Blog
The SWOT Analysis
- September 24, 2019
- Posted by: COMnGO Project
- Category: Communications Tools
WHAT IS AND HOW TO USE THE SWOT ANALYSIS
Before putting anything to use, we must know what things mean. Therefore, first we must know what a SWOT analysis is. SWOT is an acronym and it stands for:
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats
A SWOT analysis is used for situation analysis in businesses, NGOs and can also be used to analyse an individual. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are divided into the following categories: internal or external and helpful or harmful. Strengths and weaknesses belong in the internal category which means that those things can be managed by the NGO itself. Opportunities and threats belong in the external category and the NGO cannot directly influence them, only anticipate and react to them.
So, how to do a SWOT analysis?:
Step 1: List all of your NGOs’ strengths and weaknesses.
Step 2: Identify your NGOs’ opportunities and threats.
Keep in mind that you should list about 3-5 items for each category. Don’t create endless lists as it is useless. Also pay attention to how you describe the items – the more specific you are, the better. Only rely on facts and not opinions. Once you have listed items from all categories, you will be able to take the SWOT analysis to the next level which is prioritizing the items.
Strengths and weaknesses can be evaluated on 3 categories:
- Importance. How important is the strength or weakness? Some are probably more important than others. Importance is evaluated on a scale of 0.01 to 1, where 0.01 is not important at all and 1 is very important. Keep in mind that the sum of strenghts and weaknesses should equal 1.
- Rating. Each factor is given a score from 1 to 3. Major strengths and weaknesses aregiven a score of 3, minor strengths and weaknesses a score of 1.
- Score. Score is importance multiplied by rating. Once you get a score for a factor, you can easily prioritize strengths and weaknesses. You should rely on the most important strengths and improve the weakest factors.
Opportunities and threats, on the other hand, are prioritized differently:
- Importance. This indicates to what extent an external factor can impact your NGO. Each factor is evaluated on a scale from 0.01 to 1, where 0.01 means no impact and 1 means very high impact. The sum of opportunities and threats should equal 1.
- Probability. How likely is it that a threat or opportunity will have an impact on your NGO? Give each factor a rating from 1 to 3, where 1 means low probability and 3 means high probability.
- Score. Score is importance multiplied by probability. Again, you will get a score that helps you prioritize opportunities and threats.
Starting from the highest scores, you can start taking further action to improve your NGO.