CRAFTING A LEARNING PLAN - Achieving Strategic Clarity program - Toolkit materials

Sep 22, 2026

Toolkit materials guiding nonprofit teams to craft a learning plan that strengthens intended impact and the theory of change. The program walks users through four steps: revisiting priority open questions, learning tactics for efficient learning, comparing learning approaches, and developing a plan with refined questions, targeted approaches, owners, and timeline. Includes instructions for how the toolkit lead drives the process, how to engage the broader team, and example learning plan outputs and supporting templates.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time9 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Note to reader

About this toolkit

Four steps to develop a learning plan

Step 1: Revisit your priority questions

CRAFTING A LEARNING PLAN Achieving Strategic Clarity program Toolkit materials This document contains the readings and exercises to support developing a learning plan torefine your organization’s intended impact and theory and theory of change draft Bridgespan Leadership Accelerator [AcceleratorCoach@Bridgespan.org](AcceleratorCoach@Bridgespan.org) Introduction Note to reader Dear Nonprofit Leader: Welcome to the Crafting a Learning Plan toolkit! This toolkit is for teams interested in developing a learning plan to answer their priority open questions and ensuring there is a clear roadmap—with activities and owners—for strengthening their draft intended impact and theory of change. This toolkit has been designed for one individual on the team, who we'll refer to as the "Toolkit Lead. " The toolkit will provide guidance on how they can drive the process of crafting a learning plan forward and, at each step, identify potential ways to engage the broader team. We’ve designed these materials so that you can either directly print a hard copies or use and share them digitally. The digital version includes links to writable versions (Microsoft Word and PowerPoint) of the exercise templates. To optimize the document for easy printing, some pages were left blank. At any point, if you have any questions about these toolkits or suggestions on how they can be improved, please reach out to the [Bridgespan Coaching team at](Bridgespan Coaching team at AcceleratorCoach@bridgespan.org. We value)[ ](Bridgespan Coaching team at AcceleratorCoach@bridgespan.org. We value)[AcceleratorCoach@bridgespan.org](Bridgespan Coaching team at AcceleratorCoach@bridgespan.org. We value)[. We value](Bridgespan Coaching team at AcceleratorCoach@bridgespan.org. We value) and appreciate your input and are here to help! We hope you will find this experience to be highly valuable for your team and look forward to hearing from you. All the best as you get started! Sincerely, The Bridgespan Leadership Accelerator team About this toolkit Many organizations need to conduct research to address critical open questions related to their intended impact and theory of change. Many also engage in ongoing learning to ensure their intended impact and theory of change remains a living document that is refined as new insights emerge. Planning how you will learn what is needed to answer your priority questions ensures a clear roadmap—with activities and owners—toward strengthening your drafts. After completing the steps in this toolkit, your team will have designed a learning plan to address the priority open questions identified during the Achieving Strategic Clarity program and to ultimately strengthen your intended impact and theory of change. We will take you through four steps that you can complete either as an individual or with engagement from your team: • Step 1: Revisit your priority open questions from Milestone 5 to ensure your plan is focused on those that are most important to resolve or validate • Step 2: Learn tactics for efficient learning to ensure you’re being focused with your time and effort while getting to a good answer • Step 3: Review different learning approaches you could take to answer your priority questions • Step 4: Develop a learning plan with refined questions, targeted learning approaches, owners, anda timeline At each step, we’ll give you guidance on what you need to do, ideas for how you can engage your team, examples of what “good” looks like, and tools and templates to support you in your work. Below is an example of the type of learning plan you might ultimately create: Step 1: Revisit your priority questions Developing and executing a learning plan is a significant commitment; you will want to spend your team’s valuable time on the areas that matter most. We want to ensure that your plan is focused on the open questions that are most important to resolve or validate for you to feel confident i

FAQs

What is the purpose of the Crafting a Learning Plan toolkit?

It helps teams develop a learning plan to answer priority open questions and build a clear roadmap—activities and owners—for strengthening their intended impact and theory of change.

Who is responsible for driving the learning plan process in the toolkit?

The toolkit is designed for one team member, referred to as the “Toolkit Lead,” who drives the process and identifies ways to engage the broader team at each step.

What are the four steps included in the toolkit?

Step 1 revisits priority open questions; Step 2 covers efficient learning tactics; Step 3 compares learning approaches; Step 4 develops the learning plan with refined questions, targeted approaches, owners, and a timeline.

Sep 22, 2026

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