An influence plan must identify and unpack the steps which contribute to specify and define problems, objectives, actions and necessary resources to promote change in public policy.

GDNet and CIPPEC have produced these toolkits addressing the various components of a public policy influence plan.

1. What is an influence plan? Why should we plan? 
2. The policy making process: Analyze the context for effective influence planning
3. Where are we and how far can we go? Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges
4. What we desire: Define influence objectives
5. Who should we work with? Define actors and alliances
6. How to generate the desired impact: Define the proposal
7. How to carry out the proposal: Define strategies and actions
8. How to communicate: Define the strategy and key messages
9. Who, how much and when? Define resources and timeline
10. What have we learned? An approximation to monitoring and evaluation of policy influence