Strategic planning will serve a variety of purposes in your organization, including to:

1. Clearly define the purpose of the organization and to establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with that mission in a defined time frame within the organization’s capacity for implementation.
2. Communicate those goals and objectives to the organization’s constituents.
3. Develop a sense of ownership of the plan.
4. Ensure the most effective use is made of the organization’s resources by focusing the resources on the key priorities.
5. Provide a base from which progress can be measured and establish a mechanism for informed change when needed.
6. Bring together of everyone’s best and most reasoned efforts have important value in building a consensus about where an organization is going.
7. Provides clearer focus of organization, producing more efficiency and effectiveness.
8. Bridges staff and board of directors.
9. Builds strong teams in the board and the staff.
10. Provides the glue that keeps the board together.
11. Produces great satisfaction among planners around a common vision.
12. Increases productivity from increased efficiency and effectiveness.
13. Solves major problems.

Why should an organization do strategic planning?

The primary motive for organizations to do strategic planning is to learn and to make decisions about the future of the organization based on that learning. There are many specific reasons for an organization to initiate a strategic planning process, including the following:

• To give the organization better control over external forces
• To serve as a tool for decision making and resource allocation
• To bring everyone together in the organization so that they are on the same wavelength
• To raise board members’ awareness of current issues and operations
• To reawaken and motivate key people within the organization
• To position the agency for a merger or joint venture
• To create a document suitable for fundraising and public relations
• To increase morale within an organization and develop a sense of trust and cohesion
• To set the stage for the organization to make a "quantum leap" to a new level of program development or functioning
• To relate organizational capacity to community need

What are the respective roles of board and staff in the strategic planning process?

Strategic planning is a partnership between board and staff. Both groups participate equally in the planning process and provide important insights and information. In addition to helping develop the plan, the board of directors provides final approval for the plan and holds itself and staff accountable for the expected results.