What does it mean?
An opportunity assessment, often known as a SWOT analysis, identifies internal and external factors that affect your organization’s growth and sustainability. The first two letters stand for Strengths and Weaknesses, these components are internal to your organization. They describe what your organization does well and where it needs to rally, in terms of its internal infrastructure. The second two letters stand for Opportunities and Threats, these elements are external. Opportunities describe where your organization might expand or find new potential for development, while threats describe conditions that could pose a challenge to the growth or sustainability of your organization.
As performed by Eno River Consulting, a SWOT analysis is a collaborative process and includes a variety of stakeholders around and within your organization. The concerted setting allows participants to provide a more varied, richer and truly strategic perspective and feedback than could be obtained from the view of a less comprehensive and focused assessment.
Benefits of SWOT Planning and Fundraising
Whether you’re just launching your organization or you’ve experienced it all, evaluating your assets and challenges represents smart business practice. SWOT analysis may be familiar to you from strategic planning initiatives, but it also has commanding benefits for sharpening and focusing your revenue generation blueprint. Organizations that understand their SWOT are able to communicate with prospective stakeholders clearly on the organization’s core abilities and have a deeper understanding of their potential and barriers that are present.
Using a SWOT analysis for all the major organizational systems that affect fundraising success allows the organization to focus on the touch points and performance metrics that are meaningful to donors. For strengths, focus on core strengths that highlight distinctions or advantages that your organization possesses that support you standing out from the pack. Your organization needs to understand its weaknesses to decide what areas should be improved on and in what areas your organization currently struggles to impact the world positively in the ways you seek.
Exploring untapped opportunities within your current stakeholder base will allow your organization to grow. Identifying potential opportunities and creating a strategic engagement plan will lead to stronger relationships.
Deeper Understanding
Upon completing an opportunity assessment your organization will be prepared to approach the community that surrounds you with a solid understanding of your current strength and weaknesses and an action plan for strategic engagement.
Eno River Consulting can work with your organization to facilitate an Opportunity Assessment with key stakeholders within and nearby your organization.
