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Ask an Advisor Answers

Question:
Can you assist and partner to launch an international mission/leadership training center ?
Answer:

Thank you so much for writing to us at Ask an Advisor! Unfortunately, we cannot provide personal assistance with specific projects. However, we can give you a few tips for proceeding forth.
We’re not sure how far along you are in your project, but just to be on the safe side, let’s start at the beginning. If you haven’t done so yet, you should identify possible stakeholders who could serve as partners and assist in the development of your training center. You state that this will be an international center; do you have contacts or know of groups abroad that can assist? Identify possible partners, and speak with them about your ideas to see if their goals and interest aligns with yours. If you are having trouble identifying stakeholders, ask for referrals or recommendations.
Second, you’ll need to work with any identified stakeholders to develop a strategic plan. This includes establishing a mission statement, identifying goals and objectives, and developing a concrete action plan to see them through.
Third, you’ll want to develop an organizational structure. The strength of an organization’s structure can make or break an initiative. Organizational structures entail identification of who makes what decisions, rules for operation, and a plan for distribution of work. If you are at the beginning stages of your plan, you may want to start with developing a steering committee. This is the initial group of people who is tasked with getting the project off the ground: they could assist with identifying sources of funding, developing your organization’s board and leadership roles, and creating bylaws.
We hope that some of these ideas have been helpful to you. For additional ideas, you may wish to review some of the materials in the Community Tool Box, especially Chapter 7: Encouraging Involvement in Community Work, Chapter 8: Developing a Strategic Plan, and Chapter 9: Developing an Organizational Structure for the Initiative.
Thank you again for writing, and all the best wishes for continued success in your work.

Question Date: Sun, 11/04/2018