Running head: THE STRATEGIC PLAN 1 THE STRATEGIC PLAN 6 The Strategic Plan for Gift for Life Foundation Deja Croom Walden University The Strategic Plan for Gift for Life Foundation Introduction The paper focuses on the core values, mission and vision of the Gift for Life Foundation, which is the selected organization of choice (Gift for Life Foundation, 2018). The core values, vision and mission of the organization represents the organizational identification and lays the foundation for any strategic plan. Gift for Life Foundation is a humanitarian organization focusing on children; the organization carries out programs aimed at reducing infant mortality, promoting positive parenting and decreasing child neglect and abuse (Gift for Life Foundation, 2018). The organization focuses on child assistance by giving children opportunities to achieve success and personal growth. Ultimately, the organization aims at promoting confidence, independence and life-long learning in children. The paper discusses the organization’s core values and how they are aligned to advocacy and leadership and how they contribute to wellbeing of societies. In addition, it highlights the mission and vision of the organization and lastly it identifies and describes the stakeholders involved in the organization. The Core Values of Gift for Life Foundation The Gift for Life Foundation derives its values on the need to help children attain their success. Due to the objectives of the organization, the Gift for Life Foundation has seven core values, which are; excellence, teamwork, respect, accountability, integrity, innovation and passion (Gift for Life Foundation, 2018). The core values guide the organization’s activities and ensure that it meets its objectives even in the most difficult situations. In adhering to its core value about being excellent, the Gift for Life Foundation dedicated to satisfying the needs of children, its workers and honoring the decisions made to children and the people it serves with care (Gift for Life Foundation, 2018). In relation to teamwork, the organization encourages all its employees to work together as a family while embracing inclusiveness and diversity and attaining the immediate needs of children particularly those who are abandoned, disadvantaged and orphaned. In relation to being innovative, the organization seeks and adopts new ways that can better serve the needs of children. Based on the above understanding, the core values of the organization are aligned with the advocacy in the organization. For instance, the organization lobbies for formulation of policies that ensures access to vulnerable children not only in the America, but also in other parts of the world. The values of the organization contribute to the w.

1. Running head: THE STRATEGIC PLAN
1
THE STRATEGIC PLAN
6
The Strategic Plan for Gift for Life Foundation
Deja Croom
Walden University
The Strategic Plan for Gift for Life Foundation
Introduction
The paper focuses on the core values, mission and vision
of the Gift for Life Foundation, which is the selected
organization of choice (Gift for Life Foundation, 2018). The
core values, vision and mission of the organization represents
the organizational identification and lays the foundation for any
strategic plan. Gift for Life Foundation is a humanitarian
organization focusing on children; the organization carries out
programs aimed at reducing infant mortality, promoting positive
parenting and decreasing child neglect and abuse (Gift for Life
Foundation, 2018). The organization focuses on child assistance

2. by giving children opportunities to achieve success and personal
growth. Ultimately, the organization aims at promoting
confidence, independence and life-long learning in children.
The paper discusses the organization’s core values and how they
are aligned to advocacy and leadership and how they contribute
to wellbeing of societies. In addition, it highlights the mission
and vision of the organization and lastly it identifies and
describes the stakeholders involved in the organization.
The Core Values of Gift for Life Foundation
The Gift for Life Foundation derives its values on the need
to help children attain their success. Due to the objectives of
the organization, the Gift for Life Foundation has seven core
values, which are; excellence, teamwork, respect,
accountability, integrity, innovation and passion (Gift for Life
Foundation, 2018). The core values guide the organization’s
activities and ensure that it meets its objectives even in the
most difficult situations. In adhering to its core value about
being excellent, the Gift for Life Foundation dedicated to
satisfying the needs of children, its workers and honoring the
decisions made to children and the people it serves with care
(Gift for Life Foundation, 2018).
In relation to teamwork, the organization encourages all its
employees to work together as a family while embracing
inclusiveness and diversity and attaining the immediate needs of
children particularly those who are abandoned, disadvantaged
and orphaned. In relation to being innovative, the organization
seeks and adopts new ways that can better serve the needs of
children. Based on the above understanding, the core values of
the organization are aligned with the advocacy in the
organization. For instance, the organization lobbies for
formulation of policies that ensures access to vulnerable
children not only in the America, but also in other parts of the
world.
The values of the organization contribute to the well-being
of societies. In relation to integrity, which is one of its core
values, the organization ensures that it adheres to the ethical

3. standards, acts fairly and honors what it promises the children
in need. By being passionate, the society trusts its promises
leading to alleviation of suffering among children. In addition,
in terms of accountability, the organization is committed to
meeting its objectives, which focuses on helping children attain
their future successes; such commitment improves the wellbeing
of the society.
The Mission of Gift for Life Foundation
The organization’s mission is to meet the immediate needs
of children by showing them selfless love and providing
opportunities for them to attain their successes. The mission of
the organization is aligned to its core values. Notably, meeting
the needs of children and providing opportunities for them to
succeed is based on being excellent, working as a team,
innovative, showing passion and being accountable. The
achievement of the mission is based on how well the
organization adheres to its core values. For instance, in case of
child neglect, the organization responds to the situation
immediately so that it can meet the immediate needs of the
child; however, the motivation behind the response is passion
and accountability. While responding to situations that
endanger the lives of children, the organization’s leaders are
collaborative and innovative, such that they work creatively and
as a family to serve the children in need in a better way.
The mission of the organization promotes leadership
because the leaders are appointed based on ability to meet the
mission of the organization. In this regard, the leadership of the
Gift for Life Foundation contributes to the attainment of the
mission. Furthermore, the leadership selects and recruit’s
employees who have personal values that align to the
organizational values so that they meet the mission of the
organization.
The mission statement provides evidence that the
organization contributes to the wellbeing of societies. The
mission statement is people focused; it aims at meeting the
needs of children; in this case, it directly contributes to the

4. wellbeing of individuals and societies. In implementing the
vision, the Gift for Life Foundation engages in projects that
improve the lives of families; among such measures are
educational programs that promote positive parenting (A Gift
for Life Foundation, 2018
The Vision of Gift for Life Foundation
The vision of Gift for Life Foundation is seeing a nation
where children are respected, filled with confidence,
independent and are not denied of selfless affection (Gift for
Life Foundation, 2018). The vision of the organization builds on
the mission of the organization, which builds on its values. In
this regard, the organization’s vision is aligned to its core
values. The vision of the organization promotes leadership
because the leaders strategize to meet its vision. Like its
mission, the vision of Gift for Life Foundation contributes to
the betterment of human wellbeing.
Stakeholders Involved in the American Red Cross
The Gift for Life Foundation has stakeholders who are the
organization’s leaders, the employees, the government, the
donors and the children served. The leaders and employees are
stakeholders who are internal to the organization; they focus at
meeting the organization’s mission by adhering to the stipulated
core values. The government and donors are external to the
organization; the government provides the regulatory framework
while donors provide the necessary funds for the organization to
carry on with its humanitarian activities. Lastly, the people in
need are external to the organization because they are the
recipients of the assistance and provide feedback about the
humanitarian assistances
The leaders and employees contribute to the development
of the organization’s strategic plan by providing information
about the progress of activities being carried out. The
government can contribute to strategic plan by highlighting the
policies and regulations that the organization should adhere to.
The children and parents who are the recipients of the
organization’s services contribute to the strategic plan because

5. they provide feedback about the existing programs and may
highlight areas that need improvement.
Needs Assessment
Introduction
Needs assessment is a necessary step in the strategic plan
because it directs and ensures a feasible and sustainable
implementation of the strategic plan. Importantly, the needs
assessment unveils the needs of the organization and any
existing gaps between the organizational objectives and the
expectations of the community it serves. As such, through needs
assessment the organization can set priorities and determine any
unmet expectations. Such information helps the organization to
identify who should be targeted, how data should be gathered
and how existing information should be used in the planning
process; such information assists in setting a strategic plan. The
paper explains the steps for conducting needs assessment, the
stakeholders that will be conducted while conducting the needs
assessment and the stakeholder survey concerning the societal
issue.
Steps for Conducting Needs Assessment
The focus organization is Gift for Life Foundation that
engages in promoting positive parenting and decreasing child
abuse and neglect. The societal issue is sexual child abuse and
neglect. In order to conduct the needs assessment for Gift for
Life Foundation, five steps should are followed, they are;
collecting general information about the social issue, which in
this case is sexual child abuse and neglect. The second step is
designing the plan for the needs assessment; during this step the
target stakeholders are identified, the type of information
needed is documented and the schedule for the assessment is
unveiled. The third step is collecting data from the
stakeholders, the fourth step is analyzing the data and the fifth
step is analyzing data.

6. Stakeholders
During the needs assessment for the organization, the
stakeholders that will be conducted are the organization’s staff,
the board committee, volunteers and consultants. The
organization’s staff will be conducted because they have first-
hand information about the objectives of the organization and
its operations. In this regard, the staff will provide information
about the areas of organizational operation in relation to the
societal issue by giving statistical and qualitative information
(Reviere, 2013). The board committee has the broader picture
of the organization compared to the staff. In this regard, the
board will highlight existing strategic plan targets and whether
they have been met or not; it will also explain reasons for not
meeting the targets in the existing strategic plan. Consequently,
the information gathered from the board committee will unveil
any skill deficiencies the organization is facing while
conducting its duties.
Consultants will be vital because they have broader
knowledge about the societal issues and have workable and
effective solutions to the problem. The information gathered
from them will act as a benchmark for determining the gaps
between the organization’s actions and the expected action in
addressing the social issue (Reviere, 2013).
Stakeholder Survey
Gathering information requires use of appropriate methods
data collection such as administration of questionnaires,
conducting oral interviews and making observations. In the case
of the social issue, questionnaires will be administered to the
stakeholders. Information from the board committee and
consultants will be collected by conducting oral interviews
while information from the staff and target group will be
collected by administering a fill in questionnaire and by
conducting oral interview. The survey questions will include;
Questions for Administrative:
1. What are the goals of the organization in reducing the
incidence of sexual child abuse and neglect?

7. The question seeks to determine the objectives of the
organization in addressing the social issue
2. How many goals have you achieved since the initiation of the
organization?
The question determines the measurable goals that the
organization has achieved.
Questions for Board Committee:
3. Are the stakeholders such as the police and the judicial
system supportive of your duties?
The question will have options such as supportive, very
supportive and not supportive. The information collected by the
question will help in planning about the inclusion of the other
stakeholders in achieving the organizational goals
4. How many employees, volunteers and interns does the
organization have?
The question inquires about the capability of the organization
to address the social issue. The question is directed to the board
committee.
5. Based on what you know about the organization, are there
any identifiable skills gaps that you need to fill?
The question seeks to identify skill gaps that should be
addressed
Questions for Employees:
6. In your opinion, what are the challenges in meeting the
organizational goals in relation to sexual child abuse?
The answer to the question identifies the problems faced by the
organization in meeting its goals
7. What measures should be initiated to address sexual child
abuse and neglect?
The question focuses on evidence-based practices that can be
adopted to reduce the incidence of sexual child abuse.
8. Are organizations effective in addressing sexual child
abuse?
The question is directed to consultants:

8. 9. Is the organization serving your interests?
The question is directed to the affected children, it seeks to find
out if the organization is meeting its expectations
10. What areas do you think the organization should improve?
The question is directed to the staff and the target group. It
gives feedback about the organization’s performance.
Strategic Issues at Gift of Life Foundation
The Gift of Life Foundation, which is the focus
organization, was surveyed for needs assessment. The survey
focused on stakeholders who included its employees, the board
committee, consultants and the affected children, who are
sexually abused. The intention of the needs assessment was to
identify any existing gaps between the expectations of the
community and the organizational objectives. It emerged from
the needs assessment that the Gift of Life Foundation had some
gaps in meeting its objectives; it also did not fully meet the
expectations of the external stakeholders such as the children
who were sexually abused. In cognizance of the outcomes of the
needs assessment, the paper explains the SWOT analysis for the
foundation; it explains the steps of conducting an environmental
scan and identifies the internal and external conditions that may
affect the implementation of the strategic plan.
SWOT Analysis for Gift of Life Foundation
Gift of Life Foundation has strengths and weaknesses; the
organization also has opportunities for better serving the
community and threats that may affect its service delivery.
Strengths of Gift of Life Foundation
Gift of Life Foundation has a wide network in the United
States of America due to its presence in various states (Gift of
Life Foundation, 2018). Its wide network enables the

9. organization to reach many children who have been sexually
abused. The foundation has many donors and volunteers that
provide financial and other non-material support. Such support
enables it to carry out its mission and meet some of its
objectives. Importantly, Gift of Life Foundation collaborates
with other humanitarian organizations to organize conferences
on various social aspects such as dynamics of domestic
violence. Such conferences educate the attendees on the effects
of domestic violence on enhancing child sexual abuse. The
strengths of the organization will be utilized when developing
the strategic plan by formulating strategies that can effectively
utilize the existence strengths.
Weaknesses of Gift of Life Foundation
The major weakness of Gift of Life Foundation is its
reliance on donations to finance its operations. In this regard,
in situations of hard economic times humanitarian organizations
that rely on donations for sustenance are negatively affected.
The negative impact of the weaknesses will be minimized in the
strategic plan by providing more provisions for ways of getting
resources sustain the foundation. Another weakness for this
organization is having a strong volunteer base and inspiring
leadership but can also lack someone who knows how to
effectively budget and manage operational funds to exploit
monies used to help the community.
Opportunities for Gift of Life Foundation
Gift of Life Foundation can encourage more donors to
donate their financial assistance because donations to the
foundation are tax-deductible. Encouraging donations is an
opportunity for the foundation to offer its services to the many
victims of child sexual abuse. In addition, the foundation has
the opportunity of collaborating with other organizations
supporting children and addressing child sexual abuse.
Collaboration enables the organization to seek help where it has
limited capacity. Moreover, the government may support the
organization in its fight against child sexual abuse. The support
gained from the government ion addressing the social issue

10. increases the capacity of the organization in meeting the needs
of the target community.
The opportunities will be incorporated in the strategic plan
by including of them in the plan. For instance, the plan may
include collaborating with five competitors in every state,
therefore, as part of the tactic to meet the strategy, the reasons
for and ways of collaboration will be highlighted.
Threats for Gift of Life Foundation
Threats can include laws, regulations, and even aggressive
competition. These can include internal and external sources.
The board directors can be divided in the direction of the
nonprofit and disagreeing about how to spend funds. The
volunteer force can also be divided with other people who take
sides and petitioning for support. This can cause problems of
not receiving help from the nonprofit community. The
foundation is threated by the possibility of making donations
non-tax-deductible. The situation will reduce the number of
donors supporting the works of the organization. Furthermore,
hard economic conditions may affect the amount of donations.
Steps for Conducting Environmental Scan
Environmental scan is a process of tracking occurrences
and trends in the organization’s external and internal
environment that lead to its success. The process of conducting
an environmental scan entails conducting a situational analysis
from secondary data. The step determines the areas of concern.
The second step is carrying out situational analysis by
collecting primary from stakeholders. The first two steps focus
the scan by collecting useful and relevant information necessary
in the formulation of the strategy (Conway, 2012). The third
step is identifying individuals responsible for conducting
environmental scan. During this step it is appropriate to
identify a representative group from all areas of the
organization. The fourth step is starting the scan by setting up a
classification system based on the STEEP framework; that is
social, technological, economic, environmental and political.
The findings in each category are recorded for analysis purposes

11. (Conway, 2012). The fifth step is analyzing the scanning output;
the analysis step considers the trends that emerge from the scan
and the strategic issues that need to be addressed.
Internal Conditions that Might Impact the Implementation of
Strategic Plan
Among the internal conditions at Gift of Life Foundation
that might impact the implementation of the strategic plan is the
difference in existing priorities in the organization and the
expected priorities in the strategic plan. The differences in the
priorities may be ameliorated by sequencing the strategy in a
manner that it does not undermine the existing priorities of the
foundation.
In addition, lack of resources may affect the
implementation of some strategies that have financial
implications to the organization. Lack of resources may be
addressed by appropriately allocating resources based on value
contribution. Furthermore, resistance to change by the
organization’s staff impedes effective implementation of
strategies. Resistance from employees may be addressed by
involving employees in the formulation of the strategic plan so
that they understand the rationale, importance and effects of the
strategy on the overall organization.
External Conditions that Might Impact the Implementation of
Strategic Plan
The foundation is affected by the existing public policy;
therefore, one external condition that might affect the
implementation of the strategic plan is the changes in public
policy. Public policy may have negative affect on the strategic
plan if the plan is heavily reliant on the existing policy. The
change in public policy may be addressed by making the
strategic plan align with the new public policy.
Working with Competitors
The organization has competitors offering some of the
services that it offers, however, in line with dealing with child
sexual abuse, the foundation has none or one competitor is some

12. states. Among the competitors are International Rescue
Committee-IRC and The Survivors Trust. The competitors.
However, the competitors are not antagonistic in achieving the
objectives of the organization. To effectively implement the
strategic plan, the competitors will be involved during the
implementation so that the tactics employed in achieving the
strategic plan are collaborative. For instance, to meet the needs
of children who have been sexually abused, the competitors will
be notified so that in case the cases increase beyond the scope
of the foundation, other children may be referred to the
competitor organizations. The aim in the collaboration is to
address the social problem. In addition, the organization will
work with competitors to organize conferences that address
issues about child sexual abuse.
Developing Technical Elements
Introduction
The development of technical elements entails developing
the strategic goals, the specific strategies, establishing the
indictors of success and formulating the performance targets.
The paper is the first part of the constructing the technical
elements; specifically, it focuses on the development of
strategic goals, formulation of the strategies for implementing
the goals. It also addresses issues of accountability in the Gift
for Life Foundation.
Strategic Goals
The strategic goals for Gift for Life Foundation are to
increase their humanitarian services in all states in America and
expand to other countries. Secondly, to broaden and increase its
sources of revenue, and thirdly to enhance its collaboration with
organizations with similar objectives and ameliorate the
problem of child sexual abuse in the world. The three strategic
goals focus on globalization of the foundation’s functions in
relation to addressing sexual child abuse, the foundations
revenue sources and lastly, the foundation’s alliances with other

13. organizations.
In line with globalization, the foundation will increase its
services in all state and expand to other countries to curb sexual
child abuse. Globalization as a strategic goal impacts on the
foundation’s revenue collection and expenditure. Furthermore,
in relation to formation of alliances and collaboration with other
organizations, such alliances complement the organization’s
activities in relation to solving sexual child abuse. It also acts
as a growth tactic because it enables the organization to expand
its area of operations by forming horizontal integration, which
creates value to clients. Collaboration increases the versatility
and increases the rate of globalization. Furthermore, in
situations where there are human resource capacity challenges,
alliances help to solve such challenges because of access to a
wider pool of human resource capacity that can address the
various challenges faced by children who have been sexually
abused and challenges of addressing the problem in the
communities.
Strategies for Implementing the Goal
The implementing the goals requires appropriate strategies.
The goals of the organization are to promote positive parenting,
decrease child neglect and child abuse (Gift for Life
Foundation, 2018). Ultimately, the organization aims at
promoting independence, confidence and life-long learning in
children. Based on the highlighted goals, the foundation can
achieve the goals by initiating strategic measures such as
increasing collaboration with other organizations like planned
parenthood, The Resource Center for Parents and children, and
Hearts for Families that focus on parenting. Such collaboration
helps the organization to address sexual child abuse by
educating parents on how to educate their children and the
protection of their children against sexual child abuse. In
addition, the organization can increase its revenue base so that
it collects enough financial resources that can help it to
organize parenting conferences.
In relation to decreasing child neglect and abuse, the

14. organization will educate the public about dangers of child
neglect and abuse and encourage the public to report any case of
child neglect or abuse. The organization will also provide
public and private classes to parents, so they are able to
recognize the warning signs of sexual child abuse. In addition,
the organization can collaborate with other humanitarian and
health organization that work closely with families to identify
cases of child neglect or abuse and report the cases to the
organization for remedial action.
Accountability
The strategic plan will be executed and monitored by
foundation’s managers. They must complete the execution of
the plan’s objectives and the monitoring happening periodically
of the implementation progress and changes in the business
community. In this way, the foundation’s managers maintain an
accountability for meeting their commitments and the ability to
make changes to the existed plans as the community changes.
Specifically, in relation to child sexual abuse, the manager in
charge of child abuse and neglect will be mandated to execute
and monitor the implementation of the strategic plan. The
manager’s accountability will be tracked by evaluating the
performance of the organization in relation to the stipulated
performance targets during a specific time period.
Clients will help in accountability be providing feedback
about the nature of services received, based on the feedback, the
senior managers can then assess if the organization is meeting
its performance measures.
References
Gift for Life Foundation (2018). For Families: Child Abuse &
Neglect Prevention. Web. Accessed on 12/12/2018.