The new financial year is just around the corner, and it will bring with it all sorts of new opportunities as well as potential pitfalls. So in order to best capitalise on these opportunities, and to avoid those pitfalls, it is important to plan for the year ahead.
Think about where your organisation is at the moment and where you would like it to be in the future. To clearly articulate where you are at the moment, get your committee to brainstorm the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) and Risks they see for your organisation currently.
To be clear about where you want to be in the future, revisit your Values, Vision and Mission if you have these and check they are still relevant. If you don’t have these established yet, brainstorm and develop those with your committee too.
Once you know where you are, and where you want to get to, your plan will be the bridge between these two points.
From your SWOT brainstorm, work out what are your highest priorities, and set some goals relating to achieving these priorities. Be realistic about what you set out to achieve over the next year, based on the capacity of your group to work on these priorities.
Once you have set your goals for the year ahead, spell out the specifics of how you will work towards each of them, who will do what, and by when.
Then, just do it! Make a start, and keep checking in with each other throughout the year to make sure you are all on staying on track.
And in 12 months time you will be able to look back and reflect on all that you have achieved…and start planning for the next year ahead.
So remember the old saying – organisations don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan! And don’t let your group fail because they didn’t plan!
You can download this Blog Post as a tip sheet by clicking here:Tip Sheet_ Planning for the year ahead 29 May 2018
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