I’ve never found that one, perfect definition that works for me. Here are a few with worthy elements:
“In short, strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future. (Adapted from Bryson's Strategic Planning in Public and Nonprofit Organizations)” From the Alliance for Nonprofit Management
“…the continuous process of making present
entrepreneurial (risk-taking) decisions systematically and
with the greatest knowledge of their futurity; organizing
systematically the efforts needed to carry out these
decisions; and measuring the results of these decisions against the
expectations through organized, systematic feedback”.
Peter Drucker (Management:
Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. New York: Harper
& Row, 1974, p. 125 in my old edition)
Successful strategic planning:
Guiding principles of strategic planning, from The Support Centers of America.
And my own less-than-perfect effort:
Strategic planning is a continuous process of organizational evaluation and decision making through which the organization asks and answers the question “in pursuit of our mission, and in light of our shared values and our knowledge of ourselves and our environment, what ought we to be doing?”
It requires no arcane knowledge.
It’s about checking regularly on our organization’s mission (are we all clear about why we exist? have we stated it well?), its vision (do we share a vivid picture of how the world would be different if we did everything we’re supposed to do and it all worked?), and its progress toward its goals (how are we doing? what’s changing that we should be taking account of? are we doing the right things? what do we need to start doing? and to stop doing?)How it works depends on the organization and its leaders.
The process can be elaborate or simple. Can use sophisticated quantitative measures or thermometer posters colored in with red marker.The process can be linear or holistic. Can be top-down. Can be bottom-up. Can be outside-in (or inside-out). Can place more or less emphasis on analysis of internal and external environments. Can be expansively and externally focused (how do we change the world in pursuit of our mission?) or about consolidation and fine-tuning (how do we get better at what we do?)
The process telescopes through the organizational structure. Units or departments have strategic plans that both feed into and reflect the larger organization’s strategic plans.
From Peter Drucker (Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. New York: Harper & Row, 1974) we learn what strategic planning is not (pp.123-125, in my old edition):1. It is not a box of tricks, a bundle of techniques. It is analytical thinking and commitment of resources to action.
2. It is not forecasting. Strategic planning is necessary precisely because we cannot forecast.
Drucker says forecasting is not a respectable human activity, and not worthwhile beyond the shortest of periods. Forecasting is an attempt to find the most probable course of events&emdash;or at best, a range of possibilities. Good management decisions are those unique events that will change the possibilities. “Forecasting does not serve the purposes of planners who seek to direct their organizations to the future.”
3. Strategic planning does not deal with future decisions. It deals with the futurity of present decisions.
The question that faces the strategic [decision maker] is not what [his/her] organization should do tomorrow. It is, “What do we have to do today to be ready for an uncertain tomorrow?” It is not about what will happen in the future.
4. Strategic planning is not an attempt to eliminate risk
It is not even an attempt to minimize risk. Even so, it is essential that the risks taken are the right risks. Planning enables leadership to choose rationally among risk-taking courses of action.
Strategic plans do not gather dust. If they do, they are not plans. They are, perhaps, wishful thinking codified, but they are not plans.Strategic planning is ongoing, not periodic. When strategic planning is integrated into the life of the organization, we are regularly and repeatedly engaged in it, even though we only do a planning retreat once a year. Between times, we’re living with the plan: checking what we do against it, assessing our progress, evaluating our methods and the outcomes they produce or don’t, reminding ourselves of the plan at staff and board meetings.
There are three categories of people who should be involved in planning
Corollary:
There is a fourth category of people who must be taken into account in planning: those who have the power to kill the plan. Circumstances will dictate whether these people should be involved in planning, or whether they should in some other way be taken into account.
Involving all the proper people in planning does not mean you have to rent a stadium for your planning sessions.
Involvement in planning or decision-making should be seen as a spectrum, ranging from “being told about the decision or plan as soon as it’s made” at the low end, to “being responsible for making it” at the high end. There are a lot of stops in between, such as “initiating decision making,” “giving input to planners,” and “reviewing and commenting on plans.”
In many ways, development professionals are especially well qualified to influence strategic planning in their organizations. We know the organization’s ability to raise the resources it needs depends to a very large extent on how well the organization’s people understand and can articulate its vision, mission, and values and tell the stories of real people and real work that bring that mission to life. We know the best resource development occurs when the organization knows where it’s going and why, and what it wants to achieve, and when it’s doing the right things to get there.
By using your special perspective on the organization to help folks make a commitment to planning strategically.
Your view of how the organization tells its story, and how former and prospective donors hear and understand that story, can help illuminate for staff, managers, and trustees how important it is for them to keep asking, “Where are we going, and are we doing the right things to get there?”
By helping your organizations do good strategic planning.
You can be sure there’s good information available to planners about the results of resource-development activities, about past, current, and prospective donor populations, about where you think you need to be going with fundraising and why, and about the resources you need to do your work.
By applying good strategic planning to your own development work.
Use SWOT analysis to help you get a good grip on what you do well, what you don’t, and what the opportunities and threats out there in your fundraising environment are. (The link here is to a United Nations' web site that does a good job of presenting SWOT.
FYI
Here are copies of the handout and worksheet I use for SWOT analyses. Both are in portable document format (PDF), and require you to have Acrobat Reader.
A SWOT worksheet