Operational Planning preparing to act Conservation Coaches Network New Coach Training

Operational Planning

preparing to act

Conservation Coaches Network New Coach Training

Strategic Plan– Internal and/or external document that explains what needs to be done

Work Planning & Budgeting– Details of what will be done & how much it will cost

Fundraising– Plan for raising the resources needed to carry out the strategic plan

Capacity– Internal & external, capacity building often strategy unto itself


Key Points to Introduce this Step

– Is a strategic plan document necessary?

– Is it an internal or external document, or both?

– Who is responsible for drafting and then reviewing the plan?


Critical Questions to Ask the Team

Strategic Plan

– Does the work plan spell out responsibilities clearly?

– How far out does the work plan need to go?

– Is the budget comprehensive enough to cover activities?

– How detailed does the budget need to be?



Work Planning & Budgeting

Who will do it? When & how much

time

$ Expenses



– Is fundraising necessary or is the budget a given?

– Whose responsibility is fundraising?

– Does the team know what materials will be most useful?



Fundraising

– Does the team have the necessary leadership/leadership support?

– Does the team have the right/sufficient capacity?

– Do your partners and stakeholders have sufficient capacity?



Capacity

Issue: Our plan could easily be 100+ pages!

• Separate the work plan from the strategic plan

• Tighten the text and put details in annexes

• Add high level executive summary

Common Issues & Recommendations




Example Table of Contents for a Strategic Plan

Issue: The team is busy working on already-funded projects

• Encourage the team to take control of their program’s future by moving to new strategies in the plan

• Consider the new plan a menu of options for funders

• Transition to new strategies as projects end and new strategies are funded



Issue: The team is very small in comparison with the number of complex strategies in the plan

• The team either needs to “scale up” – through major fundraising or coalition-building – or to reduce the breadth of its plan

• Make sure that you consider what other organizations are doing – don’t duplicate efforts.

• Clarify priorities – e.g., with $ we can implement strategies A and B, with $$ we can do A, B, C and D



Issue: Conceptual Model & Results Chains are too complicated for others to absorb

• Develop simplified conceptual model & results chains

• Put the detailed versions in annexes in your strategic plan

• Translate the model into a high level narrative description



Issue: It takes a lot of effort to develop detailed work plans and budgets for strategies that we’re not sure we can handle

• Develop a simple, high-level workplan first• Then make decisions about priorities based on

timing, capacity, funding• Develop more detailed work plans and budgets

after you are more certain about which strategies you’ll use



Issue: How much effort for monitoring?

• Go with 5-10% of total program budget and fit an array of target-based, threat-based, and strategy effectiveness measures into that budget

• No magic bullet• Investment should take into consideration:

- Have you done this strategy before?- Is there a lot of risk involved?- Is this an expensive strategy?- Is this complex and will take a long time to unfold?



• Don’t forget that you can choose to help the team rank strategies based on several criteria including impact (benefits), feasibility, cost, urgency, etc.

• Miradi is a helpful tool for work planning, tracking capacity, and producing key pieces for a strategic plan

Helpful Hints Operational Planning

Documents

Operational Planning preparing to act Conservation Coaches Network New Coach Training