Personal Strategic Impact Planning Guide
Everyone has unique skills, connections, access, experiences, and priorities. These differences will change how we can each individually impact our communities. To most efficiently and effectively bring positive change, we all must understand what we bring to the table. Giveology has developed the Personal Strategic Impact Planning Guide to help you craft your unique journey. What we would like to stress, before beginning this exercise is that this is NOT meant to be a quick and easy solution. Too often we look for the convenient fix, and ignore the fact that things worth working toward, are typically difficult and time consuming. This guide should take between 1 - 2 hours in its entirety, but the execution of your plan should be a long-term endeavor.
Relevant Definitions and Terms
Capacity = Having the ability, access and/or resources to fulfill a specific purpose
Activities = The actions one takes to create social impact
Access = Having the means and/or connections to be in and around spheres of influence
Sphere of Influence = A field or area in which an individual or organization has power to affect events and developments
Influence = The ability to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself
Three Pillar Capacity Assessment
The first step to planning is to assess your capacity in each of the three pillars (philanthropy, volunteerism, advocacy.) Use the link below to take the assessment and use your results to inform the rest of your plan.
Once you have completed the assessment, answer the following reflection questions:
Were these results what you expected?
Do your impact activities match your capacity?
Is there any pillar in which you want to increase your capacity?
Are you under-utilizing your capacity in any of the three pillars?
Evaluate Current Affiliations and Commitments
Before searching for new organizations and causes to support, it is important to revisit the organizations, schools and membership groups you are already a part of. Sometimes it can be complicated to know what you can give to or support, the social impact sector is vast and varied, but there is usually a legal entity that you can support that is connected to your organizational affiliations. This can include:
Primary, Secondary and Higher Education Institutions you attended or are connected to.
Private schools typically are considered tax deductible organizations or at least have foundations they are connected to.
Giving to public schools can be a little more complicated, but typically they are connected to some kind of community group that provides additional funding. For example in Chicago, CPS is supported by organizations like the Children First Fund
Usually colleges and universities are either tax deductible organizations on their own, or they will have an affiliated Foundation with the school’s namesake.
Personal Participation Affiliations
Athletics, and other competition style groups like mock trial or debate team typically have a national umbrella organization that can provide resources to teams across the country and help in the organization of competitions and the growth of the extracurricular in general.
The arts, whether fine arts, or performing arts, are supported by a variety of different organizations. Some areas have family or local foundations focused only on supporting the arts, there are also national organizations like the National Endowment for the Arts.
Did you ever receive assistance from any program or organization on your journey? Do you think your success can partially be attributed to any opportunities you were given? Could more people use similar assistance to what you received?
Local Community, Spiritual, or Religious Organizations
Religious institutions are always considered tax deductible organizations.
Most neighborhoods will have a chamber of commerce, community center, or a neighbor’s association. Some you can donate to, some have community events and opportunities to support local businesses, some have scholarships available for local kids’ higher education. They all are slightly different, but you can usually find something to support in your neighborhood.
Places you have donated to, volunteered at, or in the past
Don’t reinvent the wheel every year, keep an inventory of organizations you have supported in the past.
By no means are you required to support your alma mater(s) or membership groups, but the habit of social impact can be easily started by supporting groups you are already closely connected to. Previously made commitments must be kept whether they are financial, time, or engagement commitments. Keep in mind when you make a commitment, you are joining that organization’s community, and that commitment cannot be taken lightly.
With that in mind, it is entirely possible that your priorities and values have changed over time, and you will need your organizational commitments to reflect your change in values and priorities. When evaluating your current commitments and affiliations ask yourself the following questions:
Have I made any long-term commitments to the organization?
Are they still fulfilling the same mission I originally started supporting?
Do they still need what I have to offer?
Do I still believe in the Organization’s and Leadership’s ability to plan for the future?
Does this organization’s values still align with my own?
If the answers to these questions are YES, we would encourage you to continue supporting those organizations in some capacity.
If the answers to these questions are NO, we would encourage to you think about whether or not you are within the spheres of influence to change the no’s to yesses. If you are still coming up short, we can move on to the next section to find new organizations and causes to support.
Interest and Priority Ranking
Before adding any additional interests or priorities, do a quick assessment of your existing affiliations.
Are there any themes or trends in your existing affiliations?
Do these trends accurately align with the values you hold?
Are there any issue areas that are blatantly missing?
For a full listing of issue areas visit Guidestar’s Directory. We would recommend narrowing your scope of impact to 2 - 5 issue areas. Guidestar classifies organizations into 8 areas with each one subdivided further into more specific areas:
You can also search any issue areas more specifically on Charity Navigator for anything you are unable to find in the current classifications.
Executing the Plan
Now that you have finished your Three Pillar capacity assessment and you have narrowed down your supporting priorities, you will need to put in place a realistic and executable plan. In general, here are a few recommendations to execute your plan:
Write down or record your commitments. We all know how difficult it can be to keep your commitments, for example only 9% of people maintain their New Year’s resolutions all-year. Reminders, or even just the act of recording what you will do makes you more likely to fulfill that commitment.
Underpromise… Overdeliver. Keep your commitments manageable, start small and build from there. In the social impact sector, quality is more important than quantity. Focus on being a good donor, a good volunteer or a good advocate, before over-extending yourself.
Tell others, whether it is sharing your intentions on social media, or joining a giving circle, or recruiting others to volunteer with or go to a protest with, we are much less likely to drop a commitment to others than to ourselves.
Now, with that in mind, let’s go through each of the pillars and make some commitments. This isn’t an exact science but, keep your capacity percentages in mind when making commitments and try to make commitments in alignment with your strengths and abilities.
Using your own personal budget (only you know what you are able to give) allocate the total amount you are planning to give within the next year. 5% - 10% of expendable income is usually a good starting point. We would recommend allocating higher or lower portions of the total budgeted amount to 1 or 2 monthly recurring donations, and/or 5 - 10 annual donations. If you have higher capacity, consider making a major unrestricted gift to your top 1 or 2 priorities.
Consider the questions in the link above before making a volunteering commitment. Can you make a weekly, monthly, or other commitment? What skills can you provide to the organization? When considering volunteering commitments, be absolutely sure you will be able to fulfill it. It’s one thing to lapse as a donor, but you can do a lot of damage if you break a volunteering commitment.
Find the local and national groups addressing issues you care about and join their already existing activities. If there are any events already planned, make sure you add them to your calendar and make plans to attend. If relevant, assess your affiliations (job, social circles, memberships) in the scope of your issue area, and start in your locus of control, then expand your efforts from there.
Lastly, keep in mind that these goals and action items are specific to you. We recommend using SMART goals, but you should be encouraged to write and keep them in whatever method you prefer, and that will be most effective to you.
For complimentary coaching sessions and to help you work through this guide, please feel free to CLICK HERE to schedule a time with a Giveology representative.
