As a new fiscal year begins for Women’s Impact Fund (WIF), we likewise turn the page on our strategic plan. This year, we enter the final year of our current three-year strategic plan. The WIF Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2020-2023 (the “Strategic Plan”) is a living document that guides the organization. It provides a narrative overview of WIF’s vision, mission, and values, as well as its strategic goals and related implementation and measurement. The Strategic Plan was previously approved by the WIF Board of Directors (“Board”), which also provides ongoing governance and oversight. On a day-to-day basis, the Incoming or Outgoing Chair of the WIF Board serves as the strategic lead for the Strategic Plan, partnering with the Executive Director to manage its execution.
In years past, the strategic plan was a detailed and thoughtful plan which mirrored the structure of the organization. When looking back upon prior plans, they contained goals that were well assigned and specific to committees and other operating entities to then tackle. Within such a framework, WIF committees made great strides in meeting the goals and the organization continued to progress and expand.
In the development of the current Strategic Plan, a few changes were made. First, the timeframe was contracted to three years. This was based on the reality that our organization (and our community) were changing rapidly and moving to a shorter plan duration was intended to reflect evolving and emerging needs. In addition, in this version of the plan, there was an intentional change in how the goals were created, moving them from within existing organizational lines to across organizational lines. The deliberate move to focus on enterprise success was intended to have everyone working on a unified level, as opposed to within individual committees.
A summary of the Strategic Plan’s goals can be seen below.
Ellen Rankin, Immediate Past Board Chair, sees one of the highlights of the Strategic Plan being the inclusion of the WIF Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Work Group’s Phase I and Phase II recommendations. She notes, “This plan takes the hard work completed over the past two years related to DEI and develops actionable and trackable focus areas that begin to weave DEI into not just how we operate, but the ways in which we think and make decisions regarding our future.”
Looking ahead to the next iteration of the strategic plan, which will cover FY 2024–2026, the emphasis will be on the big lofty goals we aim to meet. While the process for drafting and vetting that plan is still being determined, it is possible a more streamlined plan (potentially with fewer goal pillars) and an enhanced focus on strategic (as opposed to operational) aspects, will be the outcome. The next plan will be approved by the Board later in FY 2023. This year, WIF has 461 members, 20 Board members, and 7 committees. Like its prior and subsequent versions, the current Strategic Plan drives and unites all of our efforts to ensure our organization operates efficiently, meets member needs, and continues to effectively improve our community.
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