Tools for tomorrow: A practical guide to strategic planning for voluntary organisations

Tools for Tomorrow: A practical guide to strategic
planning for voluntary organisations

C Copemann et al, NCVO and Cass Business
School

ISBN 0719916380, £35

Star Rating: 5/5

This good value guide will be refreshing and challenging for those
organisations that have an established cycle for business planning.
I wish that this guide had been put into my hands seven years ago
as I began to lead a medium-sized, local charity into more
strategic growth and development, writes Murie Weisz.

The workbook well illustrates its quotation from Henry Ford that
“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small
parts.”

It works through the stages of effective functioning:
assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation. It is also
sectioned so that one stage could be examined separately from the
others if that is what your organisation needs. Each section also
draws on case studies, sound practice guidance, worksheets and
appropriate tools for analysis.

The section on cluster development, for example, may open up
thinking about the collaboration that is increasingly expected of
us. It will also be accessible and encouraging for smaller
organisations that see business planning as being for “the big
boys”.

Murie Weisz is director of Family Care, an adoption and
family support agency in Nottinghamshire.