Strategic planning is vital to not only the operations of non profit organisations, but also to their continued viability as most don't successfully access grants. A Strategic Plan provides vision to an organisation. If developed properly - the business plan will clearly show the goals and objectives over the next three to five years and how the organisation plans to deliver on these goals and objectives. The operational plan will demonstrate clearly that their services are well thought out - meet a need in the community and will demonstrate that this is a well run professional organisation giving fund managers and Australian Government agencies confidence in supporting projects with funding.
From our work with non profit organisations across Australia - the vast majority of small to meduim non profits don't have any Project Plans to support their projects let alone business plans. The larger non profits will probably have a Strategic Plan of some description in place - but really, in all honesty - how many of these operational plans actually reflect the organisation's current goals and vision? Organisations over a matter of a month or two can have seismic shifts in focus and their operations yet forget all about the strategic direction in which they were headed and completely forget about their business plan. It never gets updated - it is a book shelf document unfortunately and little else. Organisations need to regularly review their Strategic Plan and use them as a management tool reporting on progress of initiatives at each Committee meeting and challenging any proposed changes in direction.
Organisations that have Strategic Plans in place which hopefully are supported by detailed Project Plans are way more successful in winning grants. Strategic planning can take many forms but it is increasingly becoming the real key to receiving funding. So much so that both Government and Philanthropic agencies will financially support an organisation/project where a well detailed plan supports the initiative and the grant application over an organisation that has not clearly thought through their project and does not have a documented plan in place.
An organisation with well crafted Strategic and Project Plans in place also makes the grant writing process so much easier. Grant writing really in a specialised field although many organisations try desperately to hire young, inexperienced staff or try to convert one of their existing staff to become a grant writer. IF organisations had a robust business plan in place which was supported by comprehensive Project Plans the vast majority if not all of the information required to complete the grant application, respond to questions or address selection criteria would be included in these Plans. Inexperienced or converted staff would then have some reasonable hope of preparing a successful grant application. The sad reality is that most organisations do not have a planning framework in place then compound the problem by trying to prepare their own submissions to funding programs.
At Red Tape Busters we assist clients in developing creative Strategic and Project Plans which we use to complete grant applications. Given we prepare such comprehensive documents, we significantly cut down the time required to complete an application given the Plans have all the information we need. We also use the Strategic Plan and/or Project Plan as an attachment to our grant application - providing the fund manager with more comprehensive information about the organisation/project that what is allowed in the grant application. Most applications are word or page limited so attaching the Plans is the easy way of providing more information while still complying with the limiting requirements.
Strategic plans are essential. An organisation with a well drafted business plan really does have a huge advantage in accessing grants over those that do not. Our successes in the field clearly validates this position.
Shane Bowering is the Director of Red Tape Busters Pty Ltd, an Australian based company specialising in grant writing.