Girl Scouts of America

Executive Summary

“Girl Scouts of America is the world’s largest organization dedicated to helping all girls everywhere build character and gain skills for success in the real world. In an accepting and nurturing environment, and in partnership with committed adult volunteers, girls develop strong values, leadership skills, social conscience, and conviction about their own potential and self-worth that will serve them all their lives” by these worlds the girl scouts of America described themselves on their website but as the social life is changing rapidly in the united states their mission is getting harder to keep the same memberships or to increase the number of members. A swot analysis will be present through this case trying to find the strength and the weakness and the opportunities available for the girl scouts of America in order to move forward.

Introduction

Founded in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low in savannah Georgia the girl scouts of America, her dream was to create and organization that would bring girls out of their home environments to serve in their communities. The many activities of GSA focused on young girls developing into wives and mothers. Membership has grown from 18 members in Savannah, Georgia, to 20,000 in 1929 and reached the 3.9 million in 1969 and nearly four million members now throughout the United States, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and in more than 80 countries through USA Girl Scouts Overseas.

The aim of the Girl Scouts is that girls will develop to their full potential by:

Fostering girls’ feelings of self-acceptance and unique self-worth by;

Promoting girls’ perception of themselves as competent, responsible, and open to new experiences and challenges.

Offering girls opportunities to learn new skills.

Encouraging girls’ personal growth.

Allowing girls to use and practice talents and abilities.

Relating to others with increasing understanding, skill, and respect by;

Helping girls develop sensitivity to others and respect for their needs, feelings, and rights.

Promoting an understanding of individual, cultural, religious, and racial differences.

Fostering the ability to build friendships and working relationships.

Developing a meaningful set of values to guide their actions and to provide for sound decision-making by helping girls develop meaningful values and ethics that will guide their actions. Fostering an ability to make decisions that are consistent with girls’ values and that reflect respect for the rights and needs of others.

Empowering girls to act upon their values and convictions.

Contributing to the improvement of society through the use of their abilities and leadership skills, while working in cooperation with others by;

There are five age levels in Girl Scouting:

Daisy ages 5-6 ,Brownie ages 6-8 ,junior ages 8-11, Cadette ages 11-14 ,senior ages 14-17

In addition to its scouting program activities, it is well known for raising funds by selling Girl Scout cookies

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is used to analyze a situation and helping to create strategies. “SWOT is an acronym for the internal strengths and weaknesses of a firm and the environmental opportunities and threats facing that firm” .SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Key Strengths:

History

Since the Girl Scouts of America has a long history since 1912 so one of its key strength is its history as a trustful organization . Parents will not have many problems having their daughters joining the GSA organization

Managerial Support

The girl scouts of America seems to have a very good managerial supports since so many successful steps were taken trying to keep the organization on the track, as new membership rules are invented like girls can become scouts without joining a troop. Like trying to reach girls with different incomes, different locations and pregnant teenagers. Target a new age group like daisy group for girls 5 years old or in kindergarten.

Marketing expertise:

To many marketing steps were taken by the GSA marketing expertise, seems that it was useful for the organization like the 30 sec TV message and television public service campaign, gift of caring program was introduced too, to allow girl scout cookie customers to buy a gift box of cooking that the scouts then deliver to nursing home.

Location

It’s not clear but it could be one of the strength elements for the GSA since they tried to attract the people in the cities as well as suburb girls. So they must have some activities and offices in too many different locations.

Outreach Programs

Outreach programs to different ages and different income girls.

National Presence

The scouts have a national or world reputation and it’s one of its key strength.

Key Weaknesses:

Funding

One of the weaknesses that might face the GSA is the lack of funding support.

Location

Some times the location is one of the weakness for this organization, because as much as they expand their organization still there is some areas are not covered yet.

Change in the environment: the rapid change in the social life and girls interests will be one of the weakness , since girls has so many different interest than few years ago and too many different options available for them to do or to spend their time doing.

Popularity waning

The popularity of such kind of organizations decreased because people have different interests.

Key Opportunities:

Expansion

Try to expand the organization to attract girls with different interest’s different locations.

Strategic alliance

Try to ally with profit or non profit organization so they can expand their efforts and attract more girls.

Key Threats:

Threat of New Entrants

Some new organizations might attract some members that might join the GSA, since some people in general will be attracted to the new organization.

Environmental change

The major threat for the GSA organization , the rapid change in the social life, the broken families, the unfocused girls or parents..

Threat of Substitutes

The internet industry as an example likes chatting, it’s a very rapid growing industry and they are coming with new ideas which might be preferred over the GSA membership.

Summary and recommendations

The swot analysis present the strength and the weaknesses of the GSA organization it also introduced the opportunities and the threats for this non profit organization. The analysis presents a lot of strength which is due to good management efforts, Some successful managerial steps were taken which kept the number of members in a good situation but the way the social and environmental life is changing in this decade showed that more effort need to be done to keep this organization and same interest organization in the track.

As a marketing plan they should keep their strength issues and try to work on their weakness issues, here are some of the recommendation that might help

Recommendations:

Expand the organization by allied with some different organization with similar interests if not exact so they can face the decrease in the members and the funding problems.

Run some advertisements through the TV and internet and the chatting programs which I believe it’s attracting 85 to 90% of the teenagers.

Ask for government support like funds.

Target the girls through their parents by explaining to the parents the aim of this organization.

Offer programs through schools and cities that will attract the girls.