External Relations Strategy
Working in the area of external relations requires planning skills. The development of our organisation and the success of projects depend on the appropriate type of support. Moreover, convincing a potential partner to donate funds, their products or the time and knowledge of their employees depends on presenting an attractive offer of benefits. Therefore, each National and Local Group should have its own plan, called the External Relations Strategy.
Elements of the strategy
Each strategy is slightly different from the others, but there are constant elements for all documents of this type:
List of needs of the National or Local Group in the field of external support arranged according to priorities.
List of projects, initiatives and other benefits that can be offered to a potential partner.
The database of contacts that have been made in the past and those with whom the cooperation is continued.
Marketing materials: Booklets, Project Proposals, Partnership Packages etc. adapted to the needs and projects of the Group (you can find the templates on the Officers' Portal).
How to create a strategy?
The process of creating External Relations Strategy is based on the principles of strategic planning. You can read more about it here. In a nutshell, it is necessary to answer a few simple questions:
What are we missing? and/or What do we need to develop?
Who can provide this to us?
What can we offer in return?
How quickly do we want to achieve this?
The chart below presents the basic tasks in this regard.
As a result, you should get a plan with goals and concrete means to achieve them. Depending on the assumptions, the strategy may be short-term (e.g. for one term of office) or long-term (e.g. 3-year with more advanced goals). It can be an element of your internal regulations, a guidance document on the Drive or simple notes in a private notebook - important that it is logical, based on a thorough analysis of the current situation and efficient.