IFEX Strategic Planning Tools

In his book The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution: Real-Time Strategic Planning in a Rapid-Response World, David La Piana points to the need to be deliberate in your organisation’s decision-making, and to ensure that the decisions you make are both consistent with your vision and mission and build on your competitive advantages. One way to do this is by using strategic planning tools to assist you in being clear about your decisions and how you make them. La Piana’s book includes a number of tools that may be helpful. IFEX has also developed tools that address the concerns of IFEX members directly, which may be useful to you.

These tools include:
• Key Issues Checklist: Helps your team understand and get consensus on the most important challenges facing your organisation. Answers: What are our challenges?
• Competitive Strength Map: Helps you differentiate your organisation from others in your space, and articulate your particular strengths and areas for growth. Answers: What are our strengths?
• Trend Map: Helps you identify the possible effects of shifts in external factors that may impact your target audiences and your funding. Answers: What external factors might affect us?
• Opportunity Map: Helps you sort opportunities according to fit, value and feasibility. Answers: What are our best opportunities?
• Strategy Check: Helps you analyse whether a proposed strategy fits with your mission. Answers: Is this the right strategy for us?