This document provides guidance on developing a strategic framework to achieve success with limited resources. It discusses understanding an organization's core strategies, outcomes, and impact. It also covers clarifying indicators of success and creating an opportunity screen. The strategic framework links strategies, enabling outcomes, and impact, with strategies informing outcomes to achieve the desired impact. Indicators of success should focus on outcomes, not activities, and measure how the organization will know it has created desired outcomes. The opportunity screen helps evaluate new opportunities based on alignment with the organization's mission, outcomes, strategies, strengths, and resource capabilities.

1. Achieving Success with
Limited Resources
Heather Yandow
Third Space Studio
@3rdSpaceStudio

4. Today’s Agenda
• Understanding your organization’s core
strategies, outcomes, and impact
• Clarifying your indicators of success
• Creating and testing an opportunity screen
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5. Strategic Framework
Strategies
Enabling
Outcomes
Impact
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6. Opening assets
to the public:
hikes, trail
building, etc.
Legislative and
administrative
advocacy
Landowner
outreach and
education
activities
STRATEGY
A general public
that supports our
mission and is
aware of our work.
Landowners who
support our
mission and are
aware of our work.
An administrative
and policy
environment
favorable to land
conservation.
To protect
important
open space in
our region.
ENABLING OUTCOMES IMPACT
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8. Strategies
Enabling
Outcomes
Impact
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9. IMPACT
• What change do you want to see in the world?
• If this impact was present, your organization
could cease to exist.
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10. ENABLING OUTCOMES
• What are the conditions that have to be
present for your desired impact to be
possible?
• What are the key outcomes of your strategies?
• Outcomes are focused on the world outside of
your organization
• Outcomes are typically nouns and adjectives
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11. CORE STRATEGIES
• What are the activities that we focus on to
advance the conditions that will yield our
desired impact?
• What are the most strategic ways to use our
organization's strengths and assets to achieve
our impact?
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12. Putting It All Together
Strategies
Enabling
Outcomes
Impact
Use “so that…” to link each piece together.
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13. Indicators of Success
• Your challenge: focus on outcomes, NOT
activities
• Key question: How will you know you’ve been
successful at creating the enabling outcomes
you desire?
A general public
that supports our
mission and is
aware of our work.
Landowners who
support our
mission and are
aware of our work.
An administrative
and policy
environment
favorable to land
conservation.
@3rdSpaceStudio

14. Indicators of Success
• For each of your outcomes, fill in the blank: In
two years, we will know that we’ve been
successful at creating OUTCOME if
_______________________.
• Think about information that you
already track.
• Consider measures that you could realistically
track with the resources you have now.
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15. Opportunity Screen
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16. Creating Your Opportunity Screen
Does this opportunity:
• Align with our mission of …?
• Help us achieve our outcomes, namely …?
• Contribute to our goals of …?
• Fit within our strategies of …?
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17. Creating Your Opportunity Screen
Does this opportunity:
• Build on our strengths, namely …?
• Build relationships with key partners?
• Help build community support?
• Positively impact our ability to fundraise for
the organization?
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18. Creating Your Opportunity Screen
Do we:
• Clearly understand what is required of our
organization?
• Have the human resources needed?
• Add value to the effort?
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19. Creating Your Opportunity Screen
Does this opportunity:
• Align with our mission of
…?
• Help us achieve our
outcomes, namely …?
• Contribute to our goals of
…?
• Fit within our strategies of
…?
• Build on our strengths,
namely …?
• Build relationships with
key partners?
• Help build community
support?
• Positively impact our ability
to fundraise for the
organization?
Do we:
• Clearly understand what is
required of our
organization?
• Have the human resources
needed?
• Add value to the effort?
@3rdSpaceStudio

20. Using Your Opportunity Screen
Great American Cleanup
Local chapter of Keep America
Beautiful wants you to be part of
a one-day cleanup of a local park
on the water.
They expect you to recruit and
manage 50 volunteers for the day.
Climate Change Lobby Day
Statewide environmental
organization wants you to travel
to the state capital, bring a
carload of activists, and speak at
a rally about climate change.
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• What else do you need to know?
• What does your opportunity screen tell you about
your response to this request?

23. @3rdSpaceStudio

24. Thank you!
Heather Yandow
919.780.4117
@3rdspacestudio
heather@thirdspacestudio.com
www.thirdspacestudio.com