Brad Carlson & Associates, Ltd.

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Strategic Planning

Many times an organization finds itself floundering.  It responds to day-to-day circumstances rather than acting proactively from a well thought-out plan. 

Worse yet, it may be doing a lot of work, but not moving in a unified direction, pulling the organization apart.

If your organization's leadership seems to be a little bit hazy about your mission, vision, goals, strategies for your operations, objectives, and who should accomplish what by when, developing a strategic plan in all likelihood is in order.

With a strategic plan you will examine where you have been, where you are, how you got there, where you want to go, and by when you want to get there.  You develop a common understanding of your mission, your vision, your goals, and what you need to do.  You also develop measures to determine whether or not you are on track with your plans. 

Completion of a properly created strategic plan will help avoid crises caused by a lack of common understanding of purpose and objectives.  When each of the board members and the executive director do not share a common understanding as to common goals and strategies to achieve them, the result is usually destructive conflict, chaos, and efforts ineffectively going in multiple directions, keeping it at a standstill.

No capital campaign should begin without having a strategic plan first.  The capital campaign should naturally flow from and be a part of the strategic plan.  How can there be an effective campaign when the organization has not thought out what it needs to accomplish and how it needs to do it?  To donor prospects, this lack of vision will be apparent and the need for the capital campaign will be fuzzy at best.

Brad Carlson & Associates, Ltd. can guide you through this planning process, drawing on past experience.  There is no one right way to do it.  Each organization has its own personality and circumstances that influence what the process should be.  When conducted in a way appropriate for the organization, the strategic plan will help the organization carry out its mission and more effectively and efficiently serve those who depend on it.