Annual Report & Ministry Plan

Strategic planning is an activity that organizations use to set priorities, focus energy and resources, and strengthen operations. It is also used to ensure that an organization’s board, employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals.

A strategic plan is commonly used to establish agreement around intended outcomes, as well as assess and adjust an organization’s direction in response to its changing environment. Therefore, strategic planning should be thought of as a dialogue that percolates throughout the organization. The information, perspective and insights yielded by the dialogue/percolation process are then shaped into a cohesive document.

Post Covid, during much of 2022 and the first part of 2023, Diaconal Ministries Canada (DMC) undertook a percolation process intended to produce such a document called a Directional Map.

It should be acknowledged, however, that change happens fast. So fast, in fact, that many leaders believe that most strategic plans are actually obsolete before they are written. For this reason, our newest Strategic Plan has been broken into 3 distinct parts:

• Part 1, called a Directional Map, contains our (5 year) Vision, Values and Primary Focus/Growth areas, along with a few high level Ends (or goals).
• Part 2, called the Operational Guide, provides a number of 2 year goals for each Focus/Growth area.
• Part 3 will be yearly Work Plans written by each employee in line with the Focus and/or Growth Area that they work in.

Both the DMC board and the DMC staff will revisit Parts 2 and 3 every year.

A copy of this current Plan will be posted shortly!