Attract, Evaluate, Refine: ACRES’ 2018 – 2019 Strategic Plan

2018 – 2019 Strategic Plan – ACRES Land Trust

ACRES has remained relevant and strong for the past 57 years, but its leadership does not take it for granted that doing what we did in the past will necessarily be the best approach for success in the future.

This strategic plan challenges the organization to ensure its continued success through internal and external evaluation, refining the organization based on these evaluations and attracting more people to the organization.

ACRES will conduct a thorough evaluation of the organization and how we operate. We undertake this evaluation from a position of strength. Our organization is well respected, has diverse funding sources, is growing, and has great board and staff members. Now is the time to perform an evaluation — to maintain the health of the organization with a focus on our mission of ensuring existing and future acquired land will be preserved forever.

ACRES is experiencing momentum and building capital (human, financial, reputation) like never before. The period of evaluation this plan prescribes will help us invest this momentum in a targeted and successful way.

ACRES will:

Attract
Increase the number of people investing in ACRES (donating, becoming members, volunteering)
Increase our presence in urban centers within our service area
Increase awareness of ACRES by elected officials
Maintain the accelerated rate of land acquisition we achieved during the past five years

Evaluate
Review mission statement, values, and vision
Explore whether other non-profit governance models might better achieve our mission
Review service area
Perform community needs assessments
Utilize Land Trust Alliance Standards to evaluate ACRES current standards
Assess office space and function
Assess staff utilization

Refine
Identify and create acquisition plans for large conservation areas
Reduce impact to nature preserves by shifting some agricultural and recreational activities to
protected lands.
Re-format and create updated Preserve Guide
Grow our commitment to land management of our growing number of preserve acres and
protected lands

These goals will take us into our next period of operations, during which we will complete the evaluation as planned while achieving them. New goals in a new strategic plan will be created after the evaluation is complete.