Program Planning and Management

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Adapted from the Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation.

Sections of This Topic Include:

What's a Program?
Feasibility Study for New Program
Basic Guidelines for For-Profit Program Planning and Management
Basic Guidelines for Nonprofit Program Design and Marketing
Program Evaluation (for-profit or nonprofit)

What's a Program?

Varying Uses of the Term "Program"

There are a wide variety of uses of the term "program" in organizations. In it's most general use, a program is a collection of organizational resources that is geared to accomplish a certain major goal or set of goals. (For those of you who read Organizations (an Introduction), you'll recognize that this definition of a program sounds like that of an organization and a system. A program is an organization and a system.)

There are similarities and differences in how the term is used in nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Nonprofits usually refer to programs as ongoing, major services to clients, for example, a Transportation Program, Housing Program, etc. For-profits often use the term for very large business efforts that have limited duration and a defined set of deliverables. Nonprofits and for-profits might refer to programs as a one-time or ongoing set of activities internal to the organization, for example, a Total Quality Management Program, Workplace Safety Program, the Space Program, etc.

(Program planning is usually (but not always) of a broader scope than Project Planning.)

Feasibility Study for New Program

If you plan to start a new, major program in your organization, you should consider many of the same questions for starting a new business venture. The following feasibility study will guide you through these critical questions.
Preparation for Planning a Business Venture

Basic Guidelines for For-Profit Program Planning and Management

Basic Guidelines for Nonprofit Program Design and Marketing

Basic Guidelines for Nonprofit Program Design and Marketing
Various Approaches to Build Nonprofit Programs

Program Evaluation

Basic Guidelines to Program Evaluation

Various Other Perspectives

Programme Management Website Articles (for-profit)
Program Management: Different from Project Management
Program Design and Management (resources)

Additional Resources

Program Management
The International Association of Project and Program Management

For the Category of Program Management:

Recommended Books

For-profits and nonprofits tends to use the term "program" differently. Nonprofits often refer to programs as the various different sets of services they provide to meet community needs. For-profits often use the term to refer to a highly organized set of activities to accomplish a certain -- often internal -- goal, for example, Employee Assistance Program to help employees in crisis or a quality management program. However, the guidelines to carefully plan, operate and evaluate programs actually pertain to both types of organizations.

The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.

Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation: by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. There are few books, if any, that explain how to carefully plan, organize and develop a nonprofit program. Also, too many books completely separate the highly integrated activities of planning, marketing and evaluating programs. This book integrates all three into a comprehensive, straightforward approach that anyone can follow in order to provide high-quality programs with strong appeal to funders. Includes many online forms that can be downloaded. Many materials in this Library topic are adapted from this book.