Many of the strategic plans we see make great doorstops or bookends; they are fifty pages of dense text that require a doctorate to decipher! So when shopping for a consultant to facilitate your planning process, ask to see a sample plan. It should 1) be clearly stated and concise, with an aspirational but realistic vision for the next few years, 2) be easy to implement without an owner’s manual, 3) incorporate a realistic and affordable evaluation framework, 4) be directly tied to financial projections, 5) identify those responsible for implementing and reporting on specific objectives, and 6) be flexible enough to make course corrections as evaluations are completed or an organization’s financial position changes. In this way, a strategic plan becomes a tactical document, rather than a pie-in-the-sky exercise that diverts everyone’s time from the work at hand. Download our packet on “Strategic Planning 101: For Nonprofit and Voluntary Leaders”: Plan A – Strategic Planning 101