Most strategic plans fail for one reason: they were written by a small committee instead of built by the community that has to carry them out. A plan nobody helped build is a plan nobody implements.
Every ISPD process engages dozens — often hundreds — of parents, parishioners, faculty, alumni, and benefactors whose voices shape the priorities from the beginning. They rank the challenges. They chair the implementation teams. The plan is the beginning. The people are the point.
Nine processes are listed below, sorted by who you are and what is driving you. If none of them is what you need, we will tell you that too.
Start here
Nine processes is a lot. Here is the short way through.
I lead a school
Strategic Growth Plan — the full multi-year plan.
Abbreviated Growth Plan — same rigor, six months.
Advancement & Development — if fundraising is the problem.
Enrollment Management — if enrollment is the problem.
I lead a parish
Long-Range Pastoral Plan — the full parish plan.
Total Stewardship Plan — if generosity is the focus.
AWE Plan of Action — if belonging is the focus.
Advancement & Development — if the parish needs a development office.
I lead a parish and a school
Collaborative Strategic Plan — one plan for both.
This is the one most communities in your position do not know exists. Two plans that quietly compete for the same people and the same dollars is the problem it solves.
I lead a diocese
(Arch)Diocesan-Wide Strategic Growth Planning
Multi-School Coaching for advancement and enrollment.
Workshop Series for your leaders.
Compare all nine at a glance
| Process | Who it is for | The question it answers | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategic Growth Plan for Schools | A Catholic school | Where is this school going, and who is coming with us? | 10 months (also offered in 8) |
| Abbreviated Strategic Growth Plan | A Catholic school that needs direction now | What are the few things we must get right in the next two years? | 6 months |
| Collaborative Strategic Plan | A parish and school together | How do we stop being two organizations on one campus? | 9–12 months |
| Long-Range Pastoral Plan | A parish | Where is God calling this parish, and what will it take to get there? | 10 months |
| Total Stewardship Plan | A parish ready to move past the annual appeal | How do we build year-round generosity rooted in gratitude? | 6–8 months |
| AWE Plan of Action | A community focused on belonging | Why do people come once and not come back? | 6–8 months |
| Strategic Plan for Advancement & Development | A school or parish running on events | How do we build a development program instead of a fundraising calendar? | 6–8 months |
| Strategic Plan for Enrollment Management | A school losing families | Where in the funnel are we losing families, and how do we stop? | 6–8 months |
| (Arch)diocesan-Wide Strategic Growth Planning | A diocese | What is the shared direction for Catholic education across this diocese? | about 10 months |
Every process can be adjusted to your calendar. The length is the shape of the engagement, not a fixed contract.
The nine processes
Each one is built the same way. What differs is who is in the room and what question they are answering.
“Where is this school going, and who is coming with us?”
For: A Catholic school.
A multi-year plan across academics, enrollment, development, facilities, and mission culture, aligned to the NCEA NSBECS four domains.
10 months (also offered in 8) · See the full process →
“What are the few things we must get right in the next two years?”
For: A Catholic school that needs direction now.
The same rigor on a compressed timeline. Often the first step before a capital campaign.
6 months · See the full process →
“How do we stop being two organizations on one campus?”
For: A parish and school together.
One plan, one set of priorities, and implementation teams drawn from both.
9–12 months · See the full process →
“Where is God calling this parish, and what will it take to get there?”
For: A parish.
A multi-year pastoral plan built by the whole faith community, with implementation teams and a reporting cadence.
10 months · See the full process →
“How do we build year-round generosity rooted in gratitude?”
For: A parish ready to move past the annual appeal.
A stewardship culture plan — time, talent, and treasure — rather than another appeal calendar.
6–8 months · See the full process →
“Why do people come once and not come back?”
For: A community focused on belonging.
Affirming, Welcoming, Engaging. A targeted plan for the barriers that keep people at the edge.
6–8 months · See the full process →
“How do we build a development program instead of a fundraising calendar?”
For: A school or parish running on events.
Annual fund, major gifts, planned giving, alumni, stewardship — and a twelve-month calendar.
6–8 months · See the full process →
“Where in the funnel are we losing families, and how do we stop?”
For: A school losing families.
The full lifecycle — inquiry, admission, retention, re-enrollment — with a twelve-month calendar.
6–8 months · See the full process →
“What is the shared direction for Catholic education across this diocese?”
For: An archdiocese / diocese.
A roadmap the whole diocese helped build — pastors, principals, parents, faculty, alumni, and benefactors.
about 10 months · See the full process →
One method, nine applications
Sometimes the answer is not a plan
We would rather say this on a web page than three months into an engagement.
If a building project is driving the timeline, you do not need a strategic plan first — you need to know what your community can actually fund. Start with a Financial Feasibility Study.
If the question is whether something should exist at all — a new school, a relocation, a consolidation, a merger — that is a General Feasibility Study: demographic analysis plus community interest research, ending in a Go, No-Go, or Go-with-Conditions recommendation.
If you already know what to do and need the person who will do it, that is coaching, not planning. Our development and advancement coaching and enrollment management coaching work month to month with the individual in the seat.
If you are not sure where you stand, begin with an Operational Vitality Study — an honest read across financial stewardship, strategic direction, resource management, mission alignment, and innovation. Most communities find both more strength and more opportunity than they expected.
nearly raised in capital campaigns
Catholic communities served
leaders trained nationwide
years serving Catholic communities
Questions leaders ask us first:
Usually, a fifteen-minute conversation settles it, and the sort at the top of this page settles most of it before you call.
The two questions that decide it: who has to own the outcome — a school, a parish, both together, or a diocese — and what is actually driving the timeline. A community with a building project takes a different first step than one with an enrollment problem, even if both ultimately need the same plan.
No — and we will not repeat it. Diocesan planning initiatives set direction and parameters. Vision and values processes give you language. Accreditation cycles assess against standards. Discernment processes weigh buildings, finances, and personnel.
None of those produce what this produces: a ranked set of challenges your own community chose, strategic initiatives with names attached, implementation teams seated, and a calendar. We will read whatever you already have and build from it rather than around it.
More than is comfortable, and that is the point. Dozens at minimum; hundreds in most engagements.
This is the whole difference between a plan that gets implemented and a plan that gets filed. If your leadership wants a document produced quietly by a small group, we are the wrong firm — and we would rather tell you now.
Often, and sometimes you should. A parish and school planning together is already two processes combined by design. Schools frequently run advancement and enrollment in sequence rather than at once, because the data and the story get built in the first and inherited by the second.
What we will not do is run two full processes simultaneously through the same volunteers. That is how both of them fail.
Implementation teams are seated and chaired by people who were part of the process. They work from a tracking chart with named owners, budget flags, and timelines. Progress is reported every six months, and the calendar is rebuilt each year.
That last part matters more than it sounds. A calendar rewritten annually is how a plan becomes practice rather than a document.
It depends on the process, the size of your community, and the timeline — and we publish the range in the first conversation rather than the fifth. Transparent pricing is one of our stated core values.
One thing worth knowing: shortening a timeline does not usually reduce the total fee. The work concentrates rather than shrinks.
Both, and the mix depends on the service. Capital campaign associates are on-site monthly and in contact weekly. Planning processes combine on-site discovery, workshops, and convocations with virtual committee meetings. Coaching is mostly virtual by design because that is what makes a regular cadence sustainable.
We will tell you the specific rhythm before you sign anything.
Let’s Make Things Happen!
Tell us who has to own the outcome and what is driving your timeline. We will tell you which process fits — or that none of them does yet.
Contact us today to learn more.
