Introduction to PlanPerfect
What is PlanPerfect? PlanPerfect is an AI-enabled platform designed to help nonprofits and other businesses streamline their strategic planning process. It offers a range of features that enhance efficiency, collaboration, and productivity, including robust tracking, reporting, and stakeholder input-gathering tools.
Why was PlanPerfect started? We created PlanPerfect as a simple solution to a big problem: making the world a better place by fulfilling one mission at a time. PlanPerfect was created with the passion and dedication of nonprofit experts who understand the intricacies of strategic planning and consulting. It is designed to be more than just a tool; it's a comprehensive solution aimed at simplifying and enhancing the strategic planning process for organizations. Success starts with a plan.
What is PlanPerfect’s strategic plan? At PlanPerfect, we use PlanPerfect as our own strategic planning tool. Our plan is a living document that guides our efforts, reflects customer feedback, and showcases our commitment to transparency. It demonstrates our approach and serves as a model for how our tool can be utilized and we are happy to show it to you.
Which Nonprofits Are the Best Fit for PlanPerfect?
• Nonprofits from all sectors with a total organization budget smaller than $5 million
• Start-ups, grassroots organizations, condominium associations, clubs, foundations, advocacy groups, and other similar nonprofits in the IRS codes 501(c)(3), 501(c)(7), select 501(c)(4), and 528
• Organizations with between 0 and 30 employees.
Which Nonprofit Leaders Should Use PlanPerfect? Founders, executive directors, and board members
What If I’m Worried I Don’t Know How To Make a Plan? That’s why PlanPerfect was created; we’re here for you and believe in you. You know what you’re doing. You know your organization better than anyone. You can give your organization YOUR best shot at creating a plan. Once your thoughts are down, sharing the output of your work with your stakeholders will be easier. And we’ll lead you through the process of getting their input. Using PlanPerfect helps break the log jam of moving forward.
Getting Started with PlanPerfect
How do I get started with PlanPerfect? To get started, sign up for an account on our website, and reach out to us if you have questions or need help.
Can I use PlanPerfect on my own? Absolutely! You know your organization better than anyone else. With PlanPerfect, you can take the first steps to create a strategic plan tailored to your needs. Once you've drafted your initial thoughts, sharing the output with stakeholders becomes easier. Our tool will guide you through the process of gathering their input. While many nonprofit plans start with stakeholder interviews, and PlanPerfect can help you do that, it’s not a requirement. Some of the most successful plans begin as the vision of a single person, refined and enhanced through collaboration.
What if I need either technical or consulting/coaching assistance? PlanPerfect has technical support available and also offers coaches with proven experience to help you build your plan.
How do I contact support? You can contact our support team by emailing
founders@planperfectllc.com.
What if I need accessibility assistance? We are deeply committed to giving access to PlanPerfect’s functionality to everyone, including those with visual impairments and learning differences, but have not yet built robust audio and visual accessibility features. If you or someone you know needs assistance, please contact
founders@planperfectllc.com.
Features and Functionality
Will I be able to have my board and other people important to my organization review the plan I make on PlanPerfect? Yes. We have a feature where stakeholders can review the plan and provide feedback.
Will I be able to use PlanPerfect to get a wide range of stakeholders’ views about the strengths and opportunities for my organization before, during, and after I make a plan? Yes, PlanPerfect is building that feature.
Do I have to complete all sections? No. The tool is flexible and allows you to focus on the areas most relevant to your organization’s needs. You can always return to other sections later.
What integrations are available with PlanPerfect? In the future, PlanPerfect will integrate with a variety of popular tools and platforms. If you have any specific integrations you would like, please reach out to
founders@planperfectllc.com.
What does this product do and what can’t it do? PlanPerfect is designed to streamline the strategic planning process by providing a structured framework and tools to facilitate your work, track your work, and report on your accomplishments. However, it cannot replace the nuanced understanding and insight that only you and your team can bring to the table. It’s a powerful aid, not a substitute for human insight.
Pricing and Support
What pricing plans do you offer? We will have several pricing plans to suit different needs. For detailed information on our pricing, please send a message to
founders@planperfectllc.com.
What kind of customer support do you offer? Today, we offer customer support via email at
founders@planperfectllc.com. In the future, we will work to expand this to live chat and phone. Our support team is here to help with any questions or issues you may encounter while using PlanPerfect.
Do you have a knowledge base or tutorials? We will have a knowledge base and a library of tutorials to help you make the most of PlanPerfect that will become available over time.
Strategic Planning Concepts
What is a strategic plan? A strategic plan is a document that outlines an organization's goals, the strategies it will use to achieve those goals, and the actions required to implement those strategies. It serves as a roadmap for an organization, helping guide decisions and resource allocation over a specified period, typically three to five years. A strategic plan inspires, guides, earns credibility, and, most importantly, helps a nonprofit fulfill its mission.
Why do I need a strategic plan? An organization without a plan struggles to fulfill its mission. Organizations with strategic plans are more likely to succeed. Clear goals and objectives guide work and define decision-making. A plan helps an organization:
• Define what it wants to accomplish over a set amount of time
• Develop a path for how to get there
• Create a system to track and report on accomplishments and areas for improvement
• Effectively spend money
• Raise money
• Look and be professional.
I’ve heard about “living” strategic plans…is this what I’m making on PlanPerfect? Why? What was wrong with the “old way?” Yes, PlanPerfect helps you create a "living" strategic plan, which is designed to be dynamic and adaptable. Traditional static plans, often turned into “plans on a shelf,” because they can become obsolete quickly and fail to address the evolving needs of an organization. Living plans, on the other hand, are continually updated to reflect new insights, challenges, and opportunities, ensuring your organization remains agile and responsive. That’s what PlanPerfect’s tracking and reporting features provide. While no plan can actually be “perfect,” we hope to help get, and keep, you on a path that will help you fulfill your mission.
What should the final product of a strategic plan look like? A strategic plan should be a clear, concise, and actionable document that outlines your organization's goals, strategies, and action plans. It should be easy to understand and accessible to all stakeholders. A solid strategic plan table of contents includes the following sections: Title, Timeline, Executive Summary, History of the organization, Mission, Vision, Values, Goals, Objectives, and Tactics. Budgets for major projects and an overview of key governance topics are also included.
What should the final product of a strategic plan look like? A strategic plan should be a clear, concise, and actionable document that outlines your organization's goals, strategies, and action plans. It should be easy to understand and accessible to all stakeholders. A solid strategic plan table of contents includes the following sections: Title, Timeline, Executive Summary, History Statement, Mission, Vision, Values, Goals, Objectives, and Tactics. Budgets for major projects and an overview of key governance topics are also included.
Key Terminology
What Timeline do you recommend? While this depends on the maturity and capacity of your organization, a standard timeline is a 5-year plan. However, making a plan for 1, 2, or 3 years is fine too! There is no right or wrong: just make a plan that you feel is both realistic and ambitious. And with PlanPerfect’s living strategic plan format, you can edit the timeline whenever you’d like.
What kind of Title do you recommend? Your plan’s title can simply include the name of your organization and the years of your plan, or you can come up with something that captures a key component of your ambition. Just think through what will most resonate with your stakeholders and not waste too much time on it. We believe in making a plan and getting down to work.
What is a History Statement? A history statement gives anyone unfamiliar with the organization enough information to understand who you are and why you do what you do. This can include who founded the organization, why, and when? How is the current state of the organization compared to how it was originally? Where is the organization compared to peers in the same industry? What events have shaped the organization?
What is a Mission Statement? A mission statement guides the organization's purpose. It should be focused on the present, but also forward thinking. A mission statement is short, clear, simple, achievable, and defined. It’s a statement that everyone can understand and remember and does not sound like it was written by committee or is so lofty it can't be achieved.
What is a Vision Statement? The vision statement should describe a world when the organization's purpose for existence is fulfilled. The vision statement answers the question, "what would be the outcome if our organization achieves its mission?” Note that a nonprofit's vision statement focuses on how the organization's work changes the world. A for-profit vision statement most often focuses on how the company will grow over time. Here's an example, “Our organization envisions a time when no school students will suffer unnecessary head injuries while cycling."
What are Values Statements? Values statements are the guiding principles by which the organization navigates. For the nonprofit to be successful, everyone at the organization should agree that they believe in these values.
What is a Goal? An organization’s highest level of focus to drive its mission forward. These should be aspirational but not necessarily time-bound or specific. These should not change during the duration the strategic plan covers. Typically, we expect 3-5 goals.
What is an Objective? The objective is what needs to be achieved for the goal to be accomplished. These should be as specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) as possible. By looking at the objectives, we should understand how the goal will be accomplished. Objectives should be set out at the beginning of the strategic planning process and cover the whole time span of the plan. These should only be adjusted if they are accomplished early, need to be delayed, or removed altogether. We would expect 3-5 objectives per goal, leading to a total of between 9-25 objectives for an organization.
What is a Tactic? Tactics are how the objectives will be achieved. These should be hyper-specific activities that have clear owners and deadlines. They should ultimately contribute to driving the metrics measured in the objective and align with the objective’s timeline. There is no limit to the number of tactics that an organization should have. Additionally, these should be revisited frequently and adjusted by the executive team to ensure they fulfill their objectives and match the progress of the organization.
Data Privacy and Security
Where is my information saved? We are saving the responses/statements to our database. Access is limited to PlanPerfect authorized users with the appropriate permissions.
Is my data being shared with the internet? Your data is not used to train any models and only interfaces with OpenAI as encrypted data. Our API uses OpenAI, which has
policies about who can access that data.
Is my information completely safe? We implement commercially reasonable technical, administrative, and organizational measures to protect your information both online and offline from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no Internet or email transmission is ever fully secure or error free. Therefore, you should take special care in deciding what information you share. In addition, we are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Service, or third-party websites.
What is PlanPerfect’s Privacy Policy?
Last Updated: August 29, 2024.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring your personal information is handled in a safe and responsible manner. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your information when you use our services.
Information We Collect. We may collect and process the following types of information: Personal Information: Information that you provide directly to us when you sign up for an account, such as your name, email address, billing information, and any other data you choose to provide. Usage Data: Information about how you use our service, including but not limited to IP addresses, browser type, device information, access times, and pages visited. Third-Party Data: Information we may receive from third-party services, such as OpenAI, to deliver our services to you.
How We Use Your Information. We use the information we collect for the following purposes: To provide, operate, and maintain our services.To improve, personalize, and expand our services. To communicate with you, including for customer service, updates, and marketing. To process transactions and send notices about your transactions.To prevent fraud and abuse, detect security incidents, and maintain the safety and integrity of our services.
Disclosure of Your Information. We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We may share your information in the following circumstances: With Third-Party Service Providers: We may share your information with vendors and service providers who perform functions on our behalf, such as payment processing, data analysis, and customer service. Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information to comply with applicable laws, regulations, or legal requests, to protect the safety, rights, or property of PlanPerfect, our users, or others.
Data Security. We use a variety of security measures to protect your personal information and keep your data secure. This includes encryption, access controls, and regular security assessments. However, no transmission of data over the internet is entirely secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of your information.Data Retention. We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, or as required by law.
Your Rights and Choices. Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, such as the right to access, correct, delete, or restrict the use of your data. You can also opt out of receiving promotional communications from us at any time.
Children's Privacy. Our services are not directed to individuals under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us to remove it.
Changes to This Privacy Policy. We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes.
Contact Us. If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at
founders@planperfectllc.com
Other Questions?
Email us (founders@planperfectllc.com). 