Dorset Community Action

Over a series of six monthly online meetings, facilitated and supported by Caro Hart, our Community Training Consultant, we will support you to write a Business Plan for your organisation.

Each session will build on the next to take you in a structured way through the whole process. We will give you a template to work through, but the sessions will help you to make it your own. During the process, you will be taking ideas, templates and knowledge back to your organisation which will help develop the whole team.

As a study group, you will share your expertise, constructively critique each other's work and shamelessly nick good practice ideas. At the end of each session you will identify actions you are going to accomplish before next time.

We will be covering several key concepts such as planning, risk management, financial sustainability, impact measurement and so on. As we cover these, you will be given relevant templates and resources worth more than £300 on their own.

THIS COURSE IS LIMITED TO 8 PLACES (minimum 3 people)

The sessions will cover roughly the following - although we will refine this as we go along:

• An introduction to business planning
  • Group boundaries and how we will work together
  • What is involved in a Business Plan
  • Group work on identifying your own priorities
• Telling the story of your organisation
  • Origin stories and proof of need - the vision
  • Accomplishments, challenges and the difference you make
  • Group work on impact reporting
• Core plans and goals
  • Strategic goals and how you are fulfilling your mission
  • Understanding the external context of your organisation
  • Organisational risk assessment
  • Group work on opportunities and threats
• Financial planning and cashflows
  • Presenting your financial position effectively - making solid assumptions
  • Cash-flow forecasting
  • Organisational risk management
  • Group work on quantifying fundraising and income generation
  • threats
• Marketing, partnerships and stakeholders
  • Stakeholder analysis
  • Market research and using it to drive strategy
  • Group work on marketing and communications planning 
• Creating a coherent narrative
  • Becoming a sustainable organisation
  • Group work on showing the difference you have made
  • Reprise key areas
  • Critique drafts
  • Group work on action planning for completing any work outstanding

Please note that topics are subject to adjustment as the group decides. The link to the online meetings will be sent once you have signed up.

A discount is available where you want to include more than one person from a single organisation, please contact Caro to enquire.

If you have any queries, please contact Caro Hart at [email protected].