Twelve innovative ways to bring your strategic plan to life
When we finish strategic plans with board and staff teams, leaders often wonder what to do with the strategic plan. The board and staff team has invested many hours creating a three to five-year strategic plan; leaders now have updated Mission and Vision statements, strategies that will guide the work going forward, and an implementation plan.
This is a time to celebrate! And share all the newly-minted strategies so that your partners, community, funders and fans can connect more deeply with your work and expand their support.
Once you have had some time to exhale, what are some next steps?
ID: Darker blue background with fireworks, in the foreground a bright blue document with “Strategic Plan” as the title.
The Public Version and the Internal Version
First – let’s distinguish between the “Public Version” and the “Internal Version” of your plan.
Public Version: Includes Vision, Mission, Values, Strategies and Goals.
Internal Version: Everything in the Public Version, plus a detailed one-year implementation plan that guides your work going forward.
Seven ideas for the Public Version:
Hold a celebratory party or informal gathering. Hold a party on Zoom or make it an in-person event. Use the time to thank the people who participated in planning and hear from a few individuals about their hopes for the organization’s work going forward. Here is a description of one nonprofit gathering that celebrated the creation of a strategic plan
Share with funders and potential funders. The creation of a strategic plan is an opportunity to reconnect with funders who were consulted in planning and reach out to potential funders whose interests may overlap with your strategic directions.
Share on social media. Our client East Oakland Collective shared their strategic plan prominently on their Instagram, generating a lot of positive feedback. Sharing a strategic plan also invites connection and conversation around current and future strategies.
Share with partners. You now have more clarity on your work. This is a great time to connect with organizational partners regarding current and future collaborations.
Post it on your website. Be proud! Everyone who visits your website to learn more organization should be inspired and impressed by your vision and goals. Here is a beautiful example from the United Nations Development Programme.
Create a section of your website sharing the context of the strategic plan. Here is an organizational website that shares more background on the strategic plan and describes expected and unexpected outcomes.
Use this language for grant proposals. Clients have shared that this process has made grant requests much less time-consuming.
Five ideas for the Internal Version
Use the plan to guide board meetings. Some of your strategies and goals involve the Board of Directors. Take some time to pull those out of the plan, and then revisit them at each board meeting.
Use the plan to structure staff meetings. Many of your strategies and goals involve the staff. Take some time to pull those out of the plan, and then revisit them at each staff meeting.
Create a detailed project plan for departments – and revisit weekly. Use your project management software to think about the steps involved in each quarterly benchmark.
Hold a mid-year retreat to reflect on progress and recalibrate.
Hold a yearly retreat to build the next implementation plan.
What about you?
Creating a strategic plan builds investment and energy. And it is only the beginning. Hopefully, these ideas will help you build on the work of the planning process. Which ones of these did you implement, and what was the result? Reach out to us directly, we’re interested to hear what is emerging from the creation of your strategic plan.