Knowledge Center

10 Best Planning Practices

1. Plan continuously.
2. Transition from the previous plan.
3. Set a solid foundation.
4. Begin with the end in mind.
5. Turn the mirror outward.
6. Be bold.
7. Do your part to make your plan successful.
8. Make sure the plan is actionable and gets off to a good start.
9. Make strategic thinking central to decision-making.
10. Communicate thoroughly and often.

About our Advisory Series

What planning challenge are you facing today? Strategic planning? Marketing planning for your nonprofit? Leadership transition planning? Board development? All of the above?

We think it’s important for a robust leadership circle in every organization, especially not-for-profits, to become familiar with the scope, language, and deliverables of different planning challenges before creating structures and processes to address these challenges. CSP’s Advisory Series gives your leadership team access to need-to-know information when planning-to-plan, implementing, or evaluating a planning project.

By applying the principles, practices, and concepts in our Advisories, your leadership team can immediately begin to think and act strategically about critical organizational issues without compromising what matters most.

Four Principles

1. Preserve the core
2. Cast a wide net
3. Think from the outside-in
4. Take the long-view

Five Practices

1. Research and analyze
2. Plan
3. Implement
4. Evaluate
5. Recalibrate and feed back

Begin to increase your sustainable advantage today by practicing a systems approach to a wide range of planning challenges. Learn more about strategic planning, nonprofit marketing planning, leadership transition planning and board development now through CSP’s Advisories.

From the Knowledge Center planning teams can go to CSP’s Resource Center for Tools and Templates for practical application.

Strategic Planning

Nonprofit Marketing Planning

Leadership Transition Planning

Board Development