Identify a nonprofit organization working on your topic. Some examples include Fibershed, Project Drawdown, Greenpeace, Earth Guardians, Cool Effect, Sierra Club, and One Tree Planted.
Having identified the nonprofit organization, conduct a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that dives into an organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. For the nonprofit organization, you should be able to identify, explore, and analyze the following.
Strengths are advantages internally at the organization. Examples include access to a large community of enthusiastic supporters, celebrity endorsements, or especially skilled staff.
Weaknesses are shortcomings within the organization that may impact its ability. Examples include poor organizational structure, vacant key staff positions, and limited budgets.
Thoroughly explain at least two major strengths and two major weaknesses of the organization (review Chapter 9). For each strength, discuss why this strength can be considered a distinctive competence for the organization. For each weakness, discuss what the organization could do to minimize that weakness. You should have a minimum of a full paragraph for each discussion of each strength and weakness.
Opportunities are external situations of which the organization can take advantage. Being able to spot and exploit opportunities can make a massive difference to your nonprofit’s growth.
Threats are external situations that could negatively impact the organization. Threats are often completely outside of the organization’s control. Examples include changes to laws or regulations in the region, economic recessions, rising taxes, and even changes to social media platforms.
Thoroughly research and analyze two opportunities and two threats that this organization is facing. Each of these opportunities and threats must come from forces occurring within dimensions of the general environment within the organization’s external environment. Include in your analysis an explanation of how each of the opportunities and threats will likely impact the company and why. Discuss how the organization can capitalize on the opportunities that are occurring from the dimensions from within the general environment and how the organization can neutralize the threats that are occurring.
Note: The critical thing to remember is that strengths and weaknesses are internal factors, and opportunities and threats are external situations.
