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Strong planning helps your organisation stay resilient and ready for the future, using both your numbers and your stories to set direction and build long-term sustainability.
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Amongst all the other things that you need to be doing to keep your small community groups or organisation afloat, developing a Strategic Plan can seem like a luxury. But in reality, it’s a necessity. A clear plan helps you stay focused, make better decisions, and secure funding.
Strategic planning isn’t just for big charities. For small organisations, it provides:
Strategic Planning shouldn’t happen in isolation. Even an informal discussion can provide valuable insights and help you to get everyone on board with your organisations activities.
Think of your plan as a living document that guides what you do every day, every week. Printed off, it will be something that gathers dust on a shelf or sits idle electronically in your files. It is the process of its development that will bring people in your group or organisation together to discuss and agree on what is important and what to prioritise and this should guide your day-to-day decisions and activities.
Here are some practical hints and tips to make developing and writing your strategic plan feel a bit more manageable.
Make sure that you involve:
Before getting caught up in all the detail, think about your ‘mission’. Put simply ask yourselves two questions:
Once you are clear about this, this will underpin every decision you make. If your mission feels outdated or unclear, engage your trustees, staff, and volunteers in discussing and agreeing on these two key questions. Building this strong sense of purpose will motivate everyone, which, in turn, will reassure your supporters and funders.
It’s helpful to take a step back and look at what’s happening around your organisation, not just inside it. One simple way to do this is by thinking about your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats using a SWOT analysis.
Here’s how to approach it. Write down your:
These are the things your organisation already does well, such as having strong relationships with your community or a committed volunteer base.
Think about any challenges or gaps you’re aware of. For example, perhaps your team has limited digital skills, or you don’t have enough time to develop new ideas.
This might include new funding opportunities, local partnerships, trends in your area of work, or growing community needs that your organisation is well placed to meet.
These could be things like changes in government policy, funding cuts, rising costs, or other organisations offering similar services.
This doesn’t have to be a long or formal process. A short, honest discussion with your colleagues, board, and volunteers can give you valuable insight into where you stand and where you might go next. It’s simply about understanding your environment so you can make more confident decisions about the future.
Now’s the time to come up with a cunning plan. Decide on what you want to achieve, and by when. But a word of warning... don’t get too carried away! Ambition is great, but unrealistic goals can lead to frustration. Think about your mission, agree what you are going to prioritise?
It can be helpful to use the SMART framework to write down what you agree to do:
Be specific about what you are setting yourselves to do. For example: “Increase volunteer recruitment by 20% within 12 months” is clearer than “Get more volunteers.” In this way, you’ll be able to more easily measure how you are doing, and this in itself can be motivating.
For most small organisations, achieving long‑term financial stability is one of the biggest challenges.
More funders are now asking organisations to demonstrate how they will continue their work after a grant ends. Being able to show that you are planning for the long term and not relying on a single funding stream can strengthen your funding applications and build funder confidence.
When you’re planning how to make your organisation more sustainable, here are a few ideas of key things to consider:
Try not to depend on a single funder or one main source of money. If that funding stops, your organisation could face immediate pressure. Instead, explore a range of options such as different grant programmes, community fundraising, individual donations, corporate sponsorships, and trading or service‑based income. The more varied your income streams, the more secure and resilient your organisation becomes.
Regularly review what you spend and look for areas where small savings can add up over time. This might involve comparing suppliers, reducing waste, or improving your processes to make work more efficient. Strong financial management helps protect the resources you have.
im to set aside a modest financial cushion that can help you cope with unexpected events such as delayed funding, emergency repairs, or sudden changes in demand. Building your reserves gradually can make a big difference to your organisation’s stability.
Your plan doesn’t need to be a glossy 50-page document. A concise, clear plan is more useful. Aim for something everybody within your organisation can easily refer and relate to.
As a start you could include the following as your headings:
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