Date:  Wed, 21 October 2009

Time:  9.30pm – 4.30pm

Venue: CO3, 34 Shaftesbury Square, Belfast, BT2 7DB

Cost:  £95 for members  (Includes lunch and refreshments);  £120 for Non- member

 To Book contact CO3:  Tel: 9024 5356   Fax : 9024 1061  E-mail:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

About the Event

Most Third sector organisations these days have strategic plans, but the evidence is that in most cases they provide little help to the organisations in making decisions, or helping the organisation achieve its vision. So, what is wrong with current approaches to strategic planning and how should it be done?

Roger Courtney, one of the leading writers and practitioners on strategic planning in the UK, will facilitate this master-class in strategic planning which will help chief officers design strategic planning processes that will work for their organisations and avoid some of the pitfalls that many fall into

About the Speaker

Roger Courtney trained as a youth and community worker and set up what became Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast. He then became the Chief Officer of the Simon Community NI and remained at Simon for sixteen years, during which time it grew from two run-down rented houses and three members of staff, and a turnover of £40,000, to projects for people who were homeless all over Northern Ireland, with over two hundred staff, and a turnover of over £2million. He was a founder member and chair of both ACOVO (now CO³) and the Northern Ireland Council for the Homeless. For the last ten years he has been working in the Third Sector as a freelance organizational development consultant, specializing in strategy planning, governance, evaluation, fundraising strategy and quality. For the last three years he has acted as part-time senior advisor to Atlantic Philanthropies in Northern Ireland. He is the author of one of the leading UK text on strategic management in the voluntary sector, as well as two other books on fundraising, and other publications on homelessness and voluntary sector management.