Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations
A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement
Chapter One
WHY STRATEGIC PLANNING IS
MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
Usually, the main problem with life conundrums is that we don't bring to them enough
imagination.
THOMAS MOORE, CARE OF THE SOUL
Leaders and managers of governments, public agencies, nonprofit organizations,
and communities face numerous and difficult challenges. Consider, for
example, the dizzying number of trends and events affecting the United States in
the past two decades: an aging and diversifying population; changes in the nature
of families; an apparent shift to political conservatism; tax cuts, levy limits, and
indexing; dramatic shifts in federal and state responsibilities and funding priorities;
a huge bull market in equities followed by one of the longest bear markets in
history; a closing of the gap between rich and poor and then a reopening of that
gap; the emergence of children as the largest group of poor Americans; dramatic
growth in the use of information technology, e-commerce, and e-government; the
changing nature of work and a redefini ... read full excerpt from Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement ebook
