This fall, ShoreRivers is entering into a strategic planning process to produce our 2024–2026 roadmap to healthier rivers and engaged communities.

This process—guided by our expert consultants Due East Partners and lead by our governing board, strategic planning committee, and staff—will continue through May. 

What is strategic planning? It is an organization's opportunity to think big. To reconsider, revise, and recommit to our vision (what we hope to achieve) and our mission (our strategies to get there). To decide what we should keep doing, what we should do more of, and what we should stop doing. To look at the landscape around us: what special value do we bring to this field that differentiates us from everyone else? And to discuss: how can ShoreRivers make the biggest impact on our rivers and our communities?

We invite you to join in this process of reflection and planning. There will be many ways you can participate: we will send email surveys, hold virtual listening sessions for each watershed, conduct key informant interviews, and host focus groups. Our goal for this process is inclusive participation, thoughtful reflection, and strategic analysis to produce a strategic plan that will guide our work for the next three years. Thank you for your input, and stay tuned!

Timeline

• Input and data gathering will take place October–January with staff and governing and watershed advisory board members, plus a survey to all constituents, 12–16 key constituent interviews, and a virtual listening session in each watershed.

• The strategic planning refresh and drafting will take place January–March.

• Draft plan field testing will take place in March–May, with in-person conversations, focus groups, and revisions leading up to the final plan being presented at the May governing board meeting for a vote.