Knowledge Hub

Charity Resilience: Impact

Impact: Three questions you need to ask

We know, that you wake up every day to make the world a better place for the people you support. Looking across your organisation, is everyone on the same page with what you are trying to achieve?

We recommend once every year running a strategy session with your team, your board and the people who benefit from your services.

When we run facilitated strategy sessions, we often find they can be a defining moment for charities. They can bring clarity, alignment, inspiration and motivation. From this comes improved focus, aligned activities and clear future funding goals.

Three questions we always ask are:

1. What makes you jump out of bed in the morning? A great way to capture and get a sense of how everyone feels about your charity. What is it which ignites passion in your organisation?
2.  What difference do you want to make as an organisation? We recommend that participants are split into groups to discuss, ‘what difference you want to make and who to?’. This should include the geography you work in and services you offer. Groups can cluster their answers and present their top 3.
3. If money were no object, what does your organisation look like in 5-years time? Give people an opportunity to be bold and co-create your future. From this, you can work back, looking at priorities, action plans, activities and resources.

Armed with your answers to these three questions and additional questions you want to ask, everyone in your organisation should be able to visualise and articulate the impact you want to make.

For support in creating your vision statement, download our guide here: Creating Your Vision Statement.

The next stage is to turn your answers into action by writing your strategic plan. A video and template to help you create your strategic plan are coming soon.

Please get in touch if you would like further support or would like more information on a facilitated Inspiring Scotland strategy session.