Planning for Impact

What do all of the following entities have in common?

• Indianapolis Colts
• Indianapolis Woman magazine
• Indianapolis Airport Air Traffic Control

Planning. All of these have a plan - a detailed plan - to accomplish great success. The Indianapolis Colts spend months recruiting players, determining a training schedule, running routes and drills. Indianapolis Woman has a dynamic content and image plan for each issue. The Indianapolis Airport's Air Traffic Control artfully instruments a high volume of air traffic safely on and off its runways every day.

What does this have to do with Women's Fund and with you? Everything! Women's Fund places an emphasis on careful planning. For example, our Advisory Board leadership is planned years in advance and we recently adopted a strategic plan. We also make grantmaking decisions informed in part by our research, such as Still on Shaky Ground 2006.

You know that planning helps you get places on time and remember important tasks. What about your personal philanthropy? If you are like many people, you probably have not thought carefully about your philanthropy goals. What are your values? What issues do you want to impact? It is never too early or late in life to become more strategic with your personal giving.

Personally, since joining the Women's Fund and CICF team about a year ago, I have become a more thoughtful philanthropist and have grown in my efforts to impact areas I care about. Over time, we will share on this blog how Women's Fund helps many current and future donors with their philanthropy planning, through programs such as GO: Give Back and OPTIONS.