Community Development & Engagement: SWOT Analysis of Two Organizations

This essay conducts a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of two community development and engagement organizations: Consonant and Diversity House. The introduction explains the SWOT analysis framework and its application in strategic planning, highlighting how it helps organizations assess internal and external factors. The body of the essay presents the SWOT analysis for each organization individually, detailing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Consonant's strengths include its collaborative approach and diverse services, while its weaknesses involve technological limitations and reliance on volunteers. Diversity House showcases strengths in its range of services and community focus, but faces weaknesses in technological advancements and reliance on temporary staff. The essay then compares the two organizations, identifying similarities in their missions and community engagement approaches, as well as differences in service offerings and organizational structures. The analysis also discusses the characteristics of effective community development organizations, including the importance of strategic online services, market research, and global perspectives. The conclusion summarizes the main points and reflects on the learnings from the analysis, emphasizing the role of community development organizations in addressing societal concerns through community participation and strategic alliances.

Running head: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT & ENGAGEMENT
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT & ENGAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT & ENGAGEMENT
Introduction
The strategic planning technique utilized for assisting organizations in understanding
the internal influences by identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in
relation to project planning and business competition is known as SWOT analysis. The
analysis of identifying the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats are facilitated in
the form of a tool for developing business strategies and action plans for the organizations by
altering the areas or using the strengths for accomplishing potential market opportunities
(Büyüközkan and Ilıcak 2019). The strengths and weaknesses in the framework of SWOT
analysis are derived by assessing the internal factors or influencers whereas, the opportunities
and threats are the projection of the externally assessed areas (Gürel and Tat 2017). The
strengths and weaknesses of an organization are mostly controllable, where strengths project
the positive attributes and successfully implemented expertise and network in an
organization, weaknesses project the areas, which demands improvements. The external
factors involve opportunities and threats in which opportunities depicts the potential areas,
where an organization can excel in and the threats indicate the projection of competition and
aspects that can harm the accomplishments and established operations of the selected
organization.
The framework of SWOT is applied for the purpose of strategic planning and
brainstorming. SWOT analysis can identify areas of advantage for newer business
opportunities, for responding to the newer trends and technologies, for responding to the
requirement of changes and improvement based on the market condition and competitors'
operations (Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills 2019). The identification of the four components
from SWOT analysis is deduced for the purpose of capitalizing strengths, addressing the
weak areas, seek and respond to the existent growth opportunities and addressing threats
through competition or from the dynamic market.

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Organizations use SWOT analysis by categorizing the elements of the framework in
the fair for the optimum utilization of expertise and effective response for influencers. After
the step of identification, the organizations can use strengths as a medium or tool for seeking
and responding effectively to the opportunities. The strengths can also be utilized for
reducing threats. The weaknesses can be improved by acting upon opportunities and the
improvement of weaknesses will also address the avoidance of threats.
The pros or advantages of using SWOT analysis involve the base for offering
systematic manner within a complex system. SWOT assists in building strengths for
addressing opportunities for growth. The analysis offers an array of internal and external
influencers, which can affect the success and growth of an organization. The cons or
disadvantage of SWOT analysis is that the assessment is only a single step for the complete
business planning and SWOT analysis can also be very subjective without the existence of
required specific information.
The purpose of the paper is to conduct a SWOT analysis for two of the selected
organizations associated with community development and engagement. The selected
organizations for this paper are Consonant and Diverty House. The paper will present a
SWOT analysis for both the community development organizations followed by an extensive
comparison and identification of similarities between the constituents of the SWOT analysis
of the two organizations. The paper will be concluded by summarizing the main points
associated with SWOT analysis followed by a personal reflection demonstrating the learnings
from the conduction of the paper.
Body

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The SWOT analysis for both, Consonant and Diversity House will be performed under this
section:
Consonant
Strengths:
 Consonant serves as a platform for
addressing the challenges and
barriers of people with a
collaborative effort
(Consonant.org.uk 2020).
 Consonant has constructed a
diversified background for offering
solutions in the diverse field with
skilled staff members and volunteers.
 Consonant acts as a medium for
helping both the servers and the
target audience with the opportunity
of improving someone’s life with
own expertise and being helped
without the hassle and even
investment (Consonant.org.uk 2020).
 Consonant stimulates community
development both directly and
indirectly, directly by services like
solving concerns with immigration
Weaknesses:
 The organization lacks technological
advancements with respect to services
(Consonant.org.uk 2020).
 Consonant has not specifically
categorized and distinguished the
categories of paid and unpaid services
(Consonant.org.uk 2020).
 Heavy dependence on third parties and
volunteers.

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status and indirectly by services like
skill development (computer and
others), so that individuals can mark
their own presence in community
and market through businesses and
job opportunities.
 The services offered by Consonant
helps both community and
individuals (Consonant.org.uk 2020).
Opportunities:
 Integration of advanced technologies
for maintaining online data of
candidate registrations.
 Integration of online classes for
accomplishing the goal of service
huge extent of communities.
 The opportunity of expanding the
presence in international
communities for a broader
perspective of community
development.
 The organization also has the
opportunity to recruit international
candidates as an intern for
integrating diverse skills and culture
Threats:
 Consonant may remain unrecognized
in various regions of the current target
country, Australia due to its lack of
extensive online presence in
comparison to other community
development services.
 The risk of unaligned operational
objectives and performance between
Consonant and the third parties and
volunteers.
 Lack of consistency due to the mixture
of workforce groups.
 Consonant will be affected by the
impact of instability caused by the
phenomenon of Brexit.

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in the system, with the motive of
offering effective services to diverse
cultures and communities.
Diversity House
Strengths:
 Diversity House offers a diverse
range of services ranging from,
school, prison to community-based
solutions.
 The organization builds a sense of
cohesiveness while operating and
serving the community members
(Diversityhouse.org.uk 2020).
 Diversity House involves an array of
skilled staff, volunteers and interns in
order to serve professionally yet with
empathy.
 Departmentalization of the
organization has helped and will help
in simplifying the process of serving
with aids and consultations for a
better community picture
Weaknesses:
 One of the weaknesses involves the lack
of technological advancements and
implementation of the Internet for
conducting online sessions, courses and
guidance and lack of online presence
(Diversityhouse.org.uk 2020).
 Although, the organizational structure is
effective the departmental heads are
dependent on the volunteers and interns
rather than on permanent staff as a
temporary workforce can challenge the
consistency of performance and prompt
attainment of services.

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(Diversityhouse.org.uk 2020).
 Along with the categorization of
roles and functions, Diversity House
has also divided its service offerings
for better response mechanisms such
as guidance and advocacy and youth
programs.
 Diversity House portrays the skilled
research expertise with extensive
local knowledge for designing
optimum response.
 High dependence on community-led
intervention offers experiences and
identifies concerns effectively.
 The organization enables growth
opportunities for local vendors and
businesses by enabling local
alliances and collaborative practices
(Diversityhouse.org.uk 2020).
 The focus of the Diversity House is
spread across the well-being of
communities’ physical and mental
well-being.
Opportunities:
 The organization can adopt Internet
Threats:
 The impact of Brexit and political

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and technology-based operation for
better reach and efficiency.
 Shifting the dependence majorly
from temporary staff to permanent
recruitments of candidates from
around the world and the active
engagement of community members.
 Integrating engagement of statutory
authoritative institutions fro prompt
response such as schools, prison
services, NHS, community
organizations and prison services
will be a growing opportunity for
Diversity House.
 Diversity House can justify the
meaning of the name by constructing
training programs for the local
authorities, organizations (local) and
communities in the context of
inclusive practices and diversity.
instability will influence the operational
plan and activities.
 The inconsistency of fundings and active
volunteer participation from
communities and local government can
lead to the risk of success.
Analysis
After the identification of the internal and external influencing factors, which can
frame the growth and sustainability of the above-selected community organizations, now the
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats will be assessed based on the data of the

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two chosen community development organizations and community engagement and
development organizations in general.
With respect to the SWOT analysis of the Consonant and Diversity house, there are
various similarities and differences in their operation and approach. The similarities in
strengths involve, the mission and dedication of incorporating development practices and
strategies in communities by promoting diversity and inclusion. Both organizations offer the
opportunity for community participation and problem resolution at the same time. The only
noticeable difference between the strengths of both the organizations is that the Diversity
House also extends their services for the people in prison. The weaknesses of the two
organizations reflect a few similarities and a few differences. The similarities involve the lack
of Internet-based innovation for offering online classes, as technological innovation and
online presence is limited to the process of registration and majorly on websites. Both
organizations depend on a temporary workforce but the Diversity House emphasizes
categorizing its services and departmentalizing its operations, which Consonant lacks. The
opportunities of both the community development organizations are similar in terms of
integrating technology and digital base with improved participation of the organizations. The
threats projected on both the organization reflects a larger sense of uncertainty and
inconsistency due to Brexit and dependency on active participation from communities,
volunteers and local authorities.
Community development organizations need to have specific criteria and set of
features that distinguish it from other commercial organizations and that projects its
capability in integrating positive outcomes in the society. The strengths of a community
organization need to be focussed at the capability of responding to the concerns to a greater
extent by the incorporation of strategic online-based service offerings (Hilt 2019). Another
strength of the organizations can be the dependence on extensive and quality market research

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for identifying community concerns and gaps (Craig 2017). The approach and perspective of
the community organization need to be globally based on the opportunity of seeking
authoritative support and local alliances. Active participation in encouraging the role of
community members, engaging interactions and coordinating the contribution of volunteers,
interns, employees, and local institutions. The development of empathy, vast reach, and
skilled problem-solving approach are few of the main characteristics of community
development organizations. The weaknesses of the community organization usually will
involve the reliance on authority and local government for the purpose of funding and
promoting active participation in the community (Ledwith 2015). The list of opportunities for
community development organizations is enormous. Community organizations can grow my
conducting national and international awareness programs through a traditional and online
format. The organizations can step closer towards success by incorporating technological
advancements as well as by planning for strong international alliances, which can support
each other and develop a global practice of responding to prevalent concerns (Zdenek and
Walsh 2017). The threats of any community development organization will be directed
towards the risk or challenge of accommodating funds, resources, and expertise from the
organizations, government, and local authoritative institutions. Another threat to the effective
performance of community development can be the risk of experiencing corruption, political
instability, improper infrastructure and insufficient funds (Schnake-Mahl and Norman 2017).
Thus, the ultimate goal of any community development organization should be focussed at
four principles, sustainability for long-term success, participatory practices, asset-based
approach and most significantly community-based operational plan for ensuring the interest
of the broader community or vast or majority of the population (Twelvetrees 2017). These
principles need to be engraved within the criteria, strategic plan and structure of an
organization for ensuring an active and sustainable practice of approaching success.

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Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded from the paper that community development
organizations thrive at becoming the ultimate institution for responding to the prevalent
concerns of the societies through active participation of the community members and
strategic alliance and/or collaboration with the local institutions, government, and
authoritative assistance. Community Development Organizations are considered to be
operating by leveraging the locally or nation-based resources for benefiting the target
communities. The community development organizations are also benefited from
philanthropic support, however, that can also be a challenge. Community development
organizations are the institutions, which are dedicated to offering services, conducting
programs and engaging participants for promoting and enabling community development.
Community development organizations usually operate as the medium or source for assisting
struggling communities with respect to growth, healthcare, education, well-being and
standard of living. In this paper, we chose two specific organizations, Consonant and
Diversity House. Both these organizations have reflected various similarities such as the
vision of improving community condition by seeking help from external stakeholders,
dependence on volunteers, the weakness of lack in technological advancements, the
opportunity of growth in international communities and online-based sessions or counsellings
as well as similar threats in terms of uncertainties of incoming funds and influence of Brexit.
Along with these similarities, the factors also demonstrated a few differences such as in the
approach of categorizing divisions and offerings. From the discussion, it can also be deduced
that any community organizations should be framed in the presence of a diverse workforce
and contributors group for accomplishing the optimum outcome. The challenges any
community development organizations can experience are the risk of prevalent corruption,
political instability and the unwillingness of support from significant authoritative

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institutions. Community development organizations need to be based upon a series of criteria
and principles, which ultimately aligns with the main goal of working towards the main
interests of the community or at least the majority of the community. Community
development organizations can be considered as the most effective strategic intervention,
which can address the smallest to most concerning issues with regulatory participation. The
intervention can easily be planned with the application and analysis of SWOT analysis, which
will present the base for understanding internal and external influences as well as will help in
constructing strategic planning actions for the people in need. The community development
organizations should be dedicated to creating an improved environment so that no-one will be
deprived of rights as well as from the opportunities of education, growth, and well-being with
the motive of the complete betterment of the whole world.
Personal Reflection
In the process of framing the paper, I have learned various aspects in relation to SWOT
analysis and community development organizations.
 Significance and role of SWOT analysis: I was familiar with the terminology but
through this assignment, I learned about the significant application of the analysis.
SWOT analysis helped in identifying the strengths, which demonstrated the role and
expertise of the selected community development organizations. SWOT analysis also
helped in determining the weaknesses and threats, that can be addressed by elevating
expertise of the organizations and allocating resources with a contribution towards the
potential opportunities.
 Role of community development organizations: The operational expertise, strengths,
vision, and mission of the two selected community organizations demonstrated the
role of this institution in the improvement of societal well-being with addressal of