- 13/04/2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Major opportunities and threats
The analysis of external environment for ACF International and the analysis of the nonprofit sector have shown that there exist numerous opportunities and threats for the organization. These are both industry-driven factors and factors determined by the environment. Among the major opportunities for ACF International there are partnership with international and local nongovernmental organizations with similar goals and mission, and application for public grants and support in order to increase funding. Among the opportunities allowing ACF International to achieve their goals there are improvement of access to water and sanitation in the developing countries and in the regions where malnutrition rates are high due to environmental conditions, help in launching educational and health care centers in the countries where malnutrition and hunger are caused by the lack of social development, and use of forecasting to organize emergency help in disaster regions as well as the organization of preventive actions. Two more opportunities are created by the rapid development of IT technology: the use of social networking for raising public awareness and promotion of the charitable programs among young people using social networks, and the use of mobile donation programs as a convenient means of fundraising for nonprofit sector. In addition to this, another opportunity follows from the changes of demographic structure of the developed countries. The “baby boom” generation gets older (thus, the proportion of working people increases in the population) and the overall popularity of volunteerism is increasing; as a result there number of supporters of nonprofit initiatives is expected to increased by 15% by 2030 (Nonprofit Finance Fund, 2011).
The main threat for ACF International is the lack of funding for new and existing initiatives, the existence of at least two strong competitors (Save the Children and Mercy Corps), poor infrastructure in the target countries, lack of local support along with bureaucracy and crime-related obstacles for humanitarian initiatives, the lack of qualified professionals in the suffering regions, and a certain rate of ineffectiveness of the initiatives of ACF International. Finally, taking into account the growing need for nonprofit services worldwide and frequent natural disasters, the threat for ACF International is created by the possible gap in actual resources of the organization and the increased need for help all over the world.
External Evaluation Matrix
It is possible to list the following important opportunities and threats for ACF International.
Opportunities:
ü Partnership with other NGOs
ü Improving access to water and sanitation
ü Launching educational and health care centers
ü Forecast-based emergency help and prevention
ü Promotion using social networking
ü Mobile donation programs
ü Growing number of volunteers
Threats:
ü Lack of funding
ü Poor infrastructure in the target regions
ü Lack of qualified professionals in the target regions
ü Existence of two strong competitors
ü Bureaucracy obstacles
ü Criminal groups in the target regions
ü Ineffective implementation
ü Gap in the need for help and actual possibilities
Among these factors, the most important factors are the lack of funding (which is the ongoing problem for all nonprofits), the opportunity to use mobile donation programs (it is a very promising technology which allows all volunteers to help others quickly and efficiently), the use of social networking for promotion and the development of educational and health care initiatives as the basis for future sustainability in the target regions.
It is possible to construct an External Factor Evaluation Matrix for ACF International basing on this list in order to estimate the effectiveness of ACF International responses to the external factors. The weights of factors can be determined as follows: the lack of funding should be estimated as a top priority threat and assigned the weight of 0.15; other factors listed above as important should be assigned weights of 0.1, and less important factors should be assigned the weight of 0.05. Total sum of the weights will the be equal to 1, which corresponds with the EFE matrix requirements.
Table 1 contains the EFE matrix with the calculation of the weighted score for ACF International as a measure of its relative success in the industry.
| Factors |
Weight |
Rating |
Weighted score |
| Opportunities | |||
| Partnership with other NGOs |
0.05 |
2 |
0.1 |
| Improving access to water and sanitation |
0.05 |
4 |
0.2 |
| Launching educational and health care centers |
0.1 |
3 |
0.3 |
| Forecast-based emergency help and prevention |
0.05 |
2 |
0.1 |
| Promotion using social networking |
0.1 |
3 |
0.3 |
| Mobile donation programs |
0.1 |
1 |
0.1 |
| Growing number of volunteers |
0.05 |
3 |
0.15 |
| Threats | |||
| Lack of funding |
0.15 |
3 |
0.45 |
| Poor infrastructure in the target regions |
0.05 |
2 |
0.1 |
| Lack of qualified professionals in the target regions |
0.05 |
3 |
0.15 |
| Existence of two strong competitors |
0.05 |
2 |
0.1 |
| Bureaucracy obstacles |
0.05 |
3 |
0.15 |
| Criminal groups in the target regions |
0.05 |
2 |
0.1 |
| Ineffective implementation |
0.05 |
3 |
0.15 |
| Gap in the need for help and actual possibilities |
0.05 |
3 |
0.15 |
|
Total score |
2.6 |
||
Table 1. EFE Matrix
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