Chapter 7: Developing Strategy, Building Capacity, and Managing Risk
1. One organization that all students will have some knowledge about is their own college
or university. What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that you
see facing your college or university? What strategic issues do you suggest for your
institution?
I will start with the weaknesses first because it is very easy to find all the negatives in an
organization compared to the positives. First I believe that old dorms, a small athletic
facility, little room for expansion geographically, admitting too many students, not
enough housing, and not enough extracurricular activities are a few of the weaknesses.
With the influx of students, classes have gotten larger, leading to needing more places
to house students. However, the geographic location of the school is not conducive to
expanding in the middle of Staunton. The lack of housing is a huge problem, because
some students don’t know if they will have a place to live until two weeks before they
return for the following year. As fare as strengths, I believe we have some of the best
professors. They are always willing to help and accommodate students in any
circumstance. We also reside in the heart of the Shenandoah valley allowing access to
downtown Staunton with its historic buildings and spots around town, as well as the
scenic views. We are close to many national parks to provide recreational activities and
are not far from the larger cities of Charlottesville and Harrisonburg. Looking at
opportunities, the college has expanded into new programs at the health science school
in Fishersville and has diversified the main campus by continuing to add men’s sports
and the ROTC program. The biggest threats I see is losing students because of reluctance
to allow them to live off campus due to the housing issues. It is also hard because some
our facilities are very old and not maintained leaving student in STEM at a disadvantage.
Personally, I must take a trip to JMU because we do not have the proper equipment for
my senior research. There is also the threat of not having a large variety of majors,
minors, and class options making students transfer early in their college career. There is
also the threat of losing funding from alumni who disagree with the school being a
university as opposed to its former all women students.
2. Suppose a nonprofit organization’s strategy requires that it phase out a program on
which few people rely, but those people are vulnerable, and no good substitute exists.
How might the organization proceed with its plan in an ethical and humane manner?
I think this would fall into how the organization manages risks. Thus, if they must phase
out an old program that very few people relied on, it is possible that a new strategy or
program could be come up with. Even thought at the time they might feel it is safer and
best for the clients to continue the program, a program not living up to its full potential
could pose as a danger to the organization. It might result in a slight alteration of the
strategic plan; in which case they look at the funding they have coming in and decide on
an alternative that can still serve this small group. Or they can add resources to an
existing program the organization runs and direct those people into it to continue to
help them. Ethically they should be able to adjust, because the book describes planning
a strategy as a living document that can be revisited and adjusted, considering a change
such as this. (Worth, 2021).
3. Select an organization that you know well—maybe you work there, have been a
volunteer, or just follow it on Twitter. What do you think is the organization’s strategy,
as that term is discussed in this chapter?
When I think of an organization my go to is always the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. As
the book mentions strategy is an abstract concept when it comes to operating a
nonprofit organization. It could mean coming up with a new idea to meet a goal, or from
small decisions made over the course of time to better the business, or to create a
strategic plan. Looking at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, they have changed greatly
over the last 10 to 12 years. In the beginning this organization was a small building that
could hold a relatively small capacity when it came to taking care of animals and
opening to the public. Thanks to the publicity gained through 2 movies covering the life
story of Winter, the dolphin who overcame all odds without a tail, the business had to
find new ways of expansion. The first time I visited this organization had little space and
was in the process of expanding into building a parking deck to accommodate the
amount of guests they served. Fast forward about 9 years later, and they received about
$10 million from donors that funded building a dolphin complex to hold all their
resident bottlenose dolphins. Allowing them to allocate space in the older building to
treat more animals, the complex also helped to accommodate guests. Now the next
step in their plan is to build a manatee care complex that will expand their ability to
treat these animals but will also add another “exhibit” for guests to see. I feel as though
their strategy started small, as the animal care is the top priority here, and as they
gained publicity the momentum allowed them to take bigger “risks” that ultimately
benefited them financially and strengthened the mission of the business.
4. Herman writes that organizational risk can be positive and negative. Explain.
In the book they have a quote which reads “ risk is ‘a measure of the possibility that the
future may be surprisingly different than what we expect’” (Worth, 2021). Nonprofits
are tasked with a lot more chances of risk than the normal business world. The leading
culprits being a donor pulling out support, a budget crisis, failure or over expenditure on
a program. While those are all negative possibilities, Herman thinks that boards and
CEOs often overlook the surprise of a positive outcome and how to manage (Worth,
2021). For example, a nonprofit is given a substantial donation out of the blue. The
organization just got a positive thing happen, but now they must determine how to
allocate those funds, and the possibility of smaller donors leaving thinking that the large
new donation is enough to cover everything in the organization. In this light he believes
all organizations need to be prepared to address the direction, probability, and
magnitude of positive and negative risks (Worth, 2021).
Chapter 8: Collaborations, Partnerships, and Mergers
1. When deciding whether to approve the tax-exempt status of a new nonprofit, should
the Internal Revenue Service consider if the new organization will duplicate the services
being provided by another nonprofit organization in the same community? Why or why
not?
I think it would be important that the services are examined prior to giving the taxexempt status. There are many similar non-profits, but they might vary enough in their
programming that they should exist as separate tax-exempt organizations. There is a big
push for collaboration in similar areas, but it could be harder to reach their specific
clientele if those organization vary too much in their initial mission. It could cause strife
and a disconnect in trying to successfully function as an organization. The organizations
should also consider how closely they are related to a business already in the area
before trying to achieve a tax-exempt status.
2. If you were a nonprofit CEO, what are some of the questions you would have about
creating collaborations with another nonprofit organization?
If I was planning to collaborate with another nonprofit, I would first want to sit down
with either the CEO or board of directors of the other organization to discuss their
mission and strategies. If we have differing missions, we might be able to bridge the two
to better reach the people of our community, but more issues will be caused if we do
not have the ability to carry out a united strategy. I would want to know the motivation
behind why they want to collaborate in the first place. Is this going to benefit both
businesses to make this a successful collaboration? Will the culture of our workers and
volunteers be a stable and positive environment able to get things done efficiently?
Could egos become a problem when addressing a problem? Will this collaboration
diminish the identity of the organizations involved causing a loss in clients?
3. If you were a nonprofit CEO, what concerns might you have about collaborating with a
local government agency?
If I were considering collaborating with a government agency, there would be a lot of
considerations. First and foremost, how would a collaboration affect my business
mission and values. Is the agency going to try to overstep on what my organization is set
out to do in the community? If I have a set vision that has been successful in bringing in
funding and serving the community, I want to make sure that is not affected by this
collaboration. It would be important to evaluate my SWOT and the government agency
SWOT analysis, because this will evaluate the potential between the organizations to
merge successfully. Trust is also vitally important, and how both sides will establish a
positive environment for everyone and to create a solid foundation. There would also
need to be a conversation on how costs would be managed between the two, and how
ownership will be divided up. Those are just a few of the important concerns I would
have when considering this as a possible venture for my hypothetical nonprofit. (Worth,
2021).
4. What does the term “backbone organization” mean?
A backbone organization is created to understand what the community around needs as
a whole and provides the ability to address those needs. They are what can be referred
to as cross-sector collaborations. The book says, “Successful collaboration requires that
nonprofit leaders adopt a perspective that goes beyond their own job descriptions”
(Worth, 2021). In a backbone organization they organizations all have a shared vision
and joint approval on solving problems. Though these collaborations can be good it is
still essential for the organization heads to stay to true to their mission and values,
which can get lost in these kinds of collaborations.
References
Worth, M. J. (2021). Nonprofit management : principles and practice (Sixth). SAGE
Publications.