Strategic Business Plans are essential these days in order to demonstrate to funders and other stakeholders that your organisation has:
- Engaged in an internal process to examine your position and determined your plans for the future
- A clear vision and grasp of the issues you face and your operating environment
- Created a feasible and manageable road map for all staff and Trustees to follow
Charities face challenging times and the surviving and successful organisations will be those which move forward positively and with imagination, building on their strengths and seeking out successful partnerships with others where goals and objectives are shared.
Any successful planning process will incorporate and connect an organisation’s values, vision and mission statements to its strategic aims and operational outcomes. We believe that the best plans are ones where the guiding concepts are ‘inquire’, ‘imagine’, ‘innovate’, and ‘inspire’.
Your business plan not only outlines your strategy, but highlights how you intend to implement it and what resources you need. A robust business plan needs to demonstrate your capacity to translate social goals, aspirations and good intentions into effective and efficient delivery of services for beneficiaries and be able to measure the impact of those services in the short medium and longer term.
Strategic Business Plans need not be long and complicated: they should be dynamic, continuous and living!