Strategic Plan

Posted: August 25th, 2021

Strategic Plan

Lee Audrey Armistad

Capella University

Strategic Plan

Executive Summary

            The American Red Cross is a widely-known humanitarian organization that expands its services beyond the US boundaries and into the rest of the world. It is common to see Red Cross resources deployed in areas of disaster and other human-threatening zones. Notably, The American Red Cross was established to provide humanitarian support to individuals who direly need it. This non-profit organization does this through initiating public-spirited projects and educating the masses on the imminent threats. Through its initiatives and daily philanthropical operations, the American Red Cross promotes respect for all human beings. Additionally, this organization fosters healthy living by alleviating suffering and helping disaster victims to resume their usual lifestyles. Despite its numerous successes, the American Red Cross has also registered unwanted results that hinder its sustainability. For this reason, formulating a strategic plan to keep the organization on the rail of success is imperative. This paper delves into the detailed American Red Cross’ strategic plan.

Board Authorization of Strategic Plan

            In all organizations, it is the norm for the executive board toreview and approve proposed strategic plans and other organizational values before they are put into practice. In this regard, the American Red Cross board plays a fundamental role in the strategic planning process. The organization in question receives a wide range of donations from the US government, ordinary citizens, and its corporate counterparts. Important to note, a host of global donors have partnered with the Red Cross to facilitate its charitable operations. It is upon the Red Cross to ensure that donated time, blood, and funds are used rightfully. To do so, the organization has to revise its operations and rethink its strategies. As a rule, sponsors and donors push for strategic planning in their quest to achieve progressive change (Boronczyk, Rumpf & Breuer, 2018). Since the American Red Cross is a conduit meant to manage donated resources with the aim of lessening human suffering, it is obliged to authorize any suggested positive changes. In other words, the contributors’ goodwill to adopt the strategic plan provides the authority needed to put it into effect (Zarzycka, 2016).In this quest, the executive board at the American Red Cross will gladly embrace the propositioned strategic plan that establishes the organization’s budgetary priorities.

Organizational Description

            The American Red Cross is a philanthropic organization that specializes in disaster mitigation and recovery. The US Congress has anchored this agency’s position as an independent, charitable, non-profit, and tax-exempt institution (Kosar, 2006). The American Red Cross is governed by an executive board of governors. Although this disaster-relief organization has some paid employees, the majority of the workers are volunteers. These helpers provide both labor and training. Every year, the American Red Cross responds to innumerable disasters through the help of volunteers and donations (Remes, 2013). For instance, the American Red Cross was actively involved in the alleviation of suffering after hurricane Maria (Rivera & Willard, 2019). Moreover, this agency oversees the donation, testing, and distribution of blood products. Additionally, the Red Cross offers training services with the aim of enlightening the public on how to respond to disasters and accidents. It is important to note that the proposed strategic plan aims to engage all operations at the American Red Cross including health and safety, military support, blood management, disaster management, and relief.

Mission, Vision, and Values

            Strategic planning is an exercise that calls for the consideration of a host of organizational elements. While it is true that organizations often rewrite their strategic plans from time to time, they do not do so for the sake of it. Instead, they critically evaluate the changing conditions and devise a plan that does not depart from the organization’s trajectory. Therefore, referring to the American Red Cross’ mission, vision, and values is of the essence. Notably, a company’s vision and mission statements define operational tactics and future goals, both of which are integral elements of a strategic plan (Ahmed, 2019). Having known the importance of consulting an organization’s building blocks, the next step is to highlightthe Red Cross’ mission, vision, and values.

Mission

            The American Red Cross battles to both prevent and ease human suffering during emergencies and disasters by tapping into the power and generosity of donors and volunteers (American National Red Cross, 2019).

Vision

            The American Red Cross envisages itself as an organization that turns compassion into action with the aim of preparing the public for imminent disasters, providing safe blood, and taking care of disaster victims.

Values

            The American Red Cross cherishes several values namely neutrality, humanity, independence, impartiality, volunteer service, unity, and universality.

Goals and Strategies

            This planned strategic plan is inspired by the need to improve how the American Red Cross conducts its operations in a changing world. In the last 10 years, the number of human-made and natural disasters have gone up by 10% (Cameron & Shah, 2015). News channels are filled with stories of disease outbreak, extreme weather, and terrorist bombings. As a result, the severity of these humanitarian crises has doubled the number of casualties. In other words, people who were previously productive and self-reliantbecome vulnerable and dependent thanks to the increase in deadly disasters. Additionally, the world economy has been experiencing slow growth. Unfortunately, the current trade wars point to a future of economic struggles (Irwin, 2019). For these reasons, this strategic plan is intended to help the American Red Cross make progressive adjustments in the way it handles humanitarian crises. Finding innovative ways of managing scarce resources is also another objective of this plan. Lastly, this strategic plan seeks to outline better decision-making methods as regards budgeting to empower the agency to better mitigate future disasters.

Application of Strategic Planning Theory

            The issue-based strategic theory is the most applicable in the case of the American Red Cross. In this model, SWOT analysis comes first. More to the point, the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities are put under review just to have a glimpse of the organization’s internal and external outlook (Bryson, 2018). Next, the top management revisits the established organizational goals. The leadership also reviews internal and external issues with the aim of determining the objectives that deserve more attention than others. Establishing action plans, preparing an annual operating plan, devising a guiding strategic plan, and formulating the budget are other steps that come afterward (Lannon, 2014). Lastly, all stakeholders take part in the implementation of the agreed-upon strategic plan as the top management monitors performance.

            The issue-based strategic planning theory advances the Red Cross’ cardinal agenda of alleviating human suffering in several ways. This model considers the status quo as well as future projections. By identifying the major challenges that the American Red Cross is likely to encounter, it is easy to devise a strategic plan that dodges the possible pitfalls and capitalizes on the strengths. For instance, some of the challenges that the Red Cross has gone through in recent times arebrainstormed and effective solutions recommended. In other words, the problematic issues are ironed out before strategizing. What is more, bringing all the issues to the table paves the way for the Red Cross to prepare a budget that prioritizes the agency’s main objectives. Proper allocation of resources facilitates the implementation of the strategic plan so that in the end, the entity achieves the desired results.

Unlike the for-profit entities, non-profit agencies such as the American Red Cross seek to achieve humanitarian goals and promote their core values. To devise an effective strategic plan, it is important to refer to the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities (Arslandere & Öcal, 2016). The American Red Cross possesses a myriad of strengths including being part of a larger global community, acknowledgment by Congress, active social media presence, and wide acceptance. Unfortunately, weaknesses such as integrity issues and operational controversies continue to drag the Red Cross behind (Wooster, 2018). The public’s reduced interest to volunteer and donate, coupled with changing socio-cultural norms amount to potential threats for this relief agency. Nevertheless, the growth of social media use and a large American population comprise some opportunities that the Red Cross can exploit. This entity usesits social media handles to build relationships and lure its wide audience to participate in its course (Briones, Kuch, Liu & Jin, 2011). Giving attention to external factors such as economics, politics, social trends, environmental conservation, and technological advancementsis important as these elements guide the strategic planning process. Issues and trends such as difficulties sourcing aid, religious and racial challenges, increased inter-agency connectivity, and declining economic performance will be referenced when devising the American Red Cross’ strategic plan.

            This strategic plan seeks to enforce several progressive proposals. Firstly, the plan outlines that the American Red Cross will redefine its recruitment procedure to ensure that only aspirants who embrace the values of integrity, service to humanity, and inclusivity are listed for engagement. Secondly, having previously experienced racial and religious challenges in the line of duty, the Red Cross will open the door for minority groups to either get employed or volunteer. Thirdly, the agency will encourage all its partners to invite more volunteers and donors. Most importantly, the entity will streamline its budget to further cut expenses and give precedence to relief work. By implementing these strategies, the American Red Cross will serve deserving victims appropriately and with fewer controversies. The realization of this strategic plan is given a boost by the use of both downward and upward communication models. By extension, the leaders will listen to the low-level subordinates even as they delegate tasks. Budgetary constraints comprise the biggest weakness of the strategic planning process. The implementation of the plan will cost $500,000 for the first year with a 4% cost escalation expected in the subsequent 4 years. Eating into the organization’s budget is an unwanted issue as the Red Cross aims to channel the bulk of its funds to charitable work.

The American Red Cross’ Budget

            The American Red Cross ranks among the top non-profit organizations at the global scale. Nations experiencing internal conflicts, environmental disasters, and famine acknowledge Red Cross’ generosity. Give it to the American Red Cross, most of its resources go to service delivery with only a small percentage going to salaries and operational expenses. The proposed budget for the coming year will not depart from this tactic. This relief organization expects to receive a total of $3 billion in the upcoming financial year ($1.8 billion from corporate donors, $1.2 billion from the federal government, and $0.8 billion from individual donors). Of this, $3,100 will go to the prioritized relief services. Notably, this amount is tantamount to 81.6% of the total income. Only 15% of the income, $585 million, will go into the facilitation of the aid programs. Commendably, the remaining percentage will go to consultancy fees, minor expenses, and salaries. Evidently, the American Red Cross’ budget is efficient as most of the income will go to the provision of humanitarian services.

            For a charitable organization such as the American Red Cross, accountability is the cornerstone to its continued support (Scott, 2014). For this reason, the Red Cross strives to maintain high levels of transparency and integrity. Even better, the regular auditing of records makes certain that the organization is fraud-free. The proposed budget reinforces the organization’s core purpose by channeling funds to the most critical domains. This budget is realistic as it considers the rising need for more humanitarian aid in the coming year and resembles past efficiency in the distribution of resources. As outlined in the budget, most of the funds have been allocated to medicine and healthcare and the provision of accommodation and housing to displaced victims. Overall, this budget plays an enabling role by helping the American Red Cross to plan its operations. Otherwise, this relief organization may not be able to weigh up the viability of its plans. With this budget, the American Red Cross can set realistic goals and establish partnerships.

How the American Red Cross’s Mission and Vision Relates to the Expected Outcomes

            The mission and vision statements of a company help to spearhead the strategic plan of that enterprise. It behooves to note that both the vision and mission define an organization’s character and ethos. More importantly, the target population can easily understand what a particular organization is all about just by focusing onits mission and vision statements (Ahmed, 2019). Therefore, executive leaders must consider aligning the proposed strategic plan with the organization’s character or else risk departing from what the audience considers important. Besides, the whole point of devising strategic plans is to help the American Red Cross move closer to its destiny. Furthermore, having forward-looking mission and vision can persuade external stakeholders such as potential donors to establish partnerships with the Red Cross.

            By devising and implementing a strategic plan, the American Red Cross aims to improve efficiency and increase productivity. Hence, the fruition of the strategic plan would be a huge stride towards the realization of the Red Cross’ vision. As things stand, the subject relief organization is struggling to effectively alleviate suffering in some regions due to racial and religious issues, declining incomes in the US, integrity concerns, and other controversies, all of which impair its efficiency (Wooster, 2018). Consequently, some innocent victims go unattended owing to these efficacy-curtailing issues. Fortunately, the proposed strategic plan taps into the Red Cross’ mission and vision statement to provide much-needed change. Once the plan is implemented, victims of natural and human-made disasters will receive enough aid and without delay.

References

Ahmed, A. (2019, March 14). Importance of mission vision in organizational strategy. Chron. Retrieved September 2, 2019, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-mission-vision-organizational-strategy-16000.html

American Red Cross. (2019). Mission & values. American Red Cross. Retrieved September 3, 2019, from https://www.redcross.org/about-us/who-we-are/mission-and-values.html

Arslandere, M., & Öcal, Y. (2016). SWOT analysis as a tool for strategic management and an implementation in a firm in machine industry. Antalya, Turkey.

Boronczyk, F., Rumpf, C., & Breuer, C. (2018). Determinants of viewer attention in concurrent event sponsorship. International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 19(1), 11-24.

Briones, R. L., Kuch, B., Liu, B. F., & Jin, Y. (2011). Keeping up with the digital age: How the American Red Cross uses social media to build relationships. Public Relations Review, 37(1), 37-43.

Bryson, J. M. (2018). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Cameron, L., & Shah, M. (2015). Risk-taking behavior in the wake of natural disasters. Journal of Human Resources, 50(2), 484-515.

Irwin, N. (2019, August 14). Global economic trouble is brewing, and the trade war is only part of it. The New York Times. Retrieved September 3, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/upshot/global-economic-trouble-is-brewing-and-the-trade-war-is-only-part-of-it.html

Kosar, K. R. (2006). The Congressional Charter of the American National Red Cross: Overview, history, and analysis. Congressional Research Service.

Lannon, R. (2014, March 11). Utilize issue-based planning to dig deeper and solve business problems. BA Times. Retrieved September 3, 2019, from https://www.batimes.com/articles/utilize-issue-based-planning-to-dig-deeper-and-solve-business-problems.html

Remes, J. A. (2013). The American Red Cross from Clara Barton to the New Deal. Journal of American History, 100(3), 850-851.

Rivera, J. D., & Willard, A. (2019). Humanitarian logistics in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria: the experience of the American Red Cross in Puerto Rico. International Journal of Emergency Management, 15(2), 166-186.

Scott, R. W. (2014). Financial accounting (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Wooster, M. M. (2018, January 4). Can donors trust the American Red Cross? Capital Research Center. Retrieved September 3, 2019, from https://capitalresearch.org/article/can-donors-trust-the-american-red-cross/

Zarzycka, M. (2016). Save the child: Photographed faces and affective transactions in NGO child sponsoring programs. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 23(1), 28-42.

Appendices

Appendix A: Staffing Plans

Appendix B: SWOT Analysis

Strengths	Weaknesses
Data and innovation (IFRC, 2017)Part of a larger global community (IFRC, 2019)Strong political member affiliations and acknowledgment by Congress (Kosar, 2006)Accepted in many social circles including the military  Resource-rich Strong digital and social media presence (Briones, Kuch, Liu, & Jin, 2011)	Lack of harmonized standards between it and legal regulatory bodies (The NonProfit Times, 2015) Integrity issues among some of its members (NBC News, 2005; The New York Times, 2005)Controversial approaches to service provision (Dellato, 2019)
Opportunities The large American population gives it a large pool of volunteers Increasing connectivity in the science of things arena Growth in data-driven care Increased use of social media	Threats Changing socio-cultural norms (Dellato, 2019) Declining interest in voluntarily joining humanitarian societies (Guelzo, 2019)

Appendix C: Financial Budget

Budget for the American Red Cross
For the Year Ending October 1, 2020
Details			Amount ($Million)
Income
Government Donations			$                  1,200.00
Individual Donations			$                      800.00
Corporate Donations			$                  1,800.00
			$                  3,800.00
Expenses
Cost of Goods and Services
	Internet and Telephone	$                        20.00
	Insurance		$                        50.00
	Health facilities	$                      300.00
	Motor Vehicles	$                      150.00
	Helicopters		$                        65.00
Services
	Logistics		$                      300.00
	Housing and Accommodation	$                      700.00
	Food Donations and Relief	$                  1,500.00
	Medical and Healthcare Donations	$                      600.00
General Admin Personnel			$                        50.00
Healthcare Consultants			$                        30.00
Logistics and Support experts			$                        20.00
Miscellaneous			$                        15.00
			$                  3,800.00