-
I tend to believe that the strategic plan should play a pivotal role in the budgeting processes. I work with my board to identify what are the operational investments, required to maintain the core strategies of the plan and what, additional capital investments are needed to fund the innovations, expansion strategies in you strategic plan. The trickier part is to identify and match the revenue streams that will support your core functions operationally and will give you access to the capital required to support growth. Sometimes strategic growth needs to be deferred because of fundraising headwinds and other times, you may have to dig into savings or reserves to fund growth. It can be a source of difficult conversations or collaborative problem-solving, depending on the sophistication of your board.