Leadership winter 2014

Empowering sport organizations through strong leadership

Leadership Winter 2014

UIT

winter 2013

In this issue: • Revenue Generation in Sport Sponsorship • Succession Planning • Strategic Planning

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Leadership SIRCuit - Winter 2014

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Editorial Why is everyone talking about Governance? Because it continues to be a huge opportunity for sport organizations to enhance Editor their capacity and focus their energies. Funders, Board and Senior Staff all share a common goal – to deliver program and Debra Gassewitz podium results in an efficient manner without succumbing to internal ineffectiveness.

It is frequently said that we have the expertise and knowledge here in Canada, let’s use it and learn from each other. Let’s not duplicate our effort and resources, let’s build and strengthen the sport system in Canada together. Sport Canada, and the Government of Canada, are actively engaging and supporting the education of governance and leadership resources.

The Canadian Olympic Committee has been engaging the national sport federations in numerous collective studies to identify potential areas of strength and improvement. The recent NSF Enhancement Study, a collaboration of all key stakeholders, describes key areas of focus including revenue generation and leadership skill development.

Content

Nancy Rebel Michelle Caron Joshua Karanja Trent Weir

Design

Josyane Morin Sport organizations are demonstrating a keen desire to enhance their governance and leadership knowledge by participating in David Roberts and sharing the governance webinars hosted by SIRC. The topics of interest were identified based on feedback from the sport community and leading governance specialists, and without a doubt it has become a successful and well used learning tool. Translation We regularly see over 40 different sports, National, Provincial and Club level, in attendance from across the country as they Marcel Nadeau engage in discussion with the presenters. We are pleased to be highlighting in this issue of the Leadeship SIRCuit three of the most recent topics, Revenue Generation, Succession Planning and Strategic Planning. I encourage you to check out the best Special Thanks practices highlighted from within our community, take advantage of the various templates ready for you to use and listen to the Sport Canada: webinar soundbites to maximize the learning opportunities.

Alan Zimmerman On behalf of Sport Canada, the Canadian Olympic Committee and SIRC, we are very pleased to share the Leadership SIRCuit Judy Rash Rebeccah Bornemann with you and welcome any feedback you may have for future issues.

Canadian Olympic Committee: Caroline Assalian Debra Gassewitz Marg McGregor President & CEO SIRC And all the contributors

Table of contents Governance:A cornerstone for the sport system

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The COC National Sport Federation Enhancement Initiative

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Revenue Generation in Sponsorship

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Succession Planning

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Strategic Planning

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Disclaimer: Author’s opinions expressed in the articles are not necessarily those of SIRCuit, its publisher, the Editor, or the Editorial Board. SIRC makes no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness or suitability for any purpose of the content.

Copyright © 2013 SIRC. All rights reserved.

No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or disseminated, in any form, or by any means, without prior written permission from SIRC, to whom all requests to reproduce copyright material should be directed, in writing.

Photo’s courtesy of Canadian Olympic Committee ,Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, Canoe Kayak Canada, Tim Hortons Minor Hockey, Ringette Canada, Speed Skating Canada, Baseball Canada, and Cycling Canada.

For more information: info@sirc.ca

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Governance: A cornerstone for the sport system An interview with Alan Zimmermann, Director, Sport Development, Sport Canada.

SIRCuit: Over the last few years Sport Canada has been placing a lot of emphasis on governance. How does this fit in with your overall priorities?

Alan Zimmermann: Sport Canada’s attention to governance is part of our “big picture” approach to sport system building. Over the past few years, we have been working on three complementary priority areas in order to maximize resources and to encourage and entrench sport system progress.

These three areas are use of funding, development of pathways, and governance.

First of all, we know that the Government of Canada is the single largest contributor to the national sport system. Since these are public funds, Sport Canada has the responsibility to ensure that these resources are used effectively to provide results for Canadians in the context of our mandate. As a result, we are looking to focus our funding contributions on initiatives we believe will make a difference for athletes and athlete development.

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The second priority area is about sport development pathways. Our Canadian sport system has a lot of different organizations and stakeholders actively involved in delivering sport programs, and it isn’t always clear how these all link together. Through our support for Canadian Sport for Life, Long-Term Athlete Development, and Own the Podium’s High Performance Athlete Development initiative, we are working to strengthen athlete pathways. These pathways will help eight-year-olds—just now learning to enjoy sport—develop the right skills and attributes to become the next Christine Sinclair or Alexandre Bilodeau.

The third priority is governance. At first blush this might seem a bit funny, since governance initiatives don’t train athletes or develop coaches.

Through our work with national sport system organizations, we have come to understand just how critical governance can be to the success of Canadian sport. Good governance can be almost invisible to coaches and athletes—and weak governance can get in the way, to the point of impeding sport development and performance.

Empowering sport organizations through strong leadership

SIRCuit: When we talk about governance, what are the concepts that we are trying to address?

AZ: Governance relates to defining expectations, delegating authority, verifying the performance of the organization, and meeting legal requirements.

When we talk about governance, we are typically referring to incorporated not-for-profit organizations. Some are big; some are small.

Some are staff-led, while others rely primarily on volunteers. In all cases, organizations need to define expectations for what they want to achieve and how they want to achieve it. Senior leadership needs to delegate the responsibility and resources to permit those achievements. They need to be able to know if what they wanted to happen has happened. And organizations need to do so in accordance with the appropriate legislative and regulatory framework, including the new Not-forProfit Corporations Act. Often this discussion starts with how the board and senior staff manage and direct business, and it extends to operations and overall functioning of a given organization.

Action for sports: SIRCuit: How do you see all this work relating • Ensuring that all funded organizations have to delivering programs and services that make a financial and planning documents, specific difference for athletes and athlete development? policies, and orientation for boards of directors.

AZ: Because governance is all about setting • Reviewing the extent to which organizations direction, managing resources, and monitoring use key performance indicators to monitor progress, governance enables programs and the achievement of their plans, manage risks, services. Organizations with strong governance are strategically recruit the skills and expertise required better able to direct and manage the sport programs for good governance, and complete appraisals for and services along the athlete pathways, which in the board of directors and senior staff. turn supports achieving Olympic and Paralympic medals.

• Engaging with organizations to SIRCuit: Sport Canada, advance the areas SIRC, and the Canadian of board of director Olympic Committee oversight: strategic have all been working planning, risk together on the management, and governance portal and human resources. the webinars. How Alan Zimmermann else is Sport Canada considering SIRCuit: How are you hoping the sport system governance? will change as a result of your efforts in governance?

AZ: The Sport Funding and Accountability Framework

“Good governance

practice strengthens

organizational capacity”

(SFAF) is an important tool for Sport Canada. It not only sets eligibility and funding levels for sport organizations at the national level, but also establishes benchmarks for continuous improvement in those organizations.

Over the years, we have been progressively building governance into the SFAF. The goal for SFAF is not that all organizations be managed the same way or have identical processes.

Instead, the idea is to encourage sport organizations to plan strategically and have well developed and thought out processes in order to achieve their sport objectives.

We have included governance within our SFAF in a variety of ways:

AZ: We all want the strongest possible sport system in Canada. Sport organizations at the national level are key players in the development and delivery of sport pathways throughout all levels of sport. When each of them are functioning well and working effectively with their provinces/territories and clubs, they will attract and retain more athletes who, in turn, will have a better quality sport experience. So really we are doing our work to help build strong organizations capable of offering programs and services that let participants enjoy sport and help our best talent win at the highest levels. Δ

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How do the governance practices of my organization support the delivery of programs and services?

What adjustments would strengthen my organization’s governance?

How can my organization demonstrate our good governance practices?

Useful links www.sports.gc.ca www.sirc.ca/governance www.sportlaw.ca/nfp-act/federal-act/ www.canadiansportforlife.ca

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COC National

The Sport Federation Enhancement Initiative National Sport Federations (NSFs) have identified the desire to be best in class both on the field of play, and in their business operations. The COC recognized the need to not only develop a technical plan but also a business plan that together would help achieve its performance goals. If the Canadian sport system is to be truly world class, then performance in offices and boardrooms is equally as important as results achieved on the field of play.

The NSF Enhancement Initiative was introduced in early 2013 to focus on assessing the business operations, leadership and governance of NSFs.. This system-wide assessment is the first of its kind in Canadian sport. There was tremendous enthusiasm for the Initiative with 50 NSFs voluntarily opting to participate in the process which was evidence of their commitment to excellence on the field of play and in their business operations.

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The COC joined forces with its partner Deloitte - one of Canada’s leading professional services firms. The Assessment Tool was designed to review the current and target future state of each NSF’s business operations and to identify improvement opportunities.

The scope of the assessment focused on 31 dimensions within 6 themes including governance and risk, strategy and planning, leadership and culture, people, revenue generation and engagement, and support services. NSF leaders were guided through a facilitated self-assessment of their current state.

The assessment tool was customized for the sport sector and was leveraged from existing frameworks within the sport-system and the notfor-profit sector (i.e. Imagine Canada, Canadian Council on Accreditation Standards, Sport Canada

Empowering sport organizations through strong leadership

SFAF), as well as frameworks used by Deloitte to assess organizations from multiple sectors. The assessment tool provided a consistent framework, while recognizing the diverse scale and nature of NSFs. The Assessment model describes four stages of evolution from Developing to Defined through to Best-In-Class. The Assessment Model enabled NSFs to identify what Best-In-Class could look like for different dimensions of business operations.

This setting the bar and articulating what Best In Class looks like is a useful tool for leaders as they provide direction to their organizations.

The project outputs included: • A final report to each individual NSF that identifies unique improvement opportunities and provides a high-level implementation roadmap;

• A system-wide report that identifies improvement opportunities that will be applicable across multiple sports organizations.

The current state assessment was seen as an opportunity for dialogue and reflection. It allowed time for NSF leaders to “step back” and think about each aspect of their business operations.

Comments from NSF leaders illustrate the impact: • “I intend to use this report as a focal point with our Board to get us focused on key priorities.”

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• “The review process was a very thorough exercise and really helped me with further developing our multiyear operational plan. I’ve incorporated many of the future state findings into our operational plan as targets.”

• “I’ve found the process very informative and rewarding.”

The Final System Wide Report was submitted to the COC Board of Directors on September 28, 2013. The report contains a number of findings and learnings that was shared with the NSFs at the COC’s NSF Leadership Summit in Toronto on November 22, 2013. Δ

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From the

SIRC webinars

Revenue Generation in Sponsorship P.8 Presented by Dr. Norman O’Reilly Learn more about sharing the reality, opportunity and risks associated with sponsorship and partnership revenue generation in sport.

Succession Planning P.12

Strategic Planning P.14

Presented by Judy Sutcliffe

Presented by Carolyn Trono

Would your organization be ready if your CEO was unable to perform their job, or left for a new position?

Building on the resources on the SIRC Strategic Planning portal, this webinar will provide alternatives and options on how to make the most of resources when developing a strategic plan.

Implementing Your Strategic Plan Presented by Dina Bell-Laroche

The main focus of the webinar session is on 10 ‘tips & truisms’ gathered from management science, experience and good practices in and outside of sport on implementing your strategic plan.

Revenue Generation in Sport Sponsorship Finding ways to generate revenue for sport is a constant concern for many sport organizations.

One of the main sources for revenue continues to be through sponsorship dollars, but finding a sponsor and maintaining a continued relationship between your organization and your sponsor involves quite a bit of research and planning.

Various organizations are being creative in their approach by organizing festival type events with the goal of expanding their reach and increasing participation and engagement for both the sport and their sponsors. The current trend is to create a unique and experiential environment where all parties get a return on their investment. The best way to start is to have and implement a strategy for generating new revenue that outlines what is required for your organization’s continued success.

Click here to download the Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study The Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study (CSLS) is an annual survey of Canadian sponsors, sponsees and agencies to provide an overview of the sponsorship industry in Canada.

Watch the webinar to learn more about sharing the reality, opportunity and risks associated with sponsorship and partnership revenue generation in sport.

Webinar Summary

The seminar on revenue generation shared results from the 7th annual Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study (CSLS) and other methods (fundraising, public-private partnerships, hosting event, etc.) that sport organizations can consider or pursue to increase their resource base. The CSLS review highlighted the growth of sponsorship in Canada to a nearly $1.6 billion dollar industry (investment in rights fees) plus approximately an additional $1 billion invested in sponsorship activation. A few key highlights: 1. 2012 saw – for the first time since before the economic crisis – strong position trends in sponsorship in Canada, where investment was smarter, activation higher, evaluation higher and tactics more diverse.

2. Sponsorship is NOT for everyone. For smaller organizations or organizations without considerable marketing value or reach, look at other techniques (like partnerships or fundraising events) where you’ll have a chance for success.

3. The ‘female’ opportunity in sponsorship – a special topic area of the 2012 CSLS, sponsorship – like many marketing tactics – is vastly underutilized to reach the Canadian female.

Presented by Norman O’Reilly, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sport Business, University of Ottawa

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Empowering sport organizations through strong leadership

How do you build the

sponsor-sponsee relationship?

“What do sponsors want?” is a popular question for a lot of sport organizations. Many companies are looking to form a partnership with their sponsees that includes more of a customer service attitude. Specifically, they are looking for a change in the traditional viewpoint of “What do we get out of it?” into a “What can we do for the sponsor?”. Some of the most common concerns about investing in sport from potential sponsors are focused around the lack of cooperation between the entities and the high degree of maintenance involved in sustaining the relationship. The best sponsees are those that know what the sponsor is looking for and provide that return on investment.

This may include one or all of the following: • •

They want an ROI by increased sales, improved image, increased awareness and preference for their products and brand.

They want your audience.

They want your content.

They want to enhance the audience’s emotional connection to the sponsor’s brand through their experience with the event or activity.

• •

To help sponsors receive their desired outcomes it is wise to consider what benefits you can offer the sponsors. These benefits may include: •

Naming rights Product or supplier status • Sampling or display opportunities • Web/social media ads • Ticket entitlements, signage, samplings at related events, parties, receptions, shows, launches •

By working together to develop a win-win proposition between the sponsor and the sponsee, everyone including sport itself will come out ahead. Δ Sources: Harrison, K. Many benefits you can offer sponsors. Retrieved from the Internet November 18, 2013.

Wagner, U. & Nissen, R. (2012). Making sense of national elite sport sponsorships – Risk perceptions and corporate motives. In, EASM 2012 Conference, Abstract book. 83-84.

Sponsorship framework design tools Click here to download: Canadian Heritage Partnering Framework: A Corporate Sponsorship Toolbox Sport sponsorship: Securing and retaining commercial partners

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How do you

attract a sponsor?

Sport events still hold the largest market share of sponsorship dollars. Attracting a sponsor involves research, planning, and strategy. Start with performing research on which company would be the best ‘fit’ for your sport or event. Determine your value to the company, what is their ROI? Make sure your organization stands out from the crowd and ensure your proposal goes into the right hands. One of the most important things to remember is that it takes time to attract and build a relationship with a sponsor but when done well, it can prove extremely beneficial for sponsor and sponsee.

• Offer an opportunity and not a problem Offer a solution to a potential sponsor’s problems, such as providing a bottom line saving or profit.

• Stand out from the clutter - Make sure your proposal is addressed or delivered to the person who has the power to say ‘yes’. Often the contents of a courier bag are treated with more respect than an envelope received in the mail.

• Target companies with the right fit - Does your target audience’s demographics psychographics and geographic location - fit with those of the company or brand to be promoted?

• Be professional - Make sure your representatives, including volunteers, always present themselves in a professional manner and understand what is required of a commercial relationship.

• Offer rights that the company can exploit Offer value for money - price your ‘product’ to ensure your organization will benefit from the relationship and that the sponsor will make a profit. Make sure your product is priced similarly to comparable products.

• Be persistent, not a pest - Following up a sponsorship request is necessary, but not to the extent that you interrupt the recipient’s ability to do their job. It will take time for a potential sponsor to come to grips with what you are offering and for a relationship to grow and develop.

Improve your chances of securing the sponsorship deal by following some simple rules:

At the end of the day, sponsors want to support a winning team. So whether you are a large or small sport organization, always be professional, develop a sound strategy and make sure your successes are visible in the media. Δ Sources: New South Wales Government, Office of Communities, Sport & Recreation.

Selling sponsorship. Retrieved from the Internet November 18, 2013.

How To Find Sponsors For Small Sport Organizations. Retrieved from the Internet November 18, 2013

How to Sell Sponsorship for your Sport Luke Wilson, Director at Sporting Advantage, a leader in the area of sport management consultancy, explains five tips to help sport organizations secure sponsorship. These include: 1. What’s in it for the sponsor?

2. What benefits can you provide for the sponsor?

3. Who should the organization target?

4. Need a person to drive the sponsorship proposal.

Prepare your business plan.

5. Service the sponsorship. Make sure you deliver the ROI.

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How to Sell Sponsorship for your Sport video

what is the

Festivalization of Sport?

The festivalization of sport is a relatively new concept but one that is gaining popularity. With events like the Ontario Lacrosse Festival and the Wickenheiser Female World Hockey Festival, the trend of combining sport events with a festival atmosphere is gaining popularity. Many of these events last a full weekend and can involve individual teams and/or families.

Sponsor Reasons for Pursuing Festivals Diversifying the sponsorship portfolio

Focusing on direct revenue opportunities Securing a higher profile and brand recognition

Reaching communities & rural populations

Good practices

Sponsors pursue these types of events for key strategic reasons, including reaching communities and rural populations, securing a higher profile, increasing brand recognition and diversifying their sponsorship portfolio all while engaging participants and sponsors in a unique and experiential environment.

While spending on sport and ‘cause’ sponsorships have remained stable in terms of total dollar spent, they have been declining as a proportion of overall spending. This decline is due to a considerable growth in other types of sponsorship spending, none growing more so than festivals, fairs and annual events. Δ Source: O’Reilly, N. (2013). Sponsorship in Canada in 2011: Emergence of Festivalization & French Canada. White Paper

Ontario Lacrosse Festival • The Ontario Lacrosse Festival, first launched in 2004, is an event that lasts 10 days, hosts competitions for over 500 teams and attracts around 55,000 attendees.

• The event, usually hosted in Oshawa or Whitby, has an economic impact estimated at around $5.7 million and is the largest youth (6-21) Lacrosse event in North America.

Wickenheiser Female World Hockey Festival • An event that lasts four days and attracts over 1000 participants with the overall goal of building positive female hockey experiences for various ages and levels.

Podcast Norm O’Reilly talks about the shift in focus of sponsorship profiles to properties that provide more of an experiential or festivalized atmosphere to an event and why sport needs consider this alternative way of event design to attract sponsors.

• Creates an education knowledge exchange by integrating learning opportunities for participants through workshops and clinics led by high-profile athletes, coaches, and experts from around the world.

• All proceeds from the tournament go to international and local organizations that promote opportunities for play, including JumpStart.

Question from the Community If I’m trying to generate sponsorship, how can I design my program to impact sales as effectively as possible?

David Myers, ED, Ringette Alberta

Canadian Tire Wickenheiser World Female Hockey Festival

During his webinar Norm O’Reilly explains four ways to address this question: •

Price yourself appropriately.

• Forecast sales/benefits for the sponsor/specific customized for the sponsors.

• Find things that are going to resonate with their target market.

• Custom, and then focus on what they are trying to achieve.

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Succession Planning

What would happen if your CEO or Executive Director was suddenly unable to perform their job, or left for a new position? Or if a key Board member, Finance Director or High Performance Director left in advance of a critical competition? Is your organization ready? Learn how to manage personnel transitions to new leadership, either staff or volunteer, by identifying key staff and key board roles, identifying key competencies or skills needed to support those roles, and planning for sustaining these roles and competencies through hiring or training.

Highlights from the Webinar As a smaller organization how can I find qualified candidates for key positions?

While the steps to succession planning may seem better suited for a large organization (25 or more employees) they are still very effective for even the smallest community organization that only has one full time employee. If your internal talent pool is small it is important to focus on your networking to develop a deep external talent pool to draw from. You can use conferences and events to meet potential candidates, make sure you make notes of who you meet and what they would bring to your organization.

Watch the webinar to see if your organization would be ready if your CEO was unable to perform their job, or left for a new position?

Summary

Succession planning helps to ensure long-term stability and success of your organization. This webinar reviews four steps to creating sustainable organizational and Board leadership through succession planning: 1. Identify the skills you need to fill key positions 3. Do the gap analysis and 2. Assess the skills of the incumbents (staff or volunteer) 4. Then recruit or train to fill the gaps.

Above all, don’t forget to document existing roles.

Presented by Judy Sutcliffe Principal Consultant, The Sutcliffe Group Incorporated

Is it better for the company to hire an internal or external candidate?

While external candidates have been shown to have higher rates of returns in the beginning, internal candidates often have higher returns in the long term. In the end the most important thing is for the best candidate to be chosen, whether they are internal or found outside the organization.

What can you do as an organization if one of the “future� leaders you have been developing moves on?

First thing to be done is to modify your succession plan to reflect the potential competencies your organization has lost and how those gaps can be filled. It is important that you also remember to add this person to your list of external candidates for future positions.

Where will you advertise for the position?

Advertising the position is an important step in ensuring you attract the right talent for the job.

Since they are the most sought after destinations for promoting and finding jobs the SIRC daily press release service and Career Opportunities are an obvious choice. It is also important that the job opening is advertised on your own website as well as the sport organization sites that are specific to the sport you are advertising for. Also consider whether you are going to advertise internationally, in which case you will have to advertise on the Government of Canada National Job Bank since you will need to get a labour market opinion from Citizenship and Immigration Canada which requires this.

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Funders are Now Looking for Succession Planning When looking to secure funding from various organizations, it is important to be aware of either the requirements or procedures that must be in place within your organization in order to be eligible to apply for the funding. Funders may also require background documents that show how these procedures or plans are in place.

Sport Canada - Sport Funding and Accountability Framework – Eligibility Criteria: - Requires roles and responsibilities for each senior staff position and standing committee.

- Requires plan or process for orientation of new board members.

Good practices

Canada Not For Profit Corporations Act - Calls for general requirements for Directors and Officers

Ontario’s Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010 (ONCA)

- Helps a corporation build their by-laws to ensure they meet the standards of the NFP act.

- Includes requirements for directors and filling positions.

Templates Click here to download:

Examples of good practices in succession planning come from the following two organizations:

Board Building - Recruiting and Developing Effective Board Members for Not-for-Profit Organizations (A Self-Guided Workbook).

Emergency Succession Plan Template.

Executive Director: Emergency Backup Succession Plan.

Staff competencies worksheet.

Guide to career Development discussions.

Behavioural question examples.

Speed Skating Canada

Succession Policy

Question from the Community What would be the acceptable time required for a notice of departure for a CEO to an NSO or a P/TSO? Question asked during the webinar session.

While the amount of time is dependent on the size of the organization and how long the CEO has held their position there are general guidelines. For an NSO the notice should be provided about one month ahead of time. For P/TSO it could range from two weeks to one month.

Special Olympics Ontario

Board Positions & Job Descriptions

Listen to Judy elaborate on the time required for notice of departure

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Strategic Planning Strategic planning is an essential requirement in good governance. Building an effective strategic plan allows an organization to define their purpose and set realistic goals, by capitalizing on their strengths and recognizing their weaknesses. Implementing your strategic plan allows for communication of your goals to stakeholders and employees and for evaluation of your progress on an ongoing basis. By focusing on both the development and the implementation of strategic plans, organizations can create effective corporate strategies that can be put into operational practice.

Watch the webinar on Practical Tips for Strategic Planning

Webinar Summary

Webinar Summary

This webinar is intended to provide very practical tips for individuals starting a strategic planning process. It identifies typical challenges that you may be faced with, providing strategies to ensure successful completion of the project.

Learn 10 Tips for Implementing your Strategic Plan

Within the planning cycle you will receive tips on: • Developing a project plan (time management) Carolyn • Effective and efficient methods of getting Trono input from stakeholders Independent • Practical tips and approaches for each Sport Consultant

Watch the webinar on Implementing Your Strategic Plan

phase of the planning cycle.

1. Communicate – Develop a communications plan with core messages and share with key stakeholders 2. Keep it relevant - Plans need to evolve and adapt in order to maintain relevance 3. Compass – Make sure everything you do is helping you achieve your mission, move towards your vision, reflective of your values 4. Measure Progress - Once approved, develop indicators to demonstrate progress for the plan and activities 5. Train and Educate – Ensure you have the knowledge you need to implement your plan 6. Engage – Proactively communicate and look for ways to involve your members. It doesn’t stop once the plan has been approved, it continues 7. Budget - Integrate into your planning process.

Ensure budget reflects priorities. Ensure plan meets available human/financial resources 8. Show Early Wins – Demonstrates action.

Shows progress. Creates trust.

9. Celebrate Success - Creates a sense of accomplishment and builds momentum 10.‘Can Do’ Culture - Recognize that ongoing investment is required to create the right environment that encourages the “doing” in a planned and strategic way

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Dina BellLaroche Sport Law & Strategy Group

Funders are Now Looking for Strategic plans Provincial and federal sport funding bodies are starting to request and sometimes even require strategic plans as a part of the funding submission.

Ontario Provincial Funding – Ontario Grants In Section D of the Grants Ontario submission, organizations may be requested to submit a Strategic Plan Guide as part of their description of Organization Capacity (page38, Grants Ontario System – Reference Guide for Applicants).

Templates Click here to download: How to write a Strategic Plan for your Association and Club – Softball New Zealand

Sport Canada Funding – Sport Funding and Accountability Framework (SFAF) The final stage of the SFAF is Accountability. All organizations funded through the Sport Support Program are required to work towards the National Standards outlined in the Sport Canada Accountability Framework for National Sport Organizations/Multisport Service Organization by incorporating the accountability policy areas (including expected outcomes) within their strategic and operating plans. Each organization is monitored against pre-determined national performance standards … To evaluate results and identify areas of greater or lesser progress, Sport Canada will monitor and assess the organizations operating and strategic plans.

Alberta Provincial Funding – Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Program Criteria An association is required to submit a 3-5 year strategic plan for ongoing planning and evaluation process including key performance indicators. (For review purpose only).

Strategic and Operational Planning Help Sheet Australian Institute of Community Practice and Governance Strategic Plan Process Checklist Sample Pre-Strategic Planning Board Survey

Good practices Sample Strategic Plans: Baseball Canada Sask Sport Strategic Planning Sport Development Document (2010-2014) Strategic Plan (2013-2016)

Canadian Advancements for Volleyball Canada Sport Nova Scotia the Advancement of Women Strategic Plan for 2013-2016 Strategic Plan and Sports (CAAWS) Strategic Plan (2013-2017)

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winter 2013

Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC) is Canada’s national sport library, established over 35 years ago.

Mailing address: SIRC 180 Elgin Street, Suite 1400 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2P 2K3 Tel: +1 (613) 231-7472 Fax: +1 (613) 231-3739 info@sirc.ca for more information and resources

sirc.ca/governance

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