Download Strategic Alternatives Imagine a nonprofit organization trying to raise

Strategic Alternatives
Imagine a nonprofit organization trying to raise funds for cancer research. What types of
strategic alternatives might such an organization develop? Respond to at least two of your
classmates’ posts. You must create one initial post and at least two responses, for a
minimum of three posts for this discussion.
A very common and obvious strategic alternative is to directly solicit donations through a profit
organization (Abraham, 2012). It is fair to say that almost everyone has experienced purchasing
items at a store and then being asked if they would like to donate a dollar to a specific charity.
This can be effective because as a consumer you feel selfish to directly say no to the cashier as it
is only one dollar, especially when it is a large purchase, and so being directly confronted about
it exerts more pressure on someone to just say yes. A more creative alternative may be to
establish a strong marketing campaign for the importance of cancer research, perhaps by
concurrently using a diverse mix of celebrities as a spokespeople, with the intent of creating
overall public value by reaching out to multiple demographics.
Social media is also a common method of raising awareness, but it has become watered down to
some effect; people seem to think they can save the world one “like” button at a time. For
instance, the average Facebook user may see a picture of an underprivileged or sick or disfigured
child and of course they hit the “like” button without hesitation, and although it does raise some
awareness, it does not create any real interaction or genuine concern. With this in mind, a
possible social media marketing campaign could be along the lines of goading people to put their
money where their mouth is, perhaps by partnering with Facebook to create some sort of
initiative that requires people to actually donate a dollar or more in order to successfully hit the
“like” button on the cancer research page. An added incentive could be that when that user hits
the “like” button and donates, the action would then be displayed for all their friends to see (like
many other apps); this would serve to let the user display an act of altruism for all their friends to
see and at the same time further promote the cause. I think this would appeal to the many people
who want to set themselves apart from the common narcissistic and emotionally unstable social
media user. No more watered-down "likes"!
I understand there may be a few obstacles to this sort of marketing scheme, but I think that the
overall strategy of making it the cool thing to do is in the right place. For instance, children
demonstrate environmental awareness much more than in the past, but many do not really
understand how energy and alternative energy and the ethics and economy behind it all works; a
lot of it has to do with peer pressure and mainstreaming, and that is where I would align my
strategic alternatives.
Reference:
Abraham, S. C. (2012). Strategic Management for Organizations. San Diego, CA:
Bridgepoint Education, Inc.