SWOT Analysis of the American Red Cross

A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis is a strategic planning tool to evaluate internal and external influences upon a common vision or specific goal. SWOT analyses are a common method for a company or organization to assess its capacity to execute a plan or achieve an attainable goal. This SWOT analysis will be conducted int he non-profit organization, the American Red Cross. By using SWOT analysis, we are able to achieve a better understanding of the organization. Then I will examine some of the weaknesses of the organization and determine a core problem. I then will list several recommendations for the organization’s leadership and board of leaders.

The American Red Cross is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that is led by volunteers, whose purpose is to prevent and relieve human suffering. American Red Cross is a non-profit organization whose history dates back to 1881. The American Red Cross is the largest supplier of blood in the United States, and part of the International Red Cross organization. Helping people during natural or man-made disasters, give assistance in providing relief to victims of natural and man-made disasters and prepare for and respond to emergencies has made it able for American Red Cross to create a brand name known all over the world. This organization had many successes and has also faced many difficulties because of this success.

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Strengths

1. Established the history of the Red Cross;
2. Support of the United States Government;
3. The Red Cross requires employees and volunteers to participate actively in local environmental programs;
4. The Red Cross does not become involved in any controversies of a religious, political, racial, or ideological nature;
5. Coordinates with national and local governments;
6. Relationships with both police and fire department;
7. Has relationships with local businesses and national retail chains to provide much needed food, supplies and shelter;
8. Diversifies services, blood and disaster relief, plus community activities;
9. Strong brand name and strong supporters;
10. Funding.

Weaknesses

1. Social media;
2. Flexibility of fulfilling all services offered;
3. Technology;
4. The Red Cross does not always provide detailed information about the specifics of where funds and donations are going during disasters;
5. Poor labor relationships;
6. Past history of workers going on strike for unfair working conditions and not being treated fairly;
7. Negative publicity for misuse of donated funds;
8. Lack of brand protection (e.g., people using the Red Cross as a scam to get money);
9. Lack of online presence.

Opportunities

1. New technology;
2. Opportunities to expand on the Internet and social media;
3. People can enroll in online courses to become members of the American Red Cross;
4. Can expand into the cell phone market, where people donate cell phones and pay forward the service for the phones;
5. Celebrity endorsements;
6. Establish more alliances;
7. Adding more company sponsors would help build a stronger brand image, assist in fundraisers, and get more accurate information out faster;
8. Innovation.

Threats

1. Bad publicity on social media or the news;
2. Competition of other non-profit organizations that focus on disaster relief, and emergency relief;
3. Uncertain work environment for employees and volunteers;
4. Strick regulations.

Unique Aspects of the Red Cross Extreme Context

The Red Cross is an international organization provides relief in the form of food, shelter, medical attention, and emotional support for victims of disaster across the globe. This extreme context of disaster response requires something different than leadership in more stable contexts (Hannah et al., 2009) or even leadership in other extreme contexts. Such leadership is often termed crisis leadership. Scholars of business leadership often point to the need for leaders in a crisis to act decisively, have a plan, and address the needs of their followers (Weiss, 2002). Other leadership scholars focus on crisis as the context in which charismatic leadership emerges (Beyer, 2009). Little literature exists, however, that directly examines disaster-response leadership.

Another unique aspect of the extreme context in which the Red Cross works is that this organization relies on volunteers for the bulk of the work, leadership, and resources to fulfill this mission of disaster relief. This international organization was originally envisioned as an organization comprised entirely of volunteers, and to this day almost 90% of the individuals supporting the Red Cross effort are volunteers (Hamilton, 2005). During disaster-response efforts, these volunteers are guided by field leaders trained extensively by the Red Cross. The role of the field leader is of paramount importance to the relief effort because they work with volunteers who do not know each other well and have varied competencies and varied limitations. The field leader is charged with pulling together this disparate group of people and making quick decisions in the field, often with limited information. Field leaders are the primary source of direction and guidance for Red Cross volunteers, and they work almost exclusively in disaster emergency response situations.

Another unique aspect of this extreme context is that Red Cross field leaders find themselves providing leadership in a socially close context with their followers. While theories exist that help us understand crisis leadership from a socially distant perspective (Pillai & Meindl, 2018), very little research or theory illuminates what emergency response volunteers are looking for from their socially-close leaders in the field during a disaster.

Recommendations

Red Cross leaders need to place an emphasis on social media, everyone and everything is on social media that is just the era we live in. Red Cross leaders need to focus on being more transparent to avoid accusations of misusing funds, or not fulfilling promises that were made. The Red Cross is a household name when it comes to any form of disaster relief, the Red Cross is the first name to come up. So, Red Cross leaders should be focusing on building more prominent relationships with high class individuals that are also heavily involved with social media. The leaders should also be focused on the innovation of blood collection, the Red Cross is responsible for 43% of the United States blood supply, by innovating and creating they will set a standard to be followed by other blood and disaster relief organizations. The leaders main focus should be setting the Red Cross apart from other non-profit disaster organizations.