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Progression Tracker
Introduction
Do You Need a Funding Plan?
Introduction to the Six Steps
Step 1: Establish Priorities
Step 2: Assess Capacity
  • Capacity discussion questions
  • Strengths, weaknesses, opprtunities, & threats analysis
Step 3: Set Fundraising Goals
Step 4: Identify Funding Sources Step 5: Evaluate & Select Funding Sources
Step 6: Write & Implement Plan
Final Quiz
Sample Finance Plans
List of Case Studies
References & Additional Resources

Step 2 (continued). Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats Analysis—Bringing It Together

Next, think about how the threats, weaknesses, strengths, and opportunities can be used to develop funding strategies. There are four types of strategies:

  • Strength-Opportunity strategy
  • Weakness-Opportunity strategy
  • Strength-Threat strategy
  • Weakness-Threat strategy

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunites
S-O Strategies
W-O Strategies


Threats

 S-T StrategiesW-T Strategies

Below, we've included a chart to help you define the key questions to ask yourself, as well as a sample strategy.

SWOT Analysis
Category Question Sample Strategy
Strength-Opportunity Strategies How can I use my strengths to enable me to take advantage of the opportunities I have identified? We are already successful at community outreach and have a growing membership. We can employ our successful outreach techniques to educate our growing membership about bequests and planned giving.
Weakness-Opportunity Strategies What do I need to do to overcome the identified weaknesses in order to take advantage of the opportunities? We need to train at least one staff member to proficiently use our database in order to begin to be able to ask members to increase their donations.
Strength-Threat Strategies How can I use these strengths to overcome the threats identified? We can use our contacts at foundations to diversify the kinds of grants we receive and become less dependent on federal funds.
Weakness-Threat Strategies How will I minimize my weaknesses to overcome the identified threats? We need to prioritize building a reserve fund to minimize the impact of increased health care costs in the future.

Additional Resources on Capacity Assessment

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