New Resource: Smart Chart 3.0

A new resource has been added to the GrantCraft knowledge center! Smart Chart 3.0^® is a planning tool, designed by Spitfire Strategies, to aid nonprofits in developing strategic communications plans. The tool is also useful for funders in developing their own communications strategies and in their collaboration with grantees.

Smart Chart is particularly useful for project managers without a formal communications background, and in completing its step-by-step approach, users will come away with a focused communications strategy for their organization, initiative, or campaign. Smart Chart takes users through six major strategic decision sections. The process challenges participants to think critically and concretely about their organization’s decision-making process, the context the program is operating in, and the intended target audience.

Once those aspects are defined, the communications strategy begins to come together as participants develop a timeline and budget and define measures of success before testing the strategy in the final step. This resource is the organizational workbook to fill out, and the interactive format is available at www.smartchart.org.

Smart Chart was originally featured by GrantCraft in its Communicating for Impact  guide. Communicating for Impact provides further resources for funders interested in leveraging their communications strategy towards effective grantmaking. The GrantCraft knowledge center is powered by IssueLab, a service of the Foundation Center. IssueLab serves as an online repository for knowledge on the social sector, providing thousands of case studies, evaluations, white papers, and issue briefs addressing some of the world’s most pressing social problems. And, like, GrantCraft, it's free.

Editors Note: This post was written by Davis Winslow, a new intern with GrantCraft at the Foundation Center. Please join me in welcoming Davis to our team!