Business and Strategic Planning – for voluntary organisations

Published March 2026

If you want to achieve your organisation’s goals, a well-structured strategy is essential. Planning for the future will keep your organisation efficient and adaptable, help you manage change and enable you to deal better with tomorrow’s unforeseeable challenges.

This comprehensive guide will support you to develop a robust strategy and a business plan – a programme for success – to guide your organisation where it needs to go.

Who should buy this book?

If you have a stake in the future of your organisation, this book will help guide the way. It is essential reading for chief executives, trustees and managers who want to consider new working methods, ensure their organisation’s future and maintain its credibility. It will also be useful for anyone interested in how to plan ahead to be more effective and efficient.

What does it cover?

This guide features advice from one of the sector’s leading strategic thinkers and is packed with tools, exercises and case studies that show you how to put it into practice. The new edition includes sections on:

• How to start thinking strategically
• The planning process, who to involve and how to lead people through it
• Analysing your organisation
• Creating a business model and working with the numbers
• Getting the plan on paper and making it a reality

What they said about the book

‘Assessing and responding to evolving business, service and funding environments is a constant challenge for charities. I have found Alan’s book to be a brilliant companion and guide to Betknowmore UK in these areas. I highly recommend it!’

Frankie Graham, Founder and CEO, Betknowmore UK

‘Strategy isn’t, as many would think, about predicting the future, but about setting out a clear guiding vision… This is where Business and Strategic Planning is most useful. It treats strategy as a discipline rather than a template and insists on connecting planning to the realities of governance, finance and delivery. It recognises that good strategy is rarely  neat or linear, and that the most important choices are often the hardest ones to make.’

Kate Lee OBE, CEO, National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) [from the foreword]

What they said about the previous edition

‘Here’s a really easy to read and understand book that will help you create a great strategy and plan.’

Paul Farmer, Chief Executive Officer, Age UK

 

‘A valuable place to start the business planning process for anybody in a small organisation trying to adopt a more strategic approach. Down-to-earth, practical and full of useful exercises.’

Peter Maple, former Course Director, South Bank University

Look inside

Have a look inside Business and Strategic Planning.

About the author

Alan Lawrie

Alan Lawrie has worked as a full-time independent consultant for over 20 years and specialises in strategy, business planning, commissioning and organisational development.

He is the author of the fourth edition of this book (2014). His other publications include Managing Quality of Service (1984 and 1995), Developing Your Organisation (2000), The Complete Guide to Business and Strategic Planning (1988, 1994 and 2007), Managing Contracts: A resources pack (1988 and 1994), The Complete Guide to Creating and Managing New Projects (1999, 2002 and 2010) and, as a co-author, The Complete Guide to Surviving Contracts (2008) and Collaborative Working (2013).

Before moving into consultancy, Alan worked as a development worker, trainer and manager in the voluntary sector, and then moved into management roles in the public sector. Alan has helped many organisations to develop strategies and worked with them to create successful business plans.

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