Resources
Strategy & Planning
A strategy sets the overall direction for your charity. It involves making high-level decisions about your organisation’s purpose, priorities and how you will use your resources to achieve your mission and create the greatest impact.
A clear strategy helps trustees, staff and volunteers work towards shared goals, make better decisions about time and funding, and respond to changes in the environment around them. It also helps organisations stay focused on what they do best, collaborate with others and demonstrate the difference they are making.
Most charity strategies include several key elements:
Vision – the long-term change you want to see in the world
Mission – why your organisation exists and what it does
Values – the principles guiding how you work
Strategic goals or priorities – the main areas of work that will deliver your mission
When developing a strategy, charities often analyse their external environment and organisational strengths to identify opportunities and challenges. Tools such as stakeholder mapping, environmental scanning and strategic analysis can help ensure the strategy is realistic and focused on impact. Using a Theory of Change can also be a helpful approach, enabling organisations to clearly map how their activities lead to outputs, outcomes and long-term impact, and ensuring that strategic priorities are aligned with the change the charity wants to achieve.
Strategy and business planning | NCVO
Useful tools
Charities may find the following tools helpful when developing a strategy, available on the NCVO website
Strategic plan template – setting out vision, mission, values and 3–5 strategic priorities
SWOT analysis template – identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat
PESTLE analysis template – considering external political, economic and social factors
Theory of Change template – mapping how activities lead to outcomes and long-term impact
Business plan template – turning strategy into practical actions, budgets and timelines