Community Needs Assessment Process

PART 4 – STRATEGIC PLANNING AND LOGIC MODELS
THE NEXT STEPS
The next step in the Higher Ground process is the preparation of the strategic plan.
Quoting from the Higher Ground initiative:
“The strategic plan is a three year disciplined coordinated, systematic and
sustained effort that will enable an agency to fulfill its mission and achieve its
vision. The strategic plan should be reviewed annually to monitor progress and
ensure alignment with other planning cycles. It establishes imperatives, goals,
strategies, performance measures and targets for the organization that can be
used as a management and communications tool.”
This final chapter provides an introduction to the logic model and how this process can
be used for multiple funding sources.
Many funding sources require strategic plans although terminology might differ
somewhat in the actual planning document. For instance one funder might use the term
goal meaning an achievable outcome within a one year period, while another refers to
an outcome as a long term goal. Therefore it is important to understand the terminology
per funder. Once that is understood, however, it becomes easy to fit the strategic plan
within each funders frame.
Similarly different funders define logic models in slightly different ways, and
understanding this can help in matching the prioritized issues for different funders. The
samples on the following pages show how a project can be adapted to flow for two
different types of funder logic models.
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