Purpose
Strengthening an agency’s strategic planning capacity is a key element of ROMA National Goal #5: Agencies Increase Their Capacity to Achieve Results.
Description
Please LET US KNOW if you have suggested STRATEGIC PLANNING items that might be added.
Here are some examples of CAA Strategic Plans - send us yours:
The following Strategic Planning Resources are featured in this posting:
Strategic Planning and Direction
Standards of Excellence - Category 2
Community Action Partnership
Strategic Planning and Direction is one of seven categories incorporated into the Community Action Partnership’s Standards of Excellence, which represent attributes that distinguish all high-performance organizations, and set Community Action Agencies apart from other organizations when it comes to performance, community service, and overall excellence – see Pathways to Excellence/Award for Excellence in Community Action. The Partnership has developed a series of Standards of Effectiveness Technical Assistance Guides - see left-hand menu options for Category 2: Strategic Planning and Direction (pp. 8-22).
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Defining Community Action Mission: A Guide for Strategic Thinking and Planning was prepared under contract for the Tennessee Association of Community Action (TACA) by the National ROMA Clearinghouse at the National Association for State Community Services Programs. The guide provides step-by-step suggestions for community action leaders on how to engage agencies and community partners in strategic thinking and planning about who they are and what they hope to accomplish. Specifically, it discusses various ways community action agencies might organize and carry out a mission-focused review and planning process that would enable them to:
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Assess their current role, or mission, in the community in relation to the conditions and needs of low-income people;
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Define what they hope to accomplish in the future among low-income people and within the communities they serve;
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Identify available help and resources within the community that could be mobilized by community action to improve the opportunity for success among low-income people; and
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Organize programs and services within the agency, and among other community organizations, to achieve agency mission and outcomes.
Strategic Planning Manual
University of Wisconsin Extension and The Center for Public Skills Training
The Nonprofit Management Education Center’s Learner Resource Center at the Center for Community Economic Development, University of Wisconsin Extension offers a Nonprofit Organizational Assessment Toolkit to help guide a group discussion about an organization’s operations. A number of helpful web sites are also identified to support strategic planning and program planning by nonprofits.
The Toolkit is composed of nine sections:
Strategic Thinking and Planning Blog is also available through The Center for Public Skills Training. This resource offers reflections on strategic thinking and planning in the nonprofit sector with special attention to increasing mission impact, governing board effectiveness and forging partnerships and alliances.
Extensive Strategic Planning Resources are available through the Free Management Library. Categories featured under Conducting Strategic Planning include:
Strategic Planning in Nonprofit Organizations: A Practical Guide for the Process is available from Western Michigan University’s Graduate Program in Nonprofit Leadership and Administration. The framework outlined in this document could be extended to the degree necessary for larger organizations.
A Planning Toolsite with a wide range of helpful items is maintained by the National Endowment for the Arts. Examples include:
- The Pitfalls of Planning
- The Pillars of Planning: Mission, Values, Vision
- Organizational Self-Assessment Checklist
- Effective Meeting Facilitation
- Recommended Plan Review Criteria
- Seven Characteristics of Financially Healthy Nonprofits
- Off the Shelf: How to Ensure That Your Strategic Plan Becomes a Valued Tool
Responses to Strategic Planning FAQs are provided by the Nonprofit Genie.
Outcomes
Strengthening an agency’s strategic planning capacity is a key element of ROMA National Goal #5: Agencies Increase Their Capacity to Achieve Results.
