Utilizing the Module 6 Readings, the Module 6 Components of a Strategic Plan Presentation, and Framework for a Basic Strategic Plan Document for a Nonprofit (Links to an external site.) complete a strategic plan with a logic model.
Your strategic plan should be at least five and no more than six pages (page count does not include title page, references, nor appendices). It must be presented in a “practice ready” format. In other words, it must include an attractive and professional cover sheet and be formatted in a manner that is easy to follow and is enticing for your audience. Utilize current APA formatting for in-text citations and include a references list, but current APA formatting is not needed for the main text. You are highly encouraged to utilize headings and other graphics that pull together your document into a clean and organized manner.
Minimally, you will need to include the following information for the content and appendices:
Executive Summary (one page at maximum)
Background (no longer than ½ page)
Descriiption of the social problem
Include data on the impact of the problem
Introduction to your proposed nonprofit (no longer than ½ page)
Name of organization
Mission statement
Goals and objectives
Target population/problem/policies
Include demographic information and/or as much details about your target group
With your new organization, what does success look like?
Summary of strategies (at least 1 1/2 pages)
Overall approach. Sometimes this is called a theory of change.
Think of this section as the narrative of your logic model
Attention to diverse cultural contexts
Justification for overall approach:
Has this been done before in other communities, states, countries?
Is there evidence to support your approach?
Descriiption of theories that support your approach.
Summary of SWOT analysis (no longer than ½ page)
Why is your nonprofit the right fit for responding to the social problem?
Conclude this section with selling your audience on why now is the right time to move forward with this organization
Implementation Considerations (at least 1 ½ pages)
Organizational structure (type of structure and governance)
Staffing patterns (work distribution)
Collaborations (critical partnerships)
Physical/virtual space
Refer to the Organizational Structure (PDF) (Links to an external site.)
Prospective funding sources (at least ½ page)
Descriiption about the funding context:
Is the social problem a high priority politically, socially, economically?
Is the social problem regarded as important by general society?
For example, childhood illness is typically more accepted as an urgent problem than adults who are addicted to substances.
Discuss any funding ideas or opportunities
O’Donovan, D., & Flower, N. R. (2013). The Strategic Plan Is Dead. Long Live Strategy (Links to an external site.). SSIR.
CNM Nonprofit Answer Guide. (Links to an external site.) Select the question “What does a good nonprofit strategic plan look like?”
Pathfinder is an international organization. Their site is rich with resources that can be used as examples of how to write brief descriiptions of programs, how to report success, and how to use evidence-based practices. This following link is a great example of how Pathfinder has used theory to inform their strategy. This will be a good example for you to examine as you consider how you will utilize theory to support your approach, as well as how to write your strategic plan succinctly. In the example, the organization utilizes systems theory, a cornerstone of social work practice.
Explore the Pathfinder (Links to an external site.) site
Implementation Plans
Visit the Community Tool Box (Links to an external site.) website. Read Section 1, An Overview of Strategic Planning or “VMOSA” (Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plans) (Links to an external site.) and review the tools and examples.
The CDC Project Implementation Template (Word) is an incredible resource from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This CDC resource is a template to use as a guide to develop an implementation plan. As you examine the template, think about the elements you might include in your own implementation plan. For instance, you may refer to pages 9-12 for ideas on equipment, facilities, and personnel.
Visit the AHRQ (Links to an external site.) website and read Improving Patient Flow and Reducing Emergency Department Crowding: A Guide for Hospitals, Appendix C: Example (Links to an external site.). Review the examples implementation plan especially the problem statement, goals, and approach.
Strategic Plan Presentation components
In this section, you briefly state the main points of the plan, usually no more than one page. This section is often written last, and a good way to approach it is to think about what you would want someone to know if you had only three minutes with that person. Key stakeholders outside of your organization rarely have time to read the whole strategic plan. If they read only this section, what do you want them to walk away with? In this section, you briefly state the main points of the plan, usually no more than one page. This section is often written last, and a good way to approach it is to think about what you would want someone to know if you had only three minutes with that person. Key stakeholders outside of your organization rarely have time to read the whole strategic plan. If they read only this section, what do you want them to walk away with?
This section is an introduction in which you provide a summary of the social problem. You need to balance the summary with sufficient data references that it lends credibility to what you are doing, but also doesn’t overwhelm the reader with too much information.
You also include a statement in the background section about the importance of the work that your nonprofit plans to do. You can describe the work as filling a void in the community or as a critical social or public health problem that needs immediate attention.
At the end of the background section, you want your reader to have a sound understanding of the social problem, as well as an idea of what you will propose as the solution. This will set the stage for the remainder of the document.
n this section, you include the name of your organization and its mission. You also should include a descriiption of your target population. Some social problems are so vast that they cross over many subgroups. So if you are targeting just one sub-group, you want to make it clear in this section.
For example, if you are wanting to change the system for children’s behavioral health services, are you planning to target everyone (the children, caregivers, and providers)? Or are you just planning to target one of those groups?
You also want to include a descriiption of the overarching organization goals and objectives. These are the guiding framework for what your organization aims to achieve.
Finally, you should describe what success will look like. Are you going to eradicate hunger? Are you going to ensure that all children have equal access to quality education? In other words, if what you plan to do goes well, what would be the benefit to the community?
Provide a more detailed descriiption of your specific strategies beginning with a descriiption of your overall approach. This is sometimes called a theory of change. Theory of change is the broad perspective that may highlight multiple interventions that are planned to impact the social problem.
Continue with a detailed descriiption of a specific intervention as a narrative descriiption of the content contained in your logic model. Be sure to reference your logic model in the appendix.
Finally, in your summary of strategies, include a section that describes how the proposed strategies or interventions attend to the cultural and linguistic needs of your target population and to the diverse cultural and political context of the organization and community.
Your summary of strategies should also include a justification for your approach. This is the section where will highlight relevant theories and the evidence-base that supports your selection of strategies. It is easy to make the mistake of adding too much information in this section. You can avoid this by critically linking it back to your proposed strategies. This will increase the credibility of your proposed approach as well as help you to adhere to your ethical responsibility of competent practice.
To demonstrate the critical thinking and thought process that went into the development of your proposed intervention, include a summary of your SWOT analysis. You can describe what went into the SWOT, but your focus should be on the results of the SWOT and how those results informed the development of the intervention. You can then reference the actual completed SWOT diagram in the appendix.
Include a summary of your implementation plan to highlight critical aspects of your organization’s structure for now and in the future, and provide an overview of your implementation timeline and considerations for funding.
The conclusion is your last chance to make a compelling statement about the social problem and the importance of your proposed solution. You can include any planned next steps as well as important considerations or notes for implementation.
Formatting of the document itself is almost as critical as the content. Search for examples of strategic plans and examine the different ways that organizations format them.
In practice, these plans should be living documents that are updated regularly and amended with lessons learned and new strategies.
Here are some elements that most strategic plans have:
Framework for a basic strategic plan document for a non profit:
Framework for a Basic Strategic Plan Document for a Nonprofit
