Bikalpa an Alternative conducted a strategic planning meeting from the 12th of October to the 14th of October 2022 in support of Atlas Network. The discussion was facilitated by Michael Reitz, Vice president at The Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The key objective of the discussion was to prepare a written strategic plan and fundraising plan that line up with the organization’s mission and objective and proceed the organization towards achieving its goals.
The first day began with the introductory session in which there was a get-to-know discussion, where each staff was able to share a little about themselves with the facilitator. Mr. Reitz then introduced strategic planning, which incorporated four major components, i.e., Belief (Mission, vision, value), Advantage (what we do? & Who is our audience), Goals (“SMART” goals), and Music (How does an organization work together). Followed by that, based on the situation analysis, the staff of Bikalpa analyzed the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats or conducted what’s called a SWOT analysis. Each staff brainstormed and expressed varied insights, and contributed ideas to the SWOT template. Once the brainstorming was done, Mr. Reitz asked the staff to pinpoint the 3 most important factors in each section.
The first session of the second day began with a short recap of the activities done on the previous day, where the staff mentioned the deeds that stood out for them from the first day’s discussion. Followed by that, Mr. Reitz shared about organizational culture, which is a system of shared values and beliefs that govern how people behave in an organization. He mentioned that it is based on shared attitudes, beliefs, customs, and written and unwritten rules developed in the organization over time. The discussion was open to ideas brought forward by the staff. The staff put together 23 organizational values and cultures as a rough preliminary draft which needs to be consolidated into a fine draft within a week.
In the second session, staff were segregated into 2 groups, and each group was assigned the task of preparing SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely) goals for the organization. The groups dealt with two elements that were discussed on the previous day during the SWOT analysis, i.e., Youth Opportunities and Personal Development. Meanwhile, Mr. Basanta Adhikari, director of Bikalpa an Alternative, and Mr. Michael Reitz had a separate discussion on delegating authority and leadership roles. After having a discussion on the designated topics for about an hour, each group communicated their findings through presentations in an effective way.
On the last day, Mr. Reitz led the session on fundraising, where he shed light upon the lifecycle of the gifts. The first step of the lifecycle is “identification”. He mentioned that if the organization wants to be successful with any fundraising, first, they should identify the prospective donors. The second step of the lifecycle is “cultivation”.
He shared that the next step of the organization should be building relationships with donors before asking for money. And then, the third step of the lifecycle is “the ask”. He said that the third step should encompass asking for meetings with each of your prospective donors and talking specifically about how they might be able to help your organization.
The final step of the lifecycle is stewardship. About the final stage, he said that it is the “thank you” and follow-up after a gift is made. After that, he talked about the donor prospects for Bikalpa. He then role-plays with one of the Bikalpa team members to demonstrate how the story is built on pitching ideas for fundraising. At the end of the last day session, he instructed the staff on the process of team building to make an effective team. The process includes idea, planning, execution, assessment, and celebration. The Bikalpa team also shared what the organization can do in the coming days to build a strong team.
After three long days of discussing, brainstorming, and exploring Bikalpa’s fundraising and strategic plan, the Bikapa team, along with Mr. Reitz and Bikalpa fellows, went hiking for refreshments and interaction. Mr. Reitz briefly highlighted the values of liberty in front of 48 Bikalpa Fellows. After his sharing, we also get to hand the token of love to Michael Reitz. The strategic planning meeting, which was highly insightful and full of learning, ended with a fun and rapport-building activity.
