Research paper on Industry and competitor analysis

Operations/Production aspects

The services of nonprofit humanitarian charities are very diverse and include emergency assistance, child and youth services, food banks and help with agricultural programs, global relief initiatives, programs for homeless people, movements for human rights protection, missions against poverty and hunger, housing help programs, elderly care, women’s services, day care, various health care programs, prevention and treatment of additions, street outreach, rescue missions etc. Every nonprofit has a unique set of initiatives and the success of the production of NGOs greatly depends on their choice of strategy and implementation. Also, an NGO should address actual problems and find innovative ways of solving these problems to be successful.

ACF International in 2010 launched many programs all over the world such as water and sanitation help in Pakistan, provided emergency foods and access to water in Guatemala after tropical storm, helped Nigerian families with seeds and livestock to address hunger. Health care services and education were provided in D.R.Congo to solve severe malnutrition problem, and provided access to clean water to Haitians after the earthquake and cholera outbreak (ACF International, 2011).

Save the Children manages a number of programs relating to child protection, education and development, nutrition and health, HIV/AIDS and livelihoods (Save the Children, 2011). Handicap International implemented programs focused on emergency help, landmines and cluster bombs elimination, rehabilitation, health care and prevention of disability, inclusion programs for disabled people and disability rights initiatives (Handicap International, 2011). Mercy Corps maintains a large number of relief and development programs, disaster recovery missions, and implemented long-term solutions for addressing hunger and poverty (Be the Change – Mercy Corps, 2011).

There are operational aspects related to political and legal issues in a country where the services have to be provided. Also, the production of NGOs strongly depends on promotion and on the availability of volunteers. The availability of local NGOs, their financial sustainability and governmental support are very important for successful implementation of nonprofit missions.

Technology

The impact of technology on the nonprofits is very significant, and this impact relates both to internal efficiency of the nonprofits and to the effectiveness of implementation of their strategies. Indeed, according to the survey of Nonprofit Finance Fund (2011), most charities have improved their effectiveness of funds distribution from 50-50 ratio of the program implementation costs and organizational maintenance costs in 1997 to average ratio of 90-10 for the same characteristics in 2011. More than 95% of NGO employees believe that their organization can achieve its mission better using innovative technologies, and more than 87% of people agree that technology allowed them to reach more people in need of the NGOs services (Nonprofit Finance Fund, 2011).

Apart from communications and IT technologies which contribute to promotion and internal efficiency of the nonprofits, technology also helps in reaching the mission of NGOs. For example, ACF International uses new technologies in agriculture and health care in order to create sustainability in the struggling areas, and Save the Children uses technology to deliver education to children, to address HIV/AIDS problems and to create livelihood in the poor communities. It is expected that the use of social marketing will also raise interest for the activities of nonprofits and thus increase the volumes of private funding, as it happened after the earthquake on Haiti. Mobile donations which also showed to be effective during Haitian disaster are likely to become a source of promotion and will give an easy possibility to help. Overall, technology and growing social awareness are promising to provide more resources for the activities of NGOs.