Managing the External Environment

Managing the External Environment

The leaders of nonprofits organizations should anticipate the future events that may or may not affect the organization in order to achieve its mission and secure its continuity. A strong leadership can make the difference between success and failure in implementing programs and services. "A strategic nonprofit organization recruits members based on a careful needs assessment and attention to building a diverse membership with common dedication to mission" (Susie Brown, p.1). Nowadays, external environment influences and affects nonprofits and change constantly that is why Nonprofits should establish a plan to satisfactory encounters them. A nonprofit should constantly analyze the trends in their external environment such as funding, competitors, community need, etc. and effectively adapt to those trends in order to survive.

Advocacy and lobbying are crucial keys for nonprofits organizations in order to achieve sustainable change. Advocacy is an important function of most nonprofit organizations through actions and activities that seek to influence outcomes directly affecting the lives of the people served by the organization. We should differentiate advocacy from lobbying. Advocacy includes different kinds of activities designed to promote a cause or idea while Lobbying refers to specific activities intended to influence legislation. Lobbying always involves advocacy, but advocacy does not always involve lobbying. Therefore, nonprofits should collaborate and contribute to social changes movements; nonprofits have "the unique and essential role to ensuring a fully informed public dialogue" (The Jossey-Bass, p. 350) due to nonprofits have the ability to reach people and influenced them; mainly because they impact people through the delivery of their programs; they can potentially transform their organizations conversation on public policies issues.

The Seattle Day Nursery case study is a great example of how an expertise and well involved and passionate Executive director can drive a failing organization to success and achieve its mission through necessary changes. Pat Gogerty was a visionary on educational programs. He was the first one to establish after school programs and care about the child abuse. He imposed his well-developed and structured initiatives in the benefit of the organization's mission. Its organization board members did not supported him unanimously but he counted with staff the progressively were useful. He focused on deliver protection and care to the children. He had the hard mission to convince the board members through real facts that recognized him and expanded his programs, also the board showed him support adopting a new mission with the goal to cover the new program proposed by him "to break the cycle of child abuse and to reduce the incidence of abuse