Our Strategic Plan for 2011 - 16

Our Strategic Plan is the central strategy that sets out our plans for 2011-16.  It leads from the highest level - our mission and vision - to specific, costed and prioritised tasks that change yearly.  It also sets out how we will measure success.    

1. Our programmes: what we do, our activities and events;
2. Our places: where we do things and what we want them to look and feel like;
3. Our organisation: our approach, our culture and how we fund our work.

We have four programmes, designed to appeal to different audiences:

1. Celebrating

   this is about enjoying the natural environment. It includes our many exciting events like our Lambing Weekends and the Children’s Food Festival.

2. Connecting

   this gives people the opportunity to get closer to nature and even get their hands dirty.  It includes our volunteering programme, and Connecting Naturally, giving opportunities to people who rarely experience wildlife close at hand.

3. Discovering

   learning new skills, whether installing low energy heating, identifying wildlife or photography.  It includes Outdoor Classroom, our work taking the curriculum outside into woods, meadows and ponds.

4. Imagining

   exploring ideas and helping to shape the future.  It includes looking at how our decisions today may shape the landscape we see in decades to come.

Plans for our places  - Little Wittenham and Radley Lakes

We also have ambitious plans for our places - Little Wittenham, Radley Lakes and the other sites we are involved with.  We want to make these places more beautiful and increase wildlife habitat on a dramatic scale.  We also want to make our places more appealing and easier to access.  We plan to build an eco-friendly visitor centre at Thrupp lake, Radley.

Our organisation

We look at our finances, our organisational culture, our governance and our profile.  This is about running a viable business, but it’s much more than this.  We want to reach a far broader audience and increase our impact dramatically.  And we want to enhance our reputation as an organisation people want to work with and work for.