Resource plan: people, money, tools, time

A resource plan maps what you will need to accomplish the project: money, tools, time, and people. List it out before you commit; surface gaps before they bite you.

Resource planning in community work is a humility exercise. We usually have less money, fewer tools, and fewer staff hours than the project deserves. Naming that out loud at the start lets the team decide what to scope down, who to ask for help, and what to refuse to fake.

A workable resource plan is four columns: People (named, with hours per week each can give), Money (cash on hand for this project plus any expected grant or income), Tools (anything that costs money — software, printing, translation, food), and Time (the project's start and end dates, plus how many weeks of buffer).

For volunteer-heavy projects, the People column is the most important and the most lied about. Ask each person, in writing, how many hours per week they can really give. Then plan to half. People who answer honestly are giving you a gift; do not punish them by overplanning their time.

When the resource plan does not add up to the objectives, the work is to either find more resources or shrink the objectives. The wrong move is to nod and proceed. The team will know. They will absorb the gap with their own time, and they will be furious about it a month from now.