Strategic Planning

Below is a basic outline of how a BID might conduct strategic planning. The process should be implemented in the first year of BID operations and then added to in later years to include more internal performance evaluation, goals and BID activities.

1.  Identify your purpose through a mission statement – The mission statement should describe the basic purpose of your BID and briefly describe the needs of the BID constituents and community stakeholders. The Board of Directors and Executive Director should develop and agree on the mission statement. The statements will change somewhat over the years as the needs of your district change.

2.  Select the goals the BID must reach if it is to accomplish your mission - Goals are general statements about what you need to accomplish to meet your purpose, or mission, and address major issues facing the BID as a district and an organization.  Each fiscal year, SBS will ask you to state your top five goals in your annual report.  We will then ask about progress you’ve made with each of those goals in subsequent years.

3.  Identify approaches that must be implemented to reach each goal – Some goals have easily identifiable approaches.  For example, if one of your goals is to hire a marketing staff person, your approach will include determining an appropriate and feasible salary, writing a job description, and interviewing candidates.  However, some goals may require more innovative approaches (such as fundraising for capital improvement projects) that will require you to examine internal and external factors and resources available to you.

4.  Identify Indicators of Success- How will you determine if your goals are met?  Some indicators are straightforward, for example, constructing a new public plaza.  Other indicators of success may require their own action steps in order to determine them.  For example, if your goal is to attract residents and tourists to small businesses in the district, an indicator of success may be the satisfaction of merchants.  In order to measure this, the BID may conduct a satisfaction and/or quantitative survey with business owners to measure if BID district promotions increased consumer spending. 

5.  Create action plans for each goal – List the specific activities that each staff member or unit of your organization should follow in order to meet their assigned goals and include a timeline. Use the goals set in step #2 for a reference end point so staff can assess if their objectives have been met or not.  BID Boards may also delegate work plans to sub-committees within the Board of Directors.

6.  Monitor and update the plan – The BID should regularly reflect on the extent to which the goals are being met within the timeline and whether action plans are being implemented using the work plans.  It is expected that unforeseen events can derail the work plan so remain flexible in changing the timeline or adjusting goals if need be.

Source: Carter McNamara, Authenticity Consulting, LLC “Basic Overview of Various Strategic Planning Models.” Adapted from the Field Guide to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation. Copyright 1997-2006.