{"id":48,"date":"2026-07-13T20:09:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T20:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aaronrome.com\/?p=48"},"modified":"2026-07-13T20:09:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T20:09:53","slug":"strategic-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aaronrome.com\/?p=48","title":{"rendered":"Strategic Planning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Having a well developed strategic plan in place can help your organization in several ways, it will:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Help to develop a shared vision among stakeholders<\/li>\n<li>Provide a detailed road map for future growth<\/li>\n<li>Demonstrate to potential and current donors that you have a plan<\/li>\n<li>Improve morale among your board and staff<\/li>\n<li>Excite and motivate stakeholders to become more involved<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The language above is very precise in order to emphasize the importance of process and ensure that your plan will not sit on some shelf collecting dust. The purpose of a strategic plan is not to <em>write<\/em> your organization&#8217;s vision. The purpose is to <em>create<\/em> a vision. By implicit definition, a vision is contextual &#8212; it cannot exist independently of PEOPLE! Therefore embodied in a &#8220;vision&#8221; or vision statement is that it has &#8216;buy-in&#8217; from stakeholders. Further, the process of creating a vision &#8212; or <em>strategic plan<\/em> &#8212; should incorporate several important attributes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Inclusivity<\/li>\n<li>Utilization of data and evidence-based research<\/li>\n<li>Commitment to iterative dialog and qualitative analysis<\/li>\n<li>Openness to critical feedback and divergent\/ transformational ideas<\/li>\n<li>Awareness of the marketplace (competitors, partners, market conditions)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>How do you create a strategic plan? There are several ways to design the process, depending on the size and culture of the organization. A small or emerging organization may only necessitate involvement of the executive director and board &#8212; much of the work can be accomplished in two half-day retreats, with one-on-one meetings, data collection and market analysis conducted in-between. A regional or statewide organization that includes the general public as its stakeholders may also choose to hold public forums, or host online surveys, to illicit input.<\/p>\n<p>On a more granular level I like to start with a point in time 1 to 5 years in the future and work backwards. What do you want to have accomplished 5 years from now? Once that vision is in place the process of breaking it down\u00a0 into goals, objectives, strategies and actions steps &#8212; with financial projections and timelines &#8212; can be tackled in a relatively straightforward manner.<\/p>\n<p>Aaron&#8217;s role as a facilitator through this process is to keep everyone&#8217;s &#8216;eyes on the prize&#8217; &#8212; this document is not meant to be static, intimidating, or a paperweight. The purpose is to excite &amp; motivate stakeholders and set a clear path to help your organization meet its vision!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having a well developed strategic plan in place can help your organization in several ways, it will: Help to develop a shared vision among stakeholders Provide a detailed road map for future growth Demonstrate to potential and current donors that you have a plan Improve morale among your board and staff Excite and motivate stakeholders [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronrome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronrome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronrome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronrome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronrome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aaronrome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaronrome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronrome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaronrome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}