Annual Planning Sessions – What’s New? - An Association Management Company

August 2018 – Rick Szilagyi, Principal

While preparing the annual planning session for a client last year, I decided to research what nonprofit organizations were doing that was new and different for such sessions. The impetus to do the reading was my feeling that, surely, after all these years of conducting SWOT analyses, there must be new tools on the scene.

I found some interesting ideas, but what I did NOT find was a move away from a SWOT exercise. Conducting a discussion/analysis of an organization’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats still plays an important role in a planning session.

Finding confirmation that a SWOT analysis should still be a major focus of your annual planning session, what are some other considerations? Time is a big consideration. Larger organizations may be able to devote two full days to their planning session. But smaller organizations can probably utilize much less time—perhaps as little as half a day. I recommend that the shorter the actual session, the more work should be requested for the participants to do prior to attending the meeting. A mistake I have made in the past is preparing enough material to cover a two-day session and trying to cram it all into a half-day meeting. I vow not to make that mistake again. Nothing is more important than the discussions that take place at planning sessions, so time has to be allowed for these to happen.

It may be helpful to think of these sessions as having five parts, which basically cover where the organization is right now, where it wants to go, and how it is going to get there:

A review of the prior year’s attainment of measured goals and objectives.
The SWOT analysis, which can include a review of last year’s SWOT.
Agreement on the goals and measurable objectives for the coming year.
Determine the committees responsible for working on each of the objectives.
Decide how attainment of the objectives will be measured and reported.

The person charged with leading the planning session must allow enough time for each of these points to be adequately reviewed, discussed, and decided.

The conversations that ensue during annual planning sessions are different than those of monthly board meetings. These discussions begin at 30,000 feet before coming down to Earth for concrete objectives to be agreed upon, slotted into committees, and refined to be easily measurable.

Below are three articles which provide valuable information.