10+ SAMPLE Charity Operational Plan

What is a Charity Operational Plan?

A charity operational plan is a document that spells out all the targets of a nonprofit organization. It outlines every activity that it has to do to accomplish all its purposes and goals. It contains the framework for the operations of the nonprofit day after day. It is a strategic plan that is allotted for the annual action plan in the charity business. An operational plan is necessary for writing a charity business plan. If you will see a charity business plan sample or a charity business plan example, you can see that it has an operational part as its part. The operational plan for charity is made by upper staff members. It is approved by the one who is managing the committee. The management will ensure the progress of the plan with strategic objectives by having meetings where they can discuss more on the plan.

Like an operational plan in business plan, a budget is necessary to be considered. It is fairly connected to the operational plan. Your action plans for the operational plan will not work unless you have a sufficient budget for it. There are many types of operational plans. You just need to choose the best type that will work for your charity. In creating an operational plan, you need to ascertain that every step in all your strategies can be properly done by all the team members. All have to follow certain procedures for you to achieve the goals of your charity business. It is hard to run a charity business without an operational plan. You will not have something to guide you in all your undertakings. You need a plan that can direct your actions and aims. Through it, you can control all the factors that may affect your nonprofit. You will be effective in all your works.

Elements of a Charity Operational Plan

If you will see operational plan objectives examples, you will learn that you have to create an operational plan with all the essential elements and to make it complete. Here, we can show you some of the elements of a charity operational plan. Read the following:

Target Audience

The operational plan for a charity should contain the details about your target audience. This is necessary because you need proper procedure on how you can get donors and funders. You need to have strategies on how you can attract people to give grants to your organization. You have to set some rules on how your team members can deal with them. You need techniques on how you can find them. Target audience is an important factor that your team has to master. You need to know how your organization will tailor to each particular people that you may encounter.

Business Opportunity

Just like in any business, you need to study how you can reach opportunities. It is especially true in charities. A charity business always needs to search for opportunities on how they can do fundraising and how they can gather more grants. Business opportunities sometimes come rarely. As it knocks, you need to open the door for it. Your charity needs to be proactive in dealing with these things. Your team has to be trained on how they can recognize opportunities, how they can chase them, and how they can win them. There can be many opportunities for a nonprofit if it can have good techniques in fundraising. It has to be creative and make some rules on how it can reach people who will be interested in charity. It should not let any opportunity get out of its hand just because it lacks an operational plan that can make it succeed. So, it has to make a plan that it can adhere to achieve success.

Organization Partners

Business partnership is recommended for any nonprofit organization. It can make partnerships with other nonprofit organizations so that it can become a more solid business. It can expand its reach and it can strengthen all its projects. It can give better brand awareness to people. Because your charity will have a partnership with another group, you need to set a plan on how you can deal with them. Train your staff on all the limitations that you have within the partnership so that you will have the right expectations. Teach them how they can make your organization partner benefit from your organization. Remember that you need this partnership. You have to nurture it. Be sure that your organization and your partner will grow after you achieve each operational plan that you have made for every year.

Charity Programs

The best part of your operational plan is about your charity programs. Each month or year, you need to make projects that can be turned into programs that will show the essence of your charity. You need to make a program that can help other people in a way that has never been done before. Your programs need to be attractive so that they can gain donors to make them successful. All programs should have a good cause. It should have altruistic views that can support other people in some ways. Serving is a part of any program so you have to train your staff on how they can serve people. Charity programs can be made from long-term goals. It can be a mission from your mission statement. For sure, it is something good that will demonstrate the goodness of your charity business.

Outreach Strategy

In the charity operational plan, you should know how you can make your outreach successful. There can be many strategies like public relations strategy, advertising strategy, and digital marketing strategy. You must know how your nonprofit can connect to other people. There can be procedures in helping. Charity is your business and you should know how you can connect to people professionally. But, of course, you should have a heart in building relationships with them. They must feel that your charity business is always there to help them. With your organization, they can find a friend that is ready to help them. Doing outreach needs some effort because you must be careful in dealing with people. You cannot help in any way that you like. You must do it with love.

Operational Budget

A budget is something that you should consider in a charity operational plan. Without a budget, a charity’s work will not move. You have to ensure that you will have the right budget for all your operations. Allot budget for every action plan that you need to accomplish. Set a budget that you have gotten from your fundraisings. There should also be an operational procedure in setting a budget for your charity. Be careful with every amount because all the donations should be spent wisely. You have gathered the money in good intention. Have the good intention to spend it the best way also.

Fundraising Strategy

A part of the charity business is doing fundraising. Through it, it gains money that can support the organization. A nonprofit should have the best strategies for fundraising. It cannot get a grant unless it will have the best techniques on how to gather money. It should learn how to connect with donors and funders. It should be skilled in creating events for fundraising. It should have the best proposals that can bring money to the organization. A charity has to be creative on how it can search for grants. Tactics are needed to make everything easier for them. Patience is a must, but fundraising strategies are what can make it successful.

Charity Activities

If not for activities, the fundraising will not work. The operational plan should include all activities that you need to have to make the fundraising possible. The team should know what to do every step of the way. If activities will be planned before time, the team can think of ideas that they can apply to the activities. You need charm in your activities to attract funders. Funders have to see your enthusiasm to gather funds. They have to know that all of you are good-natured and active. So, every activity should be lively and properly thought of.

Tips on Charity Operational Plan

Whether you are creating a charity business continuity plan or a 3-year charity business plan, you may need some tips to make them effective. It is also true in creating a charity operational plan. We can offer you some tips that you can apply. They are the following:

Create Timelines: Timelines are crucial in every project. You have to set a timeline for all the team members to keep. Projects will not be successful unless they have the right timeline that can make them feasible. Timeline is important so that all of the team can work properly for the project, expecting the result on a proper time.Use Key Workers First: Your key players are very valuable in your organization. Be sure that you are going to use them in the best way. In the operational plan, they can be the ones who will initiate the first actions. They should encourage every member to work and to follow the plan. Through your key workers, you can make your plans successful. They are skilled and not prone to committing mistakes. You can be assured of a good outcome.Increase Your Volunteer Base: You must include in the operational plan the things about your volunteers. You should have better volunteer engagement. You should search for more volunteers that can help your organization. Not only that you can save expenses, but you can also get new talents that can help your team. Focus to increase your volunteer base and you can add more members that can contribute well to your business.Inspirational Campaigns: Campaigns will help a lot in your organization. Make something inspirational for the people to see. If they will learn that your organization contributes good things to society, they might be encouraged to take part in your business and be your donors and sponsors. Make encouraging advertising campaigns that can attract people. This can also be good for your brand identity.Use Communication Channels: To be more effective with your plan, you must use communication channels. Through them, all your strategies can be possible. You can use various social media platforms. They can be good mediums of how you can do fundraisings. You can advertise your business better. You can do the best marketing plan through channels that will surely help you.

How to Create a Charity Operational Plan

Are you searching for a charity operational plan template or a charity business continuity plan template? Are you needing these things because you are about to create an operational plan for charity? We can give you some steps that you can use in creating. Consider the following:

  • Step 1: Set a Target

    Targets are very vital in a charity operational plan. An annual plan should have your yearly targets. A monthly plan should have your monthly targets, on the other hand. You have to set a target so you can set the steps needed in acquiring them. You can make procedures for the thing that you should do. In creating targets, you can consider the vision statement and mission statement of your organization. Through them, your goals will be revealed and you will know the things that you should target. If you will have targets, your team will have something to reach. Through targets, you can be assured that your organization will be fruitful for a year or a month.

  • Step 2: Use Strategy Plan

    After knowing your targets, you should make strategies for your operational plan. You must make a work plan that has sufficient strategies that you can apply in your work. Every task should have a strategic plan that can make it the best move that you can take for your charity business. Strategies can guide your team. You know that you are setting out to do a thing that is carefully thought of. Every step is properly defined and can point to success.

  • Step 3: Set a Budget Plan

    You cannot erase things about the budget in the operational plan. The plan will not work if not for the budget. You must allot a particular budget for all your operations. Make a budget plan that will supply all of your needs. Consider the revenues that you have gathered through fundraisings. Calculate all the expenses that you need for the operations that you have to take. Make a budget analysis and using a spreadsheet, set your budget. This should be carefully done because every cent is important.

  • Step 4: Performance Evaluation Strategy

    You must make a summary of the performances of your charity. List the times when you have succeeded and the times that you are seeking help. Record your successful projects and create an analysis of all your revenues. If you will have an observation of your performances, you will know what you can put in your operational plan. You can develop actions that can change what you have to alter to make your charity successful. You can learn about your mistakes and you can follow through on all your success. Evaluate the performance of your organization so that you will know what you should take in all your operations.

FAQs

What are the Phases of an Operational Plan?

The phases of an operational plan are strategic plan, tactical plan, continuity plan, and contingency plan.

Can You Give Me an Example of an Operational Plan for Charity?

An example of an operational plan for charity is when it is making sales forecasts to decrease its expenditures throughout the year. It will take some actions in operations so that it can achieve this goal.

If a charity will not be proactive in taking the right actions in all its operations from fundraising to outreach, its progress will become slow. A charity operational plan is needed to accelerate its achievements. Anyway, are you searching for a charity operational plan template? This post has 10+ SAMPLE Charity Operational Plan in PDF | MS Word. You can choose any of them. Download now!