“Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.’ (Proverbs 16:3)
There are many models of nonprofit strategic planning. Some parishes have found the schematic below to be of great value. Of course, every box of text in the graphic implies elements of leadership, exercises, tasks, personnel, research, assessment, future budgeting, reports and communications with the general parish. Yet the whole process can be seen in this graphic. This level of strategic planning unfortunately is very rare in Orthodox church life. This may be due to lack of training in nonprofit strategic planning for clergy, absence of useful materials to guide the process or an unwillingness to dedicate the time, energy and funding required to produce a written 3-5 year strategic plan. Yet the benefits of doing this far outweigh the effort or any cost that is required.
