Chapter 1
Strategic Planning and Audience Analysis

Before writing a proposal for an academic institution, social service agency, or other nonprofit organization, you will have to determine whether or not the ideas you have for funding will help your organization achieve its mission and build internal capacity. In other words, will the project help the organization meet its objectives? Maximize its strengths and overcome some of its weaknesses? Further its overall goals and objectives? Only if the proposed project clearly fits into the organization's strategic plan should you pursue it. If you can show how the project fits into the plan, it will be easier to elicit support for your ideas in your organization and to make a strong case to potential sponsors. In Chapter 1, you will learn to gather information about your organization's strategic plan, including its mission, goals, objectives, and accomplishments. This information will be used to help you make decisions about which proposal ideas to pursue, and it will also be used later in the letter of intent and in certain sections of the proposal to build your organization's credibility with potential sponsors.

Learner Outcomes

After completing this chapter, you will be able to
  1. Identify the mission, goals, objectives, and relevant accomplishments of your organization

  2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your organization

  3. Generate a few ideas for projects that would maximize your organization's strengths and overcome some of its weaknesses, while implementing the organization's strategic plan

Key Terms

Electronic notebook—The electronic notebook is a proposal development file which contains all of the information you locate and write related to a proposal you intend to write. It includes information you find and write about the problem, your proposed solution, how you will implement it, how you will evaluate it, names and contact information for key people, and also information about your institution and potential sponsors. Instead of a virtual notebook, you could also compile a print notebook with all the information in a three-ring binder.

External audiences—External audiences for a proposal are people outside the organization generating the proposal—the sponsors, the target audiences being served, the partner organizations contributing to the proposal or project, and sometimes even the public at large.

Goals—The goals of an organization are usually written in the organization's charter and accompany the mission statement. The major goals of the organization are the long-term general outcomes that the organization wants to achieve. When the organization achieves these goals, it will have fulfilled its mission. Most organizations have only one to three goals.

Grant—A grant is assistance (money or equipment) awarded to an organization or individual to accomplish its (his or her) stated purposes and objectives. A grant is usually awarded as the result of submitting a proposal.

Internal audiences—Internal audiences for a proposal are the primary and secondary audiences within the organization issuing the proposal.

Mission—The mission of an organization is a short statement of its purpose, its reason for being, which tells how it differs from similar organizations. The mission indicates the purpose of the organization, whom it is designed to serve, and in what capacity.

Nonprofit organization—A nonprofit organization is generally a social service agency or school that is incorporated in the state in which it operates and has been granted nonprofit status by the IRS. Nonprofit status, often called 501(c)(3) status, permits the organization to receive tax-deductible gifts.

Objectives—The objectives of an organization are the specific, measurable steps that an organization takes to achieve its goals. Each goal could have two to five objectives.

Primary audiences—The primary audiences for a proposal are the audiences of decision-makers within a nonprofit organization who have final sign-off on the proposal.

Project management notebook—The project management notebook is a continuation of your proposal development electronic or print notebook, which contains specifics on how to implement your project after it is funded, who will be involved, position descriptions, and so on. This notebook will give you a head start when you are awarded a grant or a contract and will help you to stay organized as you begin to implement your project.

Proposal—A proposal is a written document prepared for a foundation, corporate sponsor, or government sponsor as an application for funding. It is sometimes called a grant proposal.

Secondary audiences—Secondary audiences for a proposal are the audiences within an organization who will be affected by or implement the proposal once it has been approved and funded.

Strategic plan—A strategic plan is a document that key people in an organization have developed to identify the organization's long- and short-term goals, to prioritize their projects and programs, and to determine how and when they will implement these projects. The strategic plan specifically describes the organization's long- and short-term goals so that different branches or units within the organization can plan specific projects that will help them to achieve some of these goals.

A Note About the Strategic Planning Exercise

If you are a volunteer in the organizations for which you will be writing a proposal, your contact person in the organization will probably identify a proposal for you to write. This would seem to negate the need for the strategic planning exercise, since the organization already knows what it wants to do. However, you will want to explain to your organizational contact that you have to learn about the organization if you are to write an effective proposal, so this exercise will give you the information you need to write the proposal, and it will provide you with most of the information that you will need later for the appendices and the organizational information sections in the letters of intent and the proposals themselves. The question in this exercise that organizational contacts sometimes hesitate to answer is the question about the organization's problems or weaknesses. You can explain that the proposed project should help the organization overcome some of its weaknesses or even turn them into strengths. In this way the proposed project can be "sold" to the organization as a way of building internal capacity. It also can be "sold" to sponsors as a way of strengthening the nonprofit so that it meets the needs of the target audiences for the proposal even better. If your contact still hesitates to give you this information, you should drop the question and inform your instructor. If you work in the organization for which you are writing a proposal, you will already know a lot of this information. However, going through the exercise often helps you to understand the organization and its culture better. It also helps you understand how to frame arguments to be persuasive in the organization. This chapter is related to Chapter 7 Advance Planning in terms of gathering information to build support and get buy-in for the project.

Summary

The strategic plan is a document which serves as a long-term (usually three- to five-year) blueprint for nonprofit organizations. It contains the organization's mission statement, goals and objectives, a description of the target population, and usually descriptions, rationales, and policies. It might also include staff profiles of key personnel, an organization chart showing lines of authority, and descriptions of the roles and responsibilities of governing boards—such as advisory boards or boards of directors. Finally, the strategic plan usually includes the prioritized directions, projects, or activities the organization plans to undertake in the next few years. You will want to determine if your project or program fits into the strategic plan of your organization. The mission of the organization is usually short—one or two sentences long. The mission states the reason why this organization exists, the target population it serves, and what kinds of products or services it provides. The overall goals of the organization are global statements that identify what the organization hopes to accomplish to achieve its mission and to help its beneficiaries. Think of the goals as outcomes—what will occur or be different if the organization achieves its mission. Usually an organization does not have more than one to three goals. The objectives of the organization are more specific and measurable than goals. Usually there should be two to five objectives for each of its corresponding goals. By accomplishing the objectives, the organization shows measurable progress toward achieving its goals, and thereby, achieving its mission. Sometimes the objectives of the organization are either not clearly articulated or are mixed up with the goals. Organizations will even mix up the terms "goals" and "objectives" with "aims" or "purposes." So part of your task may be to sort these out, regardless of what the organization calls them.

Writing Assignment

  1. Complete the Strategic Planning exercise either by copying and filling out the exercise at the end of this chapter or by downloading the exercise from the end of this chapter. You should reflect on your role in the organization and on what your personal and professional goals and objectives are. Are your goals and objectives "in synch" with the organization's? Meet with people in your organization and collect documentation about the organization's mission goals and objectives, then answer the questions and turn in the completed worksheet to your instructor. In some cases, you will just be copying in the mission and goals of the organization; in other cases, you will be required to reflect on and analyze the documents. Save all of these documents because you will need them later. After completing the exercise, you will have the necessary information to begin formulating arguments for why your proposed project should be undertaken, and you will be able to identify how it will further the goals and objectives of your organization. If you are working for a nonprofit, this is an excellent exercise to do with a team of people who are looking at potential projects for which you will be seeking funding. It will help you prioritize those projects based on how they fit into the organization's strategic plan. It will also be a good way for the group to come to consensus about which projects you should undertake based on how effectively they will help you meet your strategic plan. Completing this exercise in a group is also a good way to get buy-in.
  2. Start an electronic notebook to serve as a grant seeking tool and to organize all the information you gather for writing a specific proposal. This notebook will be a useful way of organizing your research, the documents that you collect from the organization, and information on sponsors so that you can use this information later in developing your proposal or as a guide to developing other proposals. We suggest that you create a virtual electronic notebook using the exercises and forms provided on the Companion Website; however, if you are more comfortable with print technology, you can achieve the same ends with a three-ring binder, using the exercises and forms at the end of each chapter on the Companion Website as your tabbed sections. In the latter case, you might also want to use your notebook as a clip file to store copies of relevant material and articles that you find in journals and newspapers. Note that most of this information can also be found online.

    Ideally, you should develop such a notebook (either electronic or print) for each major project for which you are seeking funding. That way when you get funded, you will have a head start on a project management notebook which will help you to implement and manage the project.

    To create a virtual notebook, create a folder with files for different subjects on your computer with the same information you would keep in a print notebook. Make a new folder for each project and keep the files related to that project in your project folders.

  3. Download the worksheet for Exercise 1.1 Strategic Planning Exerciseand complete it.

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