Planning for the future is important – that’s why as part of our Development & Operations grant application process, we ask for a strategic plan. Here’s tips to help your organisation undertake strategic planning and build trust with your community, funders and donors, just like the team at Inner FM (featured above).
Keep it clear and simple
Your strategic plan will be assessed by our volunteer Grant Assessor Team, made up of your community media peers across Australia (and some even overseas). So you want your strategic plan to be easily understood by a range of people. Avoid acronyms, jargon and slang where you can (although we understand that’s hard to avoid sometimes).
On average, our assessors spend around 20 minutes on each application. We suggest you prepare a version of your strategic plan that is easily reviewed by someone with limited time. That’s why we especially love JOY’s Strategic Plan on a Page. It’s simple, clear, succinct, ambitious and covers everything we expect in a strategic plan.
We also like these strategic plans and documents:
| SYN Media | Wangki Yupurnanupurru Radio | |
|---|---|---|
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Transparency
At the CBF we publish our Strategic Plan, Annual Reports, Constitution and other policies on our website. We strongly encourage community media organisations to maintain a culture of openness and transparency, including making their strategic plan and other important policy documents publicly available on their website. We face increasing demand by the community media sector, the Australian Government, potential funders/donors and the community to be more open about how we work and our decisions. Benefits of greater transparency include:
- Less time spent explaining goals and strategies to potential funders and donors
- Stronger and more open relationships with funders, donors and other stakeholders
- Increased community trust
In our grant applications we provide an option for applicants to provide website links to strategic plans, Annual Reports and governance policies. We do this to encourage a culture of openness and transparency between you, your community and potential funders and donors.
Needing to update your strategic plan?
Did you know that we may be able to support development/updating of your organisation’s strategic plan? Check out how 3MDR developed their strategic plan with help of a CBF Development & Operations grant.
To get started, review Our Community’s Strategic Planning resources, the CMTO’s Strategic and Operational Planning templates and our own simple strategic planning template. (DOC, 20KB)
If you would like someone independent to facilitate your process for you we put together this handy list of strategic planning facilitators (DOC, 281KB) who have advised us of their interest in working with community media organisations.
Other useful resources
- CBAA Community Radio Station Health Check – self-check how your organisation could improve its governance practices.
- CBAA Station Community Engagement Surveys – consult your community about what they want from their local station.
Photo: Inner FM strategic planning day 2018.