A plan is a clear and documented account of activities/s you have decided to undertake over a given period of time. It is the practical details of what you want to do. A plan helps to:

Your plan should say:

What you are going to do and why

When and how you will do it

Where will the money and other resources come from?

Who will do the work and what skills and knowledge do they have

How you will keep track of the project wok

How you will know if the plan has worked

Plans can be Strategic – and overview of what is important to your organisation or specific for a particular project or area of businesses and operational development.

When you are creating a plan it is important to consider who should be involved in the planning of the plan!

If your plan is for use outside your organisation i.e. a funder, it should contain a history and background to your organisation. If it is a new idea or activity you should check that this fits with your organisations charitable aims and your Memorandum of Association if you are a company limited by guarantee.

The CVO (EA) Ltd can help you with planning. Many of our services are free and there is some appropriate information here (link to community tool kit –Planning page), however we are aware that trustees and committee members are busy people and to make it easier for your organisation we can do things for you. This will incur a cost.  See our Services Booklet to see how we can help you.

Other useful resources

Strategic and Business planning (http://www.scvo.org.uk/information/day-to-day-running/strategic-and-business-planning/)

Mapping the future – Business planning guide (http://www.vascotland.org.uk/cgi-bin/website.cgi?tier1=scotland&tier2=VAScotland%20publications&tier3=Mapping%20the%20Future&fp=true)