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Frequently Asked Questions

Question

What are the individual roles in a planning process?

Answer

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When involving individuals in a planning process, you must ask and answer several key questions to ensure that each individual's involvement is appropriate and will contribute to the successful execution of the strategic planning process. The key questions that should be answered for your organization include:

Why is it important to have a variety of people involved in the planning process?
Who should we include in the planning process? When we say stakeholders, who exactly are they? Are there individuals who we might not traditionally think of including, but who might be able to contribute valuable perspectives? What are the issues that must be considered when evaluating an individual's appropriateness and applicability to the planning process?
How do we involve individuals in the planning process? What role do these individuals play? What do we expect as a result of their involvement?

Planning Should Be an Inclusive Process

A planning process should be designed to include all board, staff, and other individuals invested in the success of your organization. An inclusive process:

helps to build both internal and external enthusiasm and commitment to the organization and its strategies. Individuals take on ownership of the goals and efforts to achieve the stated outcomes
ensures that your informational data base reflects the needs and perceptions of internal individuals and external constituents
incorporates a level of objectivity into the process. "Outsiders" can identify jargon or ask critical questions around which "insiders" might make assumptions
develops foundations for future working relationships
develops uniformity of purpose among all stakeholders
establishes a continual information exchange among staff, management, customers, and other key stakeholders.

Who Should the Planning Process Include?

Ideally, all key stakeholders should be involved in the planning process at some level. Stakeholders are individuals that are invested in the success or failure of your organization's mission. Key stakeholders include those persons who can either significantly help or hinder the implementation of your plan.

Key stakeholders may include individuals or groups who you do not traditionally think of including, but are able to contribute valuable perspectives. Examples of key stakeholders may include:

Board of Directors: The role of the full board is one of governance and oversight. As the entity responsible for governing the organization, its focus should remain on the ultimate and overreaching goals and strategies necessary to achieve organizational success. Therefore, the full board should be involved in processing environmental information and the approval of the vision, values and priorities. As the governing body, it should formally vote on adopting the plan as the management framework around which the organization will develop its operating plan(s).
Staff: Nonprofit staff are a critical ingredient to successful planning - they are the link between the visions and the every day activities of an organization. In an inclusive process, the philosophy is to give staff input and, when appropriate, authority when determining the means of the organization. These individuals have the experience and knowledge around critical success factors that should not be ignored. When staff are not an integral part of the planning discussions, they need to be informed of the decisions that have been made. Involving staff will:

ensure the realism of the plan
encourage all levels of the organization to take ownership of organizational vision and goals
involve the organization's future leadership in the development of its identity and vision
unite individual visions into a single collective vision for the organization.

You should include staff who are both current (part and full time, salaried, and unpaid) and previous employees.

Clients: As nonprofit organizations, our sole reason for existence is to improve the condition of a segment of our society, whether it is feeding hungry or homeless individuals, providing quality cultural experiences to patrons of the arts, or increasing independence for individuals with disabilities. In a planning process, it is critical to ask and answer, "How well are we meeting the needs of our customers/clients or members?" Directly involving these constituents (both current and previous clients) in the planning process is one of the best methods for assessing organizational performance and receiving guidance for future client needs and program foci.
Other External Stakeholders: In order for a planning process to be strategic it must address external issues and their potential impact on the organization. Including external stakeholders in the process is one fundamental way of ensuring that these issues will be incorporated into discussions and considered in the organization's future. External stakeholders can educate staff and the board on the perception of the organization in the community, as well as identify areas where services are being duplicated. Involving external key stakeholders in a planning process can establish a solid rapport on which you can develop powerful business relationships.

External key stakeholders include: funders (existing and potential), community leaders, competitors, potential collaborators, other agencies in parallel or related fields, volunteers, etc.

The Planning Committee

It is important to have a formal planning team or committee that spearheads the planning process. The planning committee is not responsible for doing all of the work it is responsible for ensuring that the work gets done. In essence, it becomes the cornerstone of the team: creating initial drafts of planning documents deciding which stakeholders to involve - how and at what stage and prioritizing or narrowing information for the organization to discuss and evaluate. The committee serves to maintain the efficiency of the process.

The planning committee should be:

limited to no more than five to seven individuals
a combination of visionaries (individuals who see what the organization can be) and "actionaries"(those who ask what the current organizational resources will support and ensure that the projected goals and tasks are realistic)
a group of individuals who has formal or informal power and the respect of the rest of the organization
a combination of board and staff members, including the executive director and the individual who will write the final plan.