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Planning

The importance of planning

Every organisation needs to plan. By planning ahead an organisation can ensure that it stays close to its stated mission and does not experience 'mission drift'. The planning process can bring to light future opportunities for an organisation as well as helping it to respond to the challenges it faces. In many ways, setting up a robust and on-going planning process within an organisation is more important than the plan that results from it.

This plan is often known as a business plan, it needs to be a living document and not something that gets left to gather dust on the shelf after it is written.

"The Plan is useless; it's the planning that's important"  -  General Eisenhower

Business Planning

Business planning is a process of making decisions about the future of a group, defining how to turn those decisions into reality and making sure it happens. Business planning decides major things for an organisation.

• Where is it headed?
• What are its priorities for the coming year(s)?
• How will it acquire and use resources?

Planning is the means by which your organisation exerts control over its future. Business planning offers an organisation the opportunity to stand back for a while and review how it is performing and ask questions like:

WHY  are you doing what you are doing?  (your purpose)
WHAT  do you want to achieve?  (outcomes)
HOW  will you achieve these outcomes?  (your strategies)
WHO  will do what by when?  (your action plan)
HOW  will you assess the effectiveness and efficiency of your plan and make necessary changes?  (your evaluation process)

The business plan is the written document that results from this process, a statement of what you are proposing to do over a period of 2 to 3 years, how much money will be needed, when it will be needed, and where it will come from.

There are no 'right' way to write a business plan. It will be individual to your organisation and reflect the needs and size of your organisation. A 'good' business plan is one that works for your organisation.

Business planning process

Stage 1 - Preparing to plan

Planning is an organisation-wide exercise and introducing it needs to be well thought out. Who needs to be involved? What tasks will have to be done to create the plan? How much time should be allowed?

Stage 2 - Where are we now?

A review of your organisation will need to be conducted. What are the organisations strengths and weaknesses? What is happening in the world outside your organisation? This might include changes in the law, social policy, demographic changes, changes in your client or user group or changes in technology. This stage involves collecting relevant data to help the organisation make informed decisions.

Stage 3 - Where do we want to be?

Consider the purpose for which your organisation was set up and the difference it sets out to make. Where do you think the organisation should be in 3-5 years? Consider new ideas and opportunities? How can the points raised in your review be responded to? How can the organisations weaknesses be strengthened. At this point there may be several different ways forward. Look at all the options and consider the benefits, costs and overall impact of each option on the organisation.

Stage 4 - How do we get there?

Once the organisation has agreed the broad direction that it wishes to go in, the practical steps it needs to take to get there need to be mapped out. These are known as 'objectives'.

Objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound).

What resources will the organisation need to deliver the plan? What people, money, assets and information will be needed? A budget and cashflow can be put together. This will feed into your organisation's funding strategy.

Once these details have been worked on and completed, it is worth considering again: are our plans still realistic?
The organisation will also need to think about how they are going to monitor ongoing progress towards the planned objectives.

Stage 5 - Writing up the plan

Once stage 4 has been completed writing up the plan should be relatively simple. Your plan should be clear, readable and set out in a logical order. The more accessible the plan is, the more it is likely to be read and used. When writing the plan consider the audience it is intended for e.g. staff, funders etc. What do they need to know?

Stage 6 - Writing up, using and disseminating the plan

Once the plan is written it needs to be used by the organisation. In order for the plan to be effective it will need to be familiar to members of staff who can use it to guide their decision making, as well as monitoring their progress against it. A business plan can also be used as a communication tool with outside agencies. The plan should be a living document that is regularly reviewed and updated.

More from CSAS

Links

• Charity Business
  Charity Business has been created from within the charity sector to provide financial shared services solutions for voluntary organisations.
  https://www.charitybusiness.com/