Congratulations on becoming the 2016 President of the Ruritan National Foundation. I enjoyed having the chance to "google" your organization to learn more about the important work that your organization is doing. You indicate that you hope to develop a strategic plan for your initiative to increase your financial resources and increase your impact. Several chapters of the Community Toolbox might be especially helpful. Each of these also includes toolkits that are hands-on descriptions of steps you might want to take. The chapters that could be especially helpful include:
As you begin the strategic planning process, it can be very helpful to look at what others have done. A web search using "strategic planning tools" brings up lots of resources and examples (including the Community Toolbox). A few years ago I facilitated the strategic planning process for a land grant university and the process involved diverse groups from throughout the state. We found that initially there was considerable cynicism about the process because people had been through similar efforts in the past that had little impact. This impression that nothing will result is often there and so an important starting point is finding ways to help people see that their involvement will make a difference. We did this in part by finding ways to ensure that people's exact words and suggestions were visible throughout the process (in web stories, etc). People could see how they were contributing. This also helped people see the variation in views and that it would be important to find ways to bring the ideas together. At the end of the process people said that it wasn't just an exercise and they could see that it created a plan that would help the university move forward.
Best of luck on your strategic planning process.
