The Nonprofit FAQ

Can I use a model to help draft my agency's strategic plan?

Someone wrote in usnonprofit-l: My organization has to draft a Strategic Plan. Can I use models developed by other groups? Jim Caplan replied in November 1994: Don't do it. In my experience of writing strategic plans for maybe 50 nonprofits, the WORST thing is to look at somebody else's plan before you write you own. The process is designed to come up with YOUR issues, not another group's. Order the handbook from the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation called "Strategic Planning Workbook for Nonprofit Organizations" http://www.wilder.org/pubs/strategic_plng/. I derive no income from this. Putnam Barber added this note on 5/28/05: The Innovation Network offers interactive online tools for organizations to use in doing several kinds of planning. The process is detailed and careful. Registration is required. See http://www.innonet.org Updated 5/28/05 -- PB