Section 5. Developing an Action Plan

Developing an action plan can help changemakers turn their visions into coordinated action and increase clarity, efficiency, and accountability within an organization. An action plan describes how your organization will carry out its strategies and meet its objectives through specific steps, responsibilities, timelines, resources, and follow-up. This section provides a guide for developing and using your group's action plan.

What is an action plan?

An action plan translates your organization's strategies and objectives into specific work. It helps make the organization's vision more concrete by describing what needs to happen, who will be responsible, when the work will occur, what resources and support are needed, and how progress will be monitored. An action plan consists of a number of action steps or community and systems changes to be pursued.

Each action step or change to be sought should include the following information:

• What actions or changes will occur
• Who will carry them out or coordinate them
• By when they will take place, and for how long when duration matters
• What resources and support -- such as funding, staff time, volunteers, expertise, equipment, partnerships, or facilities -- are needed
• Potential barriers, risks, or dependencies that could affect the work and how they will be addressed
• How progress will be assessed, when a measure or milestone is useful
• Communication -- who needs to be informed, consulted, involved, or updated

What are the criteria for a good action plan?

The action plan for your initiative should meet several criteria.

Is the action plan:

• Complete? Does it include the important action steps and changes needed across relevant parts of the community or system, such as schools, businesses, government, faith communities, health organizations, service organizations, neighborhoods, or other settings?
• Clear? Is it apparent who will do what, by when, with what resources, and what the next step will be?
• Current? Does the action plan reflect the work actually underway? Does it account for new evidence, opportunities, barriers, resources, community feedback, or changing conditions?
• Realistic? Are responsibilities, timelines, and resource expectations reasonable for the people and organizations involved?
• Connected to the mission? Can each major action be linked to an objective, strategy, or intended community or systems change?

Why should you develop an action plan?

Strategic goals are difficult to carry out if no one has clarified the practical work required to achieve them. An action plan helps turn broad strategies into coordinated responsibilities and provides a shared reference for what the organization intends to do.

There are many good reasons to work out the details of your organization's work in an action plan, including:

• To demonstrate that your organization has thought carefully about implementation and has a practical approach to carrying out its commitments
• To reduce the chance that important details, responsibilities, or dependencies will be overlooked
• To understand what is and isn't realistic for your organization to do with the time, staff, partnerships, authority, and resources available
• For efficiency: to coordinate work and make better use of time, energy, relationships, and resources
• For accountability: to make responsibilities and commitments clear and help participants follow through on agreed-upon work
• To identify where additional support, resources, or partnerships are needed before delays occur
• To create milestones that make it easier to monitor progress and adjust when conditions change

When should you create an action plan?

An action plan is generally developed after your organization has clarified its vision, mission, objectives, and strategies and is ready to move into implementation. The exact timing depends on the initiative. A new organization may need an initial action plan early, while a long-term initiative may develop separate action plans for different phases, projects, or strategies.

Remember that an action plan is a work in progress. It is not something you write, put away, and forget. Keep it available to the people responsible for the work and review it at intervals appropriate to the pace and complexity of the initiative. Update it when responsibilities, timelines, resources, evidence, community conditions, or priorities change significantly.

How to write an action plan

Determine which people, communities, organizations, systems, and sectors are affected by the work or should be involved in developing solutions

If you have been using the VMOSA (Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, Action Plans) model, you may already have begun this process while developing your objectives and strategies. Continue to be inclusive. Many health and community-development issues involve multiple causes and systems and therefore require work across several parts of the community. Relevant sectors might include media and communication networks, businesses and employers, faith communities, schools, youth organizations, social service organizations, health organizations, local government, neighborhood groups, and others.

People you might consider inviting into the action-planning process include:

• People and communities directly affected by the issue
• People who will participate in, use, deliver, or otherwise experience the programs, policies, services, or changes being planned
• Members of grassroots and community-based organizations
• People and organizations from cultural, racial, ethnic, immigrant, disability, faith, neighborhood, or other communities relevant to the effort. Involve multiple perspectives rather than assuming one person can speak for an entire community.
• People with relevant knowledge, expertise, responsibilities, relationships, or decision-making authority
• Young people, newcomers, emerging leaders, or others whose perspectives may not already be represented in established organizations
• The staff, volunteers, partners, and institutions that will actually be responsible for carrying out parts of the plan

Let's consider some of the people who might be involved with the planning group for the fictional Reducing the Risk (RTR) Coalition, which hopes to reduce unintended adolescent pregnancy and strengthen adolescent sexual and reproductive health. The group might include adolescents, parents and caregivers, teachers, counselors, school nurses, health professionals, youth-serving organizations, faith communities, public-health staff, service organizations, and others whose knowledge or responsibilities are relevant to the work.

Convene a planning group in your community to design your action plan. This might be the same group that helped develop your strategies and objectives. If you are organizing a new planning group, make it broad and inclusive enough to reflect the people directly affected by the issue while also including people and organizations needed to carry out the work. People most affected should have meaningful influence over decisions rather than being present only to provide feedback after major choices have already been made.

Once everyone is present, review your organization's:

• Vision
• Mission
• Objectives
• Strategies
• People and communities affected by the issue and people or organizations able to contribute to change
• Proposed changes for each relevant part of the community or system, such as schools, faith communities, service organizations, health organizations, businesses, neighborhoods, or government

Develop an action plan composed of action steps that address the proposed changes. The plan should be complete, clear, current, and realistic. It should also draw on the information and ideas you have already gathered while developing your objectives and strategies. What specific steps must occur to carry out your strategies while remaining consistent with your vision and mission? This is where the different elements of VMOSA come together.

Members of the community initiative will want to determine:

• What action or change will occur
• Who will carry it out or coordinate it
• When it will take place, and for how long
• What resources and support -- money, staff, volunteers, expertise, facilities, technology, partnerships, or other resources -- are needed
• What barriers, risks, or dependencies could affect completion and how they will be addressed
• How progress or completion will be assessed
• Communication -- who should know what, who should be consulted, and who should be involved in decisions

Example: RTR Coalition's Action Step (a sample)

One community change sought by this coalition to prevent unintended adolescent pregnancy and strengthen adolescent sexual and reproductive health was to make accurate, age-appropriate health information and information about available services easier for high school students to access.

• What action or change will occur: Develop and maintain accessible student information about healthy relationships, pregnancy prevention, STI prevention, contraception, consent, and available school and community health services. Information may be provided through posters, digital resources, school webpages, QR codes, health classes, student-support offices, or other appropriate channels. Materials will be reviewed periodically for accuracy, accessibility, and relevance.
• Who will carry it out: A working group that includes students, parents or caregivers, educators, school health staff, coalition members, and appropriate health professionals will review and maintain the information. Designated members of the schools action group will coordinate materials, approvals, and purchasing.
• By when will it take place, and for how long: Initial materials and digital resources will be available within eight weeks of approval of the action step, with a first review scheduled six months later and additional reviews at appropriate intervals.
• What resources are needed to carry out the step: Staff or volunteer time, student input, health-education expertise, design and translation or accessibility support when needed, printing or digital-production costs, and funding from appropriate school, coalition, grant, foundation, or community sources.
• Potential barriers, risks, or dependencies: School approval requirements, differing community perspectives, accessibility needs, privacy concerns, and the need to keep health and service information current. The working group will review these issues before implementation and update materials when necessary.
• How progress will be assessed: Confirm that materials are available through the planned channels and periodically ask students whether they know where to find reliable sexual-health information and appropriate services.
• Communication about the action step: School administrators, relevant educators and health staff, students, parents and caregivers, and other appropriate partners should receive information about the plan and have opportunities to provide input consistent with their roles.

Things to note about this portion of the RTR action plan:

• It appears complete. Although this action step is well developed, we would need to review the entire action plan to determine whether all important community and systems changes are included.
• It is clear. We know what will happen, who is responsible, when it will occur, what resources and support are needed, and how progress will be assessed.
• It can remain current if the coalition continues reviewing the materials, community conditions, evidence, opportunities, barriers, and feedback that affect the action.

Review your completed action plan carefully to check for completeness. Make sure each proposed action contributes to an objective or strategy and supports your group's mission. Also review the plan as a whole to make sure important activities, communities, systems, resources, risks, and responsibilities have not been overlooked.

Follow through. Planning is useful only when it leads to action. Begin implementation, monitor what happens, and adjust when evidence, community feedback, resource changes, or new circumstances show that the plan needs revision.

Keep everyone informed about what's going on. Communicate with participants, partners, and affected community members about progress and explain how their input influenced the plan. When recommendations were not adopted, explain why when appropriate.

Keep track of what you've done and how well it is working. Monitor whether action steps are being completed and whether they are producing the expected changes. Significant community, policy, program, or systems changes may warrant formal evaluation in addition to ongoing monitoring.

Keep several questions in mind:

• Are we doing what we said we'd do?
• Are we doing it well?
• Is what we are doing advancing the mission and objectives?
• Are people and communities affected by the work experiencing it as intended?
• What are we learning that should change the plan?

You can address these questions through regular reflection with staff, volunteers, partners, and community members as well as through surveys, administrative data, interviews, observations, formal evaluation, and other appropriate methods.

Celebrate progress and accomplishments. Recognizing what people have achieved can help sustain motivation and reinforce the value of the work. Ask participants how they prefer accomplishments and contributions to be recognized.

After you've written your action plan: Supporting follow-through and shared accountability

Nearly every community organization has experienced this problem: tasks are assigned, everyone leaves the meeting intending to complete them, and then progress stalls. This doesn't always mean people are unwilling to help. Responsibilities may have been unclear, timelines unrealistic, circumstances may have changed, or participants may need additional information, resources, authority, or support.

Accountability matters, but it should be paired with realistic expectations and support, especially when volunteers are contributing their time. The goal is to make responsibilities clear and manageable and to identify barriers early rather than simply increasing pressure.

Helpful approaches include:

• Use agreed-upon check-ins by email, phone, text, shared project tools, meetings, or another appropriate channel. Ask whether the person is on track, whether circumstances have changed, and whether additional information, resources, coordination, or help are needed.
• Share the action plan with everyone involved and make responsibilities visible. Before finalizing assignments, confirm that each person understands and agrees to the task and timeline.
• Keep timelines, deadlines, milestones, and dependencies complete, clear, and current.
• Review progress regularly at committee, board, staff, or project meetings. Focus not only on whether a task is complete, but also on barriers, decisions needed, changing conditions, and the next step.
• Reassign, divide, postpone, or revise tasks when workloads or circumstances change rather than allowing unrealistic commitments to remain on the plan indefinitely.
• Recognize completed work and important milestones. Make sure people know that their effort and follow-through matter to the larger initiative.

Follow up on the action plan regularly. Accountability should be shared: participants are responsible for the commitments they accept, and the organization is responsible for making expectations clear, providing reasonable support, addressing barriers, keeping the plan current, and changing course when circumstances require it.