Organisational planning and budgeting
Whether you call your organisational plan a strategy, a marketing strategy, a business plan, or a sales plan, developing a plan is crucial. But more often than not, the process by which plans are developed is far from ideal.
Sometimes a plan is simply a rehash of the previous year's plan (whether it was effective or not). Sometimes plan documents end up being no more than wish lists or vague descriptions of where we'd like to be (one day...). Neither of these will serve you well.
Your organisational plan is absolutely critical - and the one thing you should seek expert help with, if nothing else. Even if you or your team are effective planners you will still benefit from external input. So why is your organisational plan so important?
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It drives everything that happens in your organisation. Departmental and personal work plans are based on it. Fundraising and marketing plans fall out of your main corporate plan. Your plan is the compass by which everyone navigates.
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Proper planning forces you to look outside of your organisation in a structured way, researching competitors and customers/donors, and to include your findings in your plan of action.
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Organisations waste a fortune implementing tactics that are not based on a sound plan. Teams base their work on assumptions and goals that are odds with those of other teams.
A thorough planning process produces a plan document and supporting budget that if implemented stands a very high chance of achieving the results you want to see. It produces alignment - your resources and people all rowing in the same direction and at the same speed. And it produces awareness - of competitors (or 'other players' if you prefer) and of the people whose needs and wants you're trying to meet.
We have decades of experience of strategic planning and can guide you through the process in its entirety or contribute to aspects of it as needed. Contact 3Consult to find out more.
Client Comments
"What has impressed me most about Gareth is his willingness to push boundaries, when necessary, to address project goals. He has also shown willingness to continue working at ideas when projects become challenging and by backing up his thoughts with accessible and well presented research."
Bruce Stanley, Embody.
“Gareth is a visionary and a good net-worker who can work with people at all levels and be the connection between various projects. He's a competent project manager and works well to a budget.”
Jan Harney, National Director, Activate
"Gareth Squire led an excellent consultative process for RUN which helped us to strategically review our activities. We found him to be very professional and thorough in his approach and would not hesitate to recommend him to others."
Chris Stoddard, Director, RUN.
"Gareth provided a very creative and unique contribution, offering a website and series of thought provoking videos".
Ian Chisnall, HOPE08.
"Gareth is a very skilled, constructive and able fundraiser. He works as part of the team and contributes well beyond remit - great to have worked with him and hope to do so again."
Alice Devitt, Director of Fundraising and Marketing, Arthritis Care (now with SCOPE).
