
Whom do we serve and what do they need?
-
What difference do we want to make in the community?
-
What do we want this organization to become and accomplish?
-
What do we do well or poorly?
-
What is the reality of our situation now, within our organization and
within our community? -
What external changes are we likely to face? What if...?
-
How can we close the gap between where we are and where we want to be?
-
How are we doing?
-
How are conditions changing? How should we change what we've planned?
What new strategies are emerging from our successes and failures?
(From Fundamentals of Local Arts Management, from Arts Extension Service, published 1994 and 2003).
Strategic
Planning in the Arts: A Practical Guide
http://www.artsmanager.org/strategic/
from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
NEA
Publications: Lessons Learned—A Planning Toolsite
http://www.arts.gov/pub/Lessons/index.html
A toolsite with two components: a series of essays about the process of
planning; and actual illustrations of organizational change within arts
organizations.
Strategic
Planning for Non-profits, from the Management Assistance Program for
Nonprofits
http://www.mapnp.org/library/plan_dec/str_plan/str_plan.htm