It’s been another year of not-quite-business-as-usual. As you begin to plan for 2022, it’s a great time to reflect on your internal and external impact. Taking the time to review and evaluate your organization’s progress over the last nine months, will help you to develop a clear roadmap for the coming year. One that allows you to reinvent programming, re-energize stakeholders, and reallocate resources to optimize your impact.

Here are a few questions to guide your review:

• Have we hit a plateau in building and engaging stakeholders? (Donors, staff, volunteers, board members, community partners) What are our attrition rates?

• Do we have diverse, sustainable funding streams that allow us to make decisions based on abundance and opportunity rather than scarcity and lack?

• Do our programs create the impact that we want? Are we meeting our goals and objectives?

Deep diving into assessing specific areas of operations will help create a baseline for your 2022 strategy. Consider examining of the following areas:

• Financials

• Fundraising Objectives

• Program Impact

• Staff Feedback

• Board Engagement

• Stakeholder Attrition Rates

As you review your data, look for trends, opportunities, anomalies, and surprises. Identify the areas of growth and what contributed to their success. Where your objectives were not met, evaluate where and how you need to make changes to improve them or eliminate them.

Strategic planning can feel overwhelming, but breaking it into steps, and engaging stakeholders can make it not only doable but enjoyable! Remember - the assessment isn’t only for identifying opportunities for growth, it also highlights the incredible successes you’ve created! Celebrate these, and roll the opportunities into objectives for next year.

If you’d like a detailed guide and Strategic Plan Template, click HERE!

We wish you a happy, happy planning month!

The Phillinnova Team

P.S. Next week, stay tuned for Year-End Giving tips!