RUNNUNGHEAD: SWOT ANAYLSIS CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS 1

SWOT ANAYLSIS Congreso de Latinos Unidos

Aisha Erwin

Wilmington University

August 25, 2019

RUNNUNGHEAD: SWOT ANAYLSIS CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS 2

A S.W.O.T analysis is a strategic planning technique used to help a person or

organization identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to

business competition. A S.W.O.T is to specify identify the objectives of the organization

and the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving

those objectives. A SWOT Analysis can be used to increase the organization's

effectiveness and bring the value of the organization and fulfill its mission and values.

Strengths

Congreso de Latinos Unidos, Inc. is a non-profit organization founded in 1977

with a mission to enable individuals and families in predominantly Latino neighborhoods

to achieve economic self-sufficiency and well-being (Congreso.net). Located in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Congreso is of the leading provider of high-quality

programs with an expert focus on the Latino community. Their Primary Client Model

(PCM™), ensures a client-centered, data-driven approach to service delivery and is the

foundation for Congreso’s importance on outcomes. Congreso is guided by their five

core values of, equality, safety, service, integrity and adaptability. Although, Congreso is

known for a variety of social services. Congreso has served 17,567 unduplicated

individuals in 2018 fiscal year offering a continuum of services through its three

programs divisions of Education and Workforce Services, Health Promotion and

Wellness, and Family and Housing Services. Education and Workforce Services

includes in-school and out-of-school-time programs, on-site GED instruction and GED

testing center, adult education programming, Commercial Driver License Class A

courses, ESL instruction, and post-secondary options such as Harcum College at

Congreso and a Child Development Associate credentialing program (Congreso.net).

RUNNUNGHEAD: SWOT ANAYLSIS CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS 3

Services within Family and Housing Services include teen parenting services, older

adult programming, housing services, family empowerment and social services, truancy

services, and a financial empowerment center and lastly the Health Promotion and

Wellness, houses Congreso’s Federally Qualified Health Center, offers HIV and AIDS

services, health education and training, breastfeeding consultation, and the Latina

Domestic Violence Program (Congreso.net.)

Congreso has many advantages that other non-profits organizations do not have

such as low retention for their staff, strong funding resources and access to many

partners. The Internal Strengths for this organization are the low staff retention among

employees, high morale and staff appreciation from the organization. Equality is one of

the Congreso values which they listen first to understand and respect one another’s

ideas, beliefs and practices, especially those different from our own. Here the staff and

leadership work together and so that that provide better services. Congreso respects

every employee and values their dedication to their agency. Each month there is

something given to their employees from the organization to show their appreciation

and hard work. For instance, On May 28th, Congreso came together for the Annual All

Staff Day at the Philadelphia Zoo! Each division, shared agency updates, and had the

opportunity to explore the zoo! In the month of August as the summer comes to close

Congreso implemented camp Congreso which is a day just for Congreso staff to enjoy

the last day of summer to play games, eat and enjoy the last days of the summer before

the school year begins. In addition, to their staff appreciation, Congreso offers early

work weeks in the summer months and dress down for all employees on Fridays.

Congreso continues to value their employees to promote a positive work environment.

RUNNUNGHEAD: SWOT ANAYLSIS CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS 4

In 2014 and 2015 Congreso was rated by the Philadelphia inquirer as one the top

places to work in Philadelphia. Congreso financial strengths is due to their high quality

of performance which promotes a strong funding for the organization. According to the

2018 fiscal year Congreso revenue about $10,512,113 and $9,071,066 for the years

ended June 30, 2018 and 5,245,106 and Family and Housing Services $3,562,10 for

their charter school of Pan American Charter school total revenue (Financial

Statements, Congreso.net) Given the high numbers of the last year fiscal year,

Congreso was able to receive additional funding for the 2019-2019 fiscal year. For the

Family and Housing Services department they were able to receive additional grants

and funding to the housing unit and their truancy department receive additional funding

for their emergency payments.

Weakness

Like most non- profits’ organizations Congreso de Latinos Unidos has need for

improvement. Many non – profit organizations find it difficult to compete with for-profit

organizations when it comes to recruiting employees to occupy positions. This is merely

because they can’t match with their wages offered by these for-profit organizations.

Most non – profit organizations find it difficult to attract, pay and keep employees on

their payroll. Congreso de Latinos Unidos weakness for is the competitive salaries,

volunteer management and programming and communications capacity. Although,

Congreso has low retention for their employees they have low salaries for their

employees which it makes it harder to keep employees and employ them as well. This

agency is desperate to employ staff to fill positions that they are filling position through

staff agencies. This is cause by the low salary offered by the company verse the staffing
RUNNUNGHEAD: SWOT ANAYLSIS CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS 5

agency. Many of the newly hired staff are entry level employees that have little to no

experience. Which can put the agency in a bond for prior employees, as they must

maintain the caseload until that employee is fully trained. Internal weakness is the

programming and communications capacity. As I sat in the leadership meeting for the

Family and Housing Services department I took many notes that noticed that it was

internal miscommunication among management and fiscal. Fiscal would have certain

forms that they would use for the company and the Family and Housing Services

department would used another form which cause a confusion in documentation when it

came to check request, token logs and emergency payments for the families. An

effective communication strategy can guide an entire program or intervention unit. It

sets the tone and direction so that all communication activities, products and materials

work in harmony to achieve the desired change. By the end of the leadership meeting

the fiscal department was able to share their forms with the Family and Housing

Services department so that they can correctly submit all for funding. Another,

weakness of Congreso de Latinos Unidos is its volunteer coordination. Congreso de

Latinos Unidos lack of volunteer coordination. I noticed that at every event that was held

throughout my intern that there were not volunteers for the event. The partner agency

always had their own volunteers with them such as the Health partners event and FEC

event. Most the volunteers for each event were employees either from health partners

or the family empowerment unit in Family and Housing Services department. There was

no protocol or polices in place for volunteers what they should expect, what

requirements are at each type of event, or even a standard dress code, nor is their any

forms for anyone who wants to volunteer at the agency. I later noticed that they do have
RUNNUNGHEAD: SWOT ANAYLSIS CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS 6

a volunteer application on the website, but it is uncertain if it’s being utilize. Overall, the

lack of coordination and management for volunteers is a negative situation for the

agency.

Opportunities

Opportunities are a combination of different circumstances at a given time that offer a

positive outcome (Bush, 2016). At Congreso de Latinos Unidos, the opportunities for

this organization would be develop more partnerships more agencies and Collaboration.

Developing more partnerships with other local nonprofits could be an opportunity for

expansion of the company and a development of partnerships with other non-profit

organizations. For example, Congreso de Latinos Unidos agency does not provide any

BHRS or Outpatient services for their clientele. However, if they were partner with

nearby mental health agency Cohmar or the Hispanic community counseling services,

they would be able to provide another additional service for their clientele. I would also

consider Mentoring Partnerships. Becoming a partner is an opportunity to significantly

improve the impact of your support for that organization. Another opportunity would be

the collaboration with another organization or company. Collaboration can promote

means of solving shared problems and achieving common goals among the

organizations. Yet, collaboration can create opportunities and as well as Threats.

Collaboration is another important concept for internal management. At Congreso de

Latinos Unidos and Pan American Academy Charter School often collaborate services

together Family and Housing department. For example, the Leadership staff from

Congreso & Pan American Academy Charter School completed a retreat in June to get

to know each other and to discuss how to work together to serve students and families.
RUNNUNGHEAD: SWOT ANAYLSIS CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS 7

Congreso and Pan American Academy have similar missions which is to ensure the

student and their families achieve academic success and wellbeing. This collaboration

could be beneficial for the organization as the can promote a better partnership among

the two organizations by offering dual services for the student and their families.

Threats

Congreso de Latinos Unidos has many threats to their organization particularly as they

one of the four non- profit organization in the Philadelphia area that offer some the

same exact services as Congreso in predominantly Latino neighborhoods. As I did

some research I found that there are several other organizations in Philadelphia that

offer social services to the Latino communities such as El Concilio, which is the oldest

Latino organization in Philadelphia and has a well-established reputation as a leader for

the Latino community. El Concilio provides human service programming throughout the

Philadelphia area such as foster care, adoptions services, housing, youth development

and after-school programming, and children’s immunization ( https://elconcilio.net/). El

Concilio has is known for their arts and cultural for the community. El Concilio is a threat

for the Congreso as they offer one additional service that Congreso does not have such

as foster and adoption services. This program brings in additional revenue each year

base on the new foster parent recruits. El Concilio mission is to cultivate the strength

and resilience of children and families, improve the quality of life within the community,

and maintain our community’s heritage, history, and culture. El Concilio stands by this

mission through their services (https://elconcilio.net/). Another, organization that is a

threat to Congreso is Esperanza which is a faith-based nonprofit organization driven by

the biblical mandate to "serve the least of these." We strengthen Hispanic communities
RUNNUNGHEAD: SWOT ANAYLSIS CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS 8

through education, economic development, and advocacy (https://www.esperanza.us/0

). Esperanza mission is driven by the biblical mandate to serve the “least of these”

(Matthew- 25:40). They believe in strengthen Hispanic communities through a variety of

programs and services that are all designed to empower people through education,

housing and economic development, immigration legal services, job training and

advocacy ( https://www.esperanza.us/0) . At Esperanza, they have something additional

to just providing services to the Latino community but is also is strength base and faith

base. Esperanza has one college and three charter schools and One arts center. They

offer community economic development and immigration legal services. Like Congreso,

Ezperanza is widely known for the educational services and they have many

partnerships. Lastly, APM also know as Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha

(Association of Puerto Ricans on the Move) has worked to implement and maintain

initiatives in the areas of behavioral health; affordable housing options; home

ownership; substance abuse treatment for adults; support services for families and

individuals; head start, day care services, early intervention and child welfare(

http://apmphila.org/about/history/ ). Another non-profit organization that offers some the

same exact services as Congreso who also some of the same missions and values as

Congreso has which is to provided services to Latino Families. Another, threat is the

duplicate partnership among the organizations list above. As I research each company

and learned that each agency has some of the partners for their organization such as

PECO, AARP, Wells Fargo and the City of Philadelphia. It is unknown how much they

give each year to every agency, but they give base on the need and compliance with
RUNNUNGHEAD: SWOT ANAYLSIS CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS 9

services for the community. This could be a threat to the Congreso as if they

performance would decrease more funding would go to their competitors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, although a nonprofit organization are exempt from paying taxes,

they still operate like a business, and just like business you must continue to new form

strategies to increase your services, resources and revenue. Non-profits can benefit

from the same strategy techniques that businesses utilize. Using a S.W.O.T. analysis

can help any organization for the improvement for the better.
RUNNUNGHEAD: SWOT ANAYLSIS CONGRESO DE LATINOS UNIDOS 10

References

Congreso de Latinos Unidos. 2018. Retrieve from https://www.congreso.net/about/contact/

El Concilio. 2019. Retrieved from https://elconcilio.net/mission/
Esperanza. 2019. Retrieved from https://www.esperanza.us/about-the-agency/partners/

Bush, T. (2016). SWOT Analysis Opportunities: Definition & Examples. PESTLE Analysis Copyright
© 2019. Retrieve from https://pestleanalysis.com/swot-analysis-opportunities-definition-
examples/