Costs

You need to look in detail at the financial implications of your planning. Address any financial weakness in the same way as you addressed an organisational weakness.

You'll need to cost the opportunities you identified in the SWOT analysis before you can make a sensible decision about pursuing them. Consider the impact that they might have on the financial health of your organisation. Will a project have to raise funds before it starts, or can you cover start-up costs? At what point will a project or area of work stand on its own feet financially?

Each activity or project 'costs' the organisation a share of the overheads, including the salaries of people such as the chief executive, accounts staff, fundraisers and others involved with all the organisation's work. The contribution each project's funding is able to make to central costs will have an impact on your planning.

Look at each opportunity in turn. You may find that a less favoured option will be easier to fund than the project you would really like to do. Many an organisation has been tempted away from its prime objectives simply because funding was available for something else. Should any opportunities be dropped for financial reasons? Do the financial implications change the order of preference?

People

The next resource to look at in detail is the staff, both paid and voluntary. This is the time to consider how new work might fit into everyone's workload. Workloads cannot be increased indefinitely. You may need to create new staff and volunteer roles.

Facilities

Consider your physical environment. Is lack of space a barrier? Or does spare space provide an opportunity?

Find out more about other strategic planning issues and examples in the In more depth section.