Our initial planning day (detailed in step 1) was all about drawing out ideas for Makoce’s work. The next step was organizing those broad, visionary ideas into manageable, actionable pieces. It was crucial this process didn’t diminish any part of Makoce’s broader vision: that was always our north star. But we focused on being able to clearly articulate and present Makoce’s mission through a series of connected initiatives–each one building toward the organization’s primary vision.

In this step, we took all of our notes from our initial planning day and organized them into five key components necessary to realize Makoce’s vision of a local food system on Pine Ridge. We turned those components into strategic goals, and outlined the activities that would fall under each. Then we started to map out the resources–including funding, land, and people–that would be needed to lift up each of those strategic goals. Mapping out those five primary initiatives became the foundation for building organizational capacity in Makoce’s early days.