Assignment TopicThis week, you will examine a nonprofit organization working on environmental
problems and conduct a SWOT analysis to assess its successes and identify potential
improvements.
Assignment Directions
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.
Assignment Deliverables
Your assignment this week is to write a two-page APA paper (not including cover page
and reference page; no abstract required) presenting a SWOT analysis of the nonprofit
organization. The SWOT analysis should contain at minimum a full paragraph for each
discussion of each quadrant.
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.
Complete a reference page where you cite sources or websites in APA format.
You will be graded based on the rubric below.
Week 4: Course Project
Nonprofit Organization SWOT Analysis Grading Rubric