SUMMER ACTIVITY: BUILD YOUR PLAN

Summer is a great time for planning. This small investment of time will pay off in stronger results and reduced team stress. Here’s four steps to success:

1)       HONEST ASSESSMENT

Use data and your memory and notes to create an honest assessment about your recent program performance. What went well and why? What results were flat or down? What planned activities did not happen? Were there missed opportunities? What’s your capacity for the year to come?

2)       FORWARD PLANNING

Using your assessment, list activities, projects, and campaigns to plan for, using these categories – What’s critical to do. What should happen. What’s nice to have. What will not happen.

3)       ANNUALIZE

Map out the items on to a calendar in order to visualize the full year laid out to determine if it’s balanced and achievable from an internal perspective and a donor perspective.

4)       MAP TO GOALS

Match up each activity or campaign to the goals you have set to ensure that the effort you are placing into your program will result in the best outcome.