Preparing for Strategic Planning Through Environmental Scanning and Organizational Capacity Assessment

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Preparing for Strategic Planning Through
Environmental Scanning and Organizational
Capacity Assessment
Shelly M. Schnupp, SMS Associates for the YWCA
USA February 2014
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Session Topics

• Introduction/ Context
• Developing Market Awareness through Environmental
  Scanning
• Defining Competitive Advantage through
  Organizational Capacity Assessment

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Strategic Planning

• well-formed organizational strategies are the
  best path for a nonprofit to advance its mission.
• most often a consideration of strategy is absent
  from the strategic planning process.
• Simply articulated, it (strategy) is an organized
  pattern of behavior toward an end.

David LaPiana, 2008
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Developing effective strategy requires

• Understanding our market
• Knowing our competitive advantage
• Awareness of Internal and external challenges
• Identify crises and opportunities

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Developing Market Awareness through
Environmental Scanning
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Strategy development requires Market Awareness

• Clarify our marketstable, shrinking, growing?
  Changing?
• Other playershow do we stack up?
• What forces might shape our future?

• Current and Potential Customers Analysis
• Trend Analysis
• Competitor Analysis

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Customer Analysis Data Sources

• Relevant Population Statistics
• Incident statistics (education, crime, teen
  pregnancy, health, etc.)
• Disparity Data.
• Results of studies
• Service and outcomes data
• Surveys and Focus Groups

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Find and Review Existing Data

• A large volume of community-related data is
  routinely collected by various government
  agencies and community groups. Analyzing this
  data can be useful in identifying community
  problems and needs.
• Existing statistical data can be used to obtain
  insights about the well-being of people.

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Challenges facing our Market Disparities

• Racial Justice
• Women of color are 1.5 x more likely to live in
  poverty than white women.
• The median earnings for women of color is 28
  less than for white women.
• Incidence of homeless women increased 10 from
  previous decade greatest increases among women
  of color.

• Womens Economic Empowerment
• Single-mother families have the highest poverty
  rates of any household type1 of every 2
  families.
• Women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by
  men.

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Disparities

• The condition or fact of being unequal.
• Health disparities are differences in the
  incidence, prevalence, mortality, burden of
  diseases and other adverse health conditions or
  outcomes.

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Disparities Elected Office

• In 2009, women held 90 or 16.8 of the 535 seats
  in the 111th U.S. Congress.
• In 2009, 1,791 or 24.3 of the 7,382 state
  legislators in the U.S. were women.
• 72 women held 22.9 of statewide elected
  executive office positions (governor, lt.
  governor, attorney general, etc.)

What is the situation in your state or community?
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Disparities -- Education

• Nearly two-thirds of low income working mothers
  (62 percent) have only a high school education or
  less, compared with less than one-third of higher
  income working mothers (32 percent).
• More than two-thirds of higher-income working
  mothers (68 percent) have some college education
  or more, whereas only 38 percent of low-income
  working mothers do.
• African American women are less likely than white
  women to hold bachelors degrees or higher, with
  only 16.7 of African American women holding
  bachelors degrees in 2004, compared with 24.6
  of white women.
• Having at least some college education improves
  wages by 25 percent or more.

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Disparities Criminal Justice

• Blacks were almost three times more likely than
  Hispanics and five times more likely than whites
  to be in jail.
• Overall, data from the Bureau of Justice document
  that one in six black men had been incarcerated
  as of 2001.
• In 2005, Hispanics comprised 20 of the state and
  federal prison population, a rise of 43 since
  1990.

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Trends Data is even Better..
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Look for Explanations of Disparities
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Look for Explanations of Disparities
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Competitor Analysis

• Strongest direct and suitable competitors for
  customers, publicity, human resources, funding
• Strengths as well as weaknesses
• What do you admire about each competitor?
• David LaPiana, 2009

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Sources of Market Data

• Local newspaper, journals
• Local and National Foundations, United Way
• Research Institutes,
• Advocacy Groups
• University studies

• Local government
• Workforce development initiatives
• Health Department
• School District
• Police Department
• Housing Authority
• Surveys, Focus Groups

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What Data do we Need?

• Which issues, situations, disparities are of
  particular interest? Why?
• What clues does our mission and vision offer?
• Which individuals are most affected? Why?
• What do we already know or believe to be true?
  What evidence supports our beliefs?
• What dont we know? What questions do we need to
  have answered?
• What outside resources can we tap for information?

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Start with What you Know

• What have we learned from our own experience?
  What have staff learned?
• Have we collected data for our strategic plan?
• What other studies have been done in our
  community or nationally? Can we rely on this
  information to give insight and answers?
• Decide what you still need to know.

Cautionstudies may be outdated and conventional
wisdom can be wrong.
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Determine what Methods to use to Collect
Additional Information

• Consider
• Time available
• Available resources
• The scope of the information needed
• Consider Combined Methods
• Surveys and focus groups
• Disparities data and key informant interviews
• Social indicators data and community forums

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Using Environmental Scan Results to inform
strategy

• Look beyond symptoms
• Review trends data whenever possible
• Look for patterns and general impressions

• What is the status of our mission-focused market?
• Are problems increasing? Decreasing? Changing?
• Who are our competitors?

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Specific Sources of Mission-Related Existing Data

• U.S. Census Bureau
• State and County Quick FactsState, City, County
• Population, Race, Household, Housing Business
• http//www.census.gov/
• Studies by topic area
• Urban Institute www.urban.org/
• See Low-Income Working Families Project (LIWF
  Fact Sheet and more)
• See Browse by Topic Race, Ethnicity, Gender

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Sources of Information about YWCA Mission-Related
Problems, Disparities

• Diversity Inc. www.diversityinc.com/ sometimes
  offers free online 1 year subscriptions
• See Diversity Facts http//www.diversityinc.com/
  department/168/Diversity-Facts/
• See Demographic Facts
• http//www.diversityinc.com/department/174/Demogra
  phic-Facts/
• AAUW www.aauw.org/ advances equity for women and
  girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy
  and research.
• See Public Perceptions of the Pay Gap
• www.aauw.org/research/upload/perceptionsPayGap.pdf
  

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More Disparities Data Sources

• Institute for Womens Policy Research
  www.iwpr.org
• Status of Women in the States
• See Best and Worst State Economies for Women
• http//www.iwpr.org/pdf/R334_BWStateEconomies2006.
  pdf
• Center for American Women and Politics, Rutgers,
  the State University of New Jersey
  www.cawp.rutgers.edu/
• See Fast Facts Elections 2010
• http//www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/elections/c
  andidates_2010.php

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More Disparities Data Sources

• Applied Research Center www.arc.org. a racial
  justice think tank and home for media and
  activism.  ARC is built on rigorous research and
  creative use of new technology. Our goal is to
  popularize the need for racial justice and
  prepare people to fight for it.
• Office of Minority Health, U.S. Dept. of HHS
  http//minorityhealth.hhs.gov good source of
  race-based health disparities.

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More Disparities Data Sources

• Haywood Burns Institute for Juvenile Justice
  Fairness and Equity
• http//www.burnsinstitute.org/state_map.php
• Health--Families USA is a national nonprofit,
  non-partisan organization dedicated to the
  achievement of high-quality, affordable
  health care for all Americans.
• Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation www.kff.org

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Understanding Competitive Advantage through
Capacity Assessment
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Developing strategy requires Understanding our
Competitive Advantage

• What value do beneficiaries believe we add as
  compared to others?
• How strong is our ability to make a difference?
• How strong is our execution?

Customer Feedback Performance Measurement Capacity
Assessment
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Why Capacity Assessment?

• Identify areas of capacity that are strongest and
  those that need improvement
• Measure changes in an organization's capacity
  over time
• To draw out different views within an
  organization develop a common understanding
  among leaders regarding what needs to be done
• Ensure a strong foundation from which to
  undertake a major change effort
• Determine how your association compares others
  (competitive advantage) and to established
  standards

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Capacity Assessment Benchmarking Tool

• 9 Capacity Element Areas
• Four levels of capacity
• Self-scoring
• Snapshot of your YWCA associations capacity
• Defines effectiveness
• Helps define competitive advantagesand
  disadvantages

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Capacity Elements
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4 Levels of Capacity
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Rating our Capacity

• Use a team approach staff and board
• Focus on descriptions for each category
• Proceed through each section reach consensus on
  levels we meet
• Add comments for each Element area

Note capacity levels are driven by many factors
There are no right answers
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Good Assessment Practices

• Approach assessment as a learning opportunity
• Encourage atmosphere of honesty if were not
  completely at level 3 we rate our selves at level
  2
• Keep notes about issues that surface
• Take the time needed

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Using CB Assessment Results to inform strategy

• Find the capacity assessment categories with the
  lowest scores
• Give special attention to assessment categories
  listed in first element Mission, Vision
  Strategy
• Avoid focusing on symptoms of deeper issues and
  pet priorities
• Look for patterns and general impressions

Internal Strengths? Weaknesses? Areas of
competitive advantage?
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• Trying to improve the community without first
  understanding it is like trying to sell pocket
  protectors to ballet dancers!

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Resources

• Planning and Conducting Needs Assessments A
  Practical Guide. Wikin, B.R., Altschuld,
  J.W.,1995.
• Capacity Assessment Tool, developed for YWCA
  associations by Frank Martinelli and Shelly
  Schnupp, 2011.
• The Nonprofit Strategy Revolution. David La
  Piana, 2008.

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For more information

• Shelly Schnupp
• SMS and Associates
• shellyschnupp_at_aol.com
• 414-412-0408