The present study was designed to investigate if there is a relationship between the planning process and institutional viability (defined as a combination of reputation and quality, selectivity, and endowment), to examine the relationship of presidential participation in the planning process, and to provide a description of current planning practices in small, independent liberal-arts institutions;Presidents of small, independent liberal-arts institutions were surveyed via a mail questionnaire to examine institutional viability as a function of three formal planning processes: long-range, incremental, and strategic planning. A composite score indicating perceived institutional viability was calculated. Differences in viability among these subgroups were explored through analysis of variance. No statistically significant difference was observed;Relationships among perceived reputation and quality (current and five years ago), perceived selectivity (current and five years ago), rated selectivity, perceived endowment (current and five years ago), rated endowment, presidential participation, and institutional viability were assessed with the Pearson product-moment correlation statistic. The viability variables were positively correlated with each other and the outcome was the same whether the variables were rated by outside sources or rated by the presidents;Descriptive statistics were employed to explain what type of planning is being practiced in small, independent liberal-arts institutions.