Planning

All Environmental Funds go through various types of planning exercises ranging from large-scale visioning to strategic planning, and then to business plans, annual work plans and ultimately to yearly budget projections. 

Visioning: while visioning usually occurs in the Start Up phase major changes in the environment and/or organizational capacity can require modifying long-term visions. The Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance shares their recrafted vision as they plan ahead to deal with major governance changes in the Netherland Antilles.    

Needs Assessments: for Funds designed to provide financial support to the country’s conservation areas, long-term needs assessments for the protected area system are often a precursor to effective planning, and will need to be updated on a regular basis.

Strategic Plan: once the scope of the need is clear, strategic plans determine where an Environmental Fund is going in a defined time period, how it plans to get there, and how it will know if it is successful or not.  

Business plan: business plans provide more specific actions including time frames and clearly assigned roles for staff and/or Board members to advance the Fund’s strategic goals.

Fundraising Plan and Communication Plan: finally, some parts of an Environmental Fund’s work are so critical that specific plans are developed for major programmatic areas such as fundraising plans and communication plans.