What are the most effective ways to communicate a strategic plan to donors and community partners?

1 Know your audience

Before you design your communication strategy, you need to understand who you are talking to. What are their interests, needs, and expectations? How familiar are they with your organization and its strategic plan? How do they prefer to receive information and feedback? You can use surveys, interviews, focus groups, or other methods to gather data and insights about your audience. Then, you can segment them into different groups based on their characteristics and tailor your message accordingly.

2 Define your objectives

Next, you need to clarify what you want to achieve with your communication. What are the main points you want to convey? What are the benefits and outcomes of your strategic plan for your donors and community partners? What are the actions or commitments you want them to take? How will you measure the success of your communication? You can use SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) criteria to set your objectives and indicators.

4 Craft your message

After that, you need to create your content and design your message. How will you tell the story of your strategic plan? How will you highlight its vision, mission, values, goals, strategies, and actions? How will you showcase its impact and achievements? How will you address the challenges and opportunities? How will you appeal to the emotions and logic of your audience? You should use clear, concise, and consistent language, avoid jargon and acronyms, and use examples, stories, data, and visuals to support your message.