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Organizational leaders do a lot of planning. The ability to consistently design and implement project plans, program plans, and other plans can make the difference between an organization’s long-term failure and success. In our work with hundreds of leaders and scores of organizations, Funding for Good has seen just how critical planning really is. But making sure you’re doing the right planning at the right times—and for the right purposes—is just as important. With that in mind, we wanted to look at two types of planning that are not only essential but intertwined: operational planning and strategic planning. Operational Plan vs Strategic Plan While there is some overlap in content between an operational plan vs a strategic plan, the two have distinct goals and uses: A strategic plan is a written roadmap for where an organization is going, how it will get there, and specific ways to determine if the organization has “arrived” at the destination. A strategic plan often covers 3-5-years and includes an organization’s vision, mission, goals, objectives and benchmarks over that period. An operational plan also outlines an organization’s goals and objectives over a defined period. However, it then goes one level further into the details of how an organization will operationalize the activities […]