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Salvation Army Research Paper

Sally Ann The Salvation Army has essentially operated with the same strategic plan for the past 140 years, but it is never too late to become an innovative learning organization. The Army has an established brand, an international presence and a loyal volunteer base. But it relies fairly heavily on donations for its financing. The Salvation Army needs to improve its ability to earn money, so that it can pursue its mission further. The strategic plan that the Salvation Army needs for the future is therefore to continue its current good work while adding new revenue-generation capacity, as this will give it greater ability to fulfill its mandate.

There are several opportunities that the Salvation Army can pursue in order to improve revenue. The first is social media. While the static nature of the Salvation Army is charming, there is ample evidence to support the idea that charitable fundraising is moving online, and social media plays a big role in this. If the Salvation Army can develop a sophisticated social media program, it will benefit. Social media tends to be a cheaper way to reach people than conventional media, and it is trending upwards in terms of market penetration. Thus, the Salvation Army should take a more sophisticated approach to social media, including both seeking exposure, promoting its good works, calling for volunteers, enhancing the brand and seeking donations. So a social media program is key to organizational development.

Another strategy element should be to enhance the services, and another one should be to engage in more partnerships with business. With improved communication, the world is becoming more...

As such, it makes no sense for the Salvation Army to operate in a vacuum. With its brand and its volunteer base, the Salvation Army is a natural partner for business, and can work with business to raise funds and to deliver good services.
There should be at least four good objectives to this plan. The first needs to reflect the need to modernize the brand. Some good metrics here will include increasing brand awareness, and improving brand perception. The latter might be operationalized using a Likert scale and surveys to gauge the degree to which people view the Army's modernity. A second strategic goal has to be to raise money. This is very important because raising money is essential to the organization being able to fulfill its mandate. Percentage increases in donations are a good metric for this objective.

A third strategic goal should be to increase volunteership. At this point, the Salvation Army has a strong volunteer base, but there is always room for improvement. Percentage increases in volunteers and volunteer hours make a good target. The Army also needs to set some strategic objectives that move beyond its core business, in order to help bring the organization into the 21st century. One of these should be to build a strong social media presence. Measures here are easy -- likes, followers and fans are common metrics for the different social media platforms. There should also be internal metrics related to posting numbers as well. A fifth strategic goal should be to find at least one major new initiative for the Army to pursue in the next few years. This is important -- the organization cannot rush into…

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