Example 1: Using SWOT for a Neighborhood Development Project
A neighborhood group in Chicago developed combined lists for their SWOT analysis, one for positives and one for negatives. They agreed upon these internal and external factors:
Some Strengths and Opportunities (Positives)
- Trust among partners
- Intellectual capacity
- People who are committed to the work
- Neighborhood with a proud history
- Right people at the table
- Ability to influence policy
- History of collaboration
- Experience in community development
- Attention of internal and external investors
Some Limitations and Challenges (Negatives)
- Violence and gangs among youth
- People in the community need to define success
- Not enough people doing the work
- Funders need to become genuine partners
- Difficulty balancing service delivery and advocacy
- Partnering takes time; more resources needed
- Regional planning that harms community
While the terms are general, the analysis still offered direction to the participants in their planning. The group identified one of their strengths as people who are committed to the work, while one of their weaknesses was difficulty balancing service delivery and advocacy. They needed to be aware of both internal qualities as they formed strategies for community change.
When they looked to their external and internal opportunities, the group realized they had the attention of funders. They could capitalize on this opportunity for grant money, but they needed to define projects with an awareness of an internal weakness: people in the community need to define success. If the group accepts a grant to carry out a project that the community does not consider important (i.e., has not defined as success), their future effectiveness could be compromised.
More specifically, the neighborhood group knew they want to make improvements in certain goal areas, so they used the SWOT analysis to guide planning.
One goal area was economic development and job creation. Knowing they possessed certain strengths, they developed a plan that addressed some of their weaknesses:
| Strength and Opportunity | Weakness and Limitation |
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Based on these facts, they devised an economic development strategy:
To create a community revolving loan fund to support start-up of small businesses.
This would bring the neighborhood's investors into a partnership with the neighbors (matching opportunity with limitation) and the creation of jobs could offer other opportunities to youth who were tempted to join gangs (addressing a weakness).
The neighborhood group also concluded that certain strengths equipped them to take on another threat. Here's another example minus the box.
- Based on these facts about their group's assets:
- Ability to influence policy
- Right people at the table
- History of collaboration
- The members developed two broad strategies to address this liability:
- Regional planning that harms the community
- The strategies they formed were:
- To promote citizen involvement in key policy issues that affect the neighborhoods (e.g., fair housing, welfare reform, public safety).
- To enhance participation, involvement, and influence of neighborhood leaders and organizations on broader policy issues.
In this way, even a very simple SWOT analysis can be a basis for brainstorming and concrete planning, within the context of the vision, mission, and purpose an organization has already established.
After the SWOT analysis, of course, the neighborhood group moved on to the next step--developing action plans to implement its strategies. Information from the SWOT was useful in that context as well, helping to clarify strengths and weaknesses in resources and experience.