Tempted to SWOT? You could SWORM instead.
Non-profits that use SWOT for strategic planning should try the new SWORM model developed for mission-driven organizations.
Tools abound to help organizations chart their strategies. The SWOT analysis—to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats—was introduced in the 1960s and is nearly ubiquitous in strategic planning. However, it fails to consider the mission, social need, or community benefit that guides colleges, universities, and other non-profit organizations.
For-profit companies and non-profit organizations operate differently. The differences are due in part to organizational purpose and operating environment and are reflected in how success is measured.
Purpose - shareholder value versus social benefit. The SWOT model assumes that companies exist to generate profits for their owners—individuals, partners, or shareholders who have a financial stake in a company’s performance. However, non-profit organizations are created to fulfill a social need or community benefit, not to enrich owners. In fact, instead of owners, a non-profit is governed by a board of directors who commit to advance the organization’s effectiveness, but receive no financial benefit.
Environment - competitive marketplace versus community ecosystem. To generate profits, a company competes with others to sell products or services to customers. Success depends on being better somehow than other businesses or gaining an advantage. That competition discourages collaboration. In fact, some types of coordination (collusion) are illegal. On the other hand, to fulfill its mission, a non-profit organization responds to community needs and collaborates with like-minded groups to further common interests. Success depends on sharing and coordinating with others.
Performance measurement - profitability and market share versus level of service to clients. Companies measure their bottom-line performance in terms of profitability, a single metric that reflects the organizational purpose. There is no need for the SWOT model to address metrics specifically. Non-profit organizations also report revenue and expenses, and sustainability depends on a positive operating margin. But their success is measured by how well they serve constituents. “How well” is a difficult thing to define, and it can be different from one non-profit to the other depending on mission, programming, location, regulations, and/or funding sources.
Instead of using the SWOT model, a mission-driven organization would do better to use the SWORM model,[i] developed by Back Porch Consulting. This alternative model shifts the focus away from profit-driven competition toward community need. As with the SWOT model, it considers strengths, weakness, and opportunities. Instead of competitive threats, it considers mission and the intended results. Mission and results cannot be merely assumed during strategic planning. They must be deliberately considered in the process. Threats become a secondary consideration and are addressed when weaknesses and opportunities are identified.
Strengths. The characteristics of the organization that make it effective, particularly those that clients, members, donors, foundations, grantors, volunteers, and community partners identify and validate.
Weaknesses. Internal obstacles to achieving objectives and responding to environmental threats.
Opportunities. Possibilities to better fulfill mission and respond to threats.
Results. Qualitative and quantitative measures that gauge how well the organization meets social need or community benefit.
Mission. The organization’s purpose and how it determines programming.
The SWORM model can be applied by working through a series of questions. (These are outlined in two articles you can download: one for colleges and one for other non-profit organizations.) The SWORM exercise outlines what an organization must know about itself to make informed decisions about objectives, improvements, and long-term goals. The questions prompt investigation and conversation about how the organization could better serve the community, including what it might stop doing.
Ideally the SWORM exercise is completed by many people from different parts of the organization, both privately and collectively in brainstorming discussions. A facilitator would consolidate responses that a strategist or planning committee would use to formulate strategies:
Match strengths to opportunities.
Address weaknesses that would limit opportunities.
Evaluate the opportunities as they align with mission to prioritize them and decide how to pursue them.
Define qualitative and quantitative measures to gauge progress and show results.
The output is a list of achievable, prioritized opportunities—the things that matter most. They can be integrated into a strategic plan in the same way output from a SWOT analysis might be used. Importantly, because they respond to the organization’s mission, reflect the community ecosystem, and have corresponding performance measures, they translate into operating plans and can be monitored to ensure progress.
The philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn wrote in the book Art & Fear: “In Art as well as in Science, the answers that you get depend on the questions that you ask.” It is a true statement for strategic planning, which is as much an art as it is a science. It is also true that the strategy you build depends on the tools you use. So, if you are a mission-driven organization, why not use the tools and ask the questions most relevant to the purpose and environment in which you operate?
[i] The SWORM model was developed by Back Porch Consulting, which owns all rights. It is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/, and can be shared and distributed for non-commercial purposes only.