Strategic Planning

Intentional project design doesn’t happen by accident – it requires a roadmap

We can build that map together by thinking through goals, literature-based and data-driven strategies to guide project design, and accountability structures to document success along the way.

Our strategic planning support spans the boundaries between project design and evaluation design. As a thought partner in this process, we will work with you to design your work with the end in mind. Then we’ll help create systems to support the work and document progress as it happens.

Leverage our Expertise

We are particularly knowledgeable about topics related to informal science learning, public engagement with science, and projects that aim to support broad participation in STEM. We partner with clients who work in these domains to marry our expertise and yours.

How we Help

Strategic planning collaborations can last just a few weeks or several years. In both cases, we ask lots of questions to understand your context and your vision, and then think critically together about the best strategies to use to get where you want to go and know you are on the right track as the work unfolds.

Hear from Our Amazing Clients:

Instrumental to Our Project's Success

It has been a pleasure working with the KPC team. Their diverse perspectives have pushed us to think critically so we can be more responsive, and continue to learn and grow. They have supported us by listening closely, connecting us to people and resources we may not have found on our own, and creating tools and structures that have helped us keep track of progress toward our project’s shared vision and goals. Their complimentary skills and expertise have been instrumental to our project’s success and I hope to continue to work with them on future projects.

– Kristin Wilson Grimes, Research Assistant Professor, University of the Virgin Islands

Gently Expose Blindspots

The Catalyst team is such a pleasure to work with. Every team member I’ve encountered has been deeply thoughtful, a great listener, and eager to understand our context and advance our long-term goals. They also bring fresh perspective and gently expose blindspots. In short, they deliver.

– Marty Downs, Director, Long Term Ecological Research Network Office

Professional Facilitators

We were privileged to have Catalyst provide facilitation and internal evaluation services for a series of public workshops we ran as part of a project to create new policies for our web platform. The work was extremely professional, our workshop attendees had great things to say about the facilitation, and the evaluation report was extremely useful for our project goals. They were also great partners to us in the preparation and administration stages of the work. I cannot recommend Catalyst highly enough.

– Samantha Blickhan, PhD, Zooniverse.org

Essential Thought Partners

The Catalyst team have been essential partners in evaluating the Dana Foundation’s programmatic strategy. They bring deep knowledge of the evaluation field paired with enthusiastic creativity that has been necessary for our innovative mission area. Communication with them is easy and open, enabling true partnership on everything from logistics to the deep thinking that has made our evaluation work together so impactful. I’m grateful to work with them on co-creating new ways to assess work aimed at strengthening science’s meaningful benefits to society.

– Khara Ramos, Vice President, Neuroscience & Society, Dana Foundation

Send us your idea and let's get started

We offer strategic planning activities that can provide a fresh perspective on work you’ve been doing for years – visioning activities, culture audits, building meaningful partnership assessments – as well as full strategic planning services.

Reach out today