February 7, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
By Elizabeth Greene
Planned Parenthood’s effort to develop a 25-year plan should be a model for nonprofit organizations, says Fast Company (February).
The effort began in 1998, soon after Gloria Feldt became chief executive of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Ms. Feldt says she worried that the organization’s advocacy on abortion-related issues had overshadowed its other activities, such as showing women how to do breast-cancer examinations and offering tests to determine whether people have the virus that causes aids.
Ms. Feldt chose the 25-year goal because it “freed everyone from their immediate agendas,” she told the magazine. In addition, she said, she insisted that the committee developing the plan represent all the different interests of the 127 affiliates within the charity and that the committee let everyone know what it was doing along the way. The idea, Ms. Feldt said, was to win support by getting everyone involved, and to sharpen the final result by getting as many viewpoints as possible.
At a national meeting of the federation nearly a year ago, the planning committee expected that seven of its 10 ideas for the next 25 years would be passed. But instead, all were approved, and the people attending added some ideas that the magazine describes as “more daring.” Among them: to control a diversified media company. The organization is now developing plans to carry out its ideas and will discuss them at its national meeting next month.
The article is available online at http://fastcompany.com.
