Community Project Design Handout   Page 5 of 10

Selection of Best Strategies

With your planning partner(s), weigh the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies on your list, narrowing the

options down to a few top strategies. Then, decide what criteria you want to use to make a final decision. Some

possible criteria include: acceptability to the community, sustainability, cost, number of people benefited, greatest

likelihood of success in the short term, and so on.

Sometimes, it helps to use a decision matrix to structure this process. Here is how it works:

1)

 Select and write your criteria across the top of the matrix.

2)

List your strategies in the left hand column of the matrix. If you have many, select the top five or six.

3)

Using a three point scale, rank each strategy under each criteria. (For example: 1= less acceptable, less

sustainable, high cost, and fewer people benefited; 3 = more/most acceptable, more/most sustainable, low

cost, more people benefited.)

4)

Total the points to determine the top strategy or set of strategies.

Possible Strategies

Criterion 1

Criterion 2

Criterion 3

Criterion 4

Best Strategies/Approach for your Project:

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