The Coalition of Immokalee Workers

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is a non-profit organization that is based in Florida.
The organization is founded on the need to advocate for the human rights of workers. The
organization has achieved tremendous success in the past (Drainville, 2008). In particular, it has
fought against human trafficking, gender-based violence, and social responsibility. CIW has
helped authorities to investigate slavery operations. The organization has, over time, established
a unique partnership with workers, and this has helped the organization to advocate for the rights
of workers (Gonzalez, 2005). The selected area that the plan covers is public relations. The paper
proposes a strategic plan that helps the organization achieve success in the area of public
relations.
Any non-profit organization needs to build a strong and beneficial relationship between
the organization and the public (Rinrattanakorn, 2012). Through robust public relations, the
Coalition of Immokalee Workers can build trust and credibility, and this can help the
organization to achieve its goals. A positive image can help the organization come up with more
donors, and this can help ensure that the organization achieves its financial goals. A public
relation campaign is more effective compared to a paid advert (Saxton, & Waters, 2014). The
organization stands to achieve a lot from a public relations campaign compared to what the
organization could achieve from paid advertising. The general public is likely to trust a company
that has a better public relations program. Favorable mentions could benefit the organization.
A public relations program can help people to think more positively about the
organization. There is a lot of information about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Both

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positive and negative information exists about the company (Curtis et al., 2010). The most
effective method to fix the reputation of the organization is through a strategic public relations
program. In the digital age, individuals can easily access information online. The implication is
that through public relations, the organization can take control of its reputation online. Many
organizations get a bad reputation for doing nothing wrong. It is, therefore, imperative for the
organization to ensure that it establishes strong public relation campaigns.
Strategic planning is complicated, and this means that every organization must be ready
to face the challenges associated with strategic planning. One of the challenges revolves around
coming up with a strong plan that will fit the organization (Hu, Kapucu, & O’Byrne, 2014). The
plan has to cater to the unique needs of the organization. The plan must take into consideration
the evolving environment. Technology is one of the things that is ever-evolving. The
organization needs to set meaningful priorities to achieve the results. Gaining the commitment of
all employees in the organization will also be a challenge. Strategic planning relies on the right
attitude. If the stakeholders do not embrace the plan, the plan is bound to fail (Cho, Schweickart,
& Haase, 2014). Most organization fail to succeed owing to partial commitment. It is difficult to
have every stakeholder committed to the strategic plan. Another problem relates to financial
constraint. Implementing the strategic plan will require a huge budgetary allocation. The
organization is a non-profit organization that will need financial belt-tightening. The
organization may be reluctant to spend on public relations (Berke & Smith, 2009). However, the
challenge can be overcome through an analysis of the advantages of the public relations
program. Social media has also eased the process of public relations, and the organization can
take advantage of the limitless possibilities offered by social media.

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SWOT Analysis of Coalition of Immokalee Workers

SWOT analysis provides details of strengths and weaknesses within an organization’s
internal environment and threats within an organization’s external environment. Such details
play an important role in the development of an organization’s strategic plan. Since its founding
more than twenty-five years ago, Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has developed into a
globally-respected organization for its work in combatting human trafficking, gender-based
violence, modern slavery, and poor working conditions of farm workers.
However, the environment that the organization operates in keeps changing. Therefore, it
is important that it adjusts to these changes in order to remain effective in future as it has been in
the past. One way of achieving this goal is having a strategic plan. The organization’s SWOT
analysis helps in the development of such a plan. Here is a look at CIW’s SWOT analysis.
Strengths
One of CIW’s greatest strengths presence of effective leaders with excellent grassroots
mobilization and negotiation skills. The organization has a leadership development program
which provides future leaders with knowledge and skills that they require to effectively lead the
organization (Gilbert, 2015). As a result of this program, CIW has a large pool of highly
knowledgeable and skilled leaders.
Another strength of CIW is large numbers. Knowing that there is strength in numbers,
CIW has built alliances with like-minded individuals and organizations to collectively advocate
for its causes. For instance, it has joined hands with students and faith-based organizations who
too are against human trafficking, modern slavery, and exploitation of farm workers (Gilbert,

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2015). Through such coalition-building, CIW has been able to increase its ability to bring about
the changes that it desires.
Weaknesses
A key weakness of the organization is its reliance on donor funding to finance its
operations and activities. The lack of significant sources of independent income acts as a
constrain on the organizations plans and activities.
Opportunities
The organization has received a large number of awards for the work that it has done in
combatting human trafficking, modern slavery, gender-based violence and improving the
working conditions of farm workers (Gilbert, 2015). The awards have strengthened the
organization’s credibility and fostered a positive image for itself and its work. The positive
image can not only improve its ability to get more donor funding but also improve its ability to
achieve its goals when negotiating with corporations and other entities for better working
conditions of farm workers and other causes that it is involved in.
Another opportunity is changing public perceptions and attitudes towards many of the
issues that the organization fights for. For instance, the public is increasingly concerned not just
about the nutritional value of the food that they eat but also about the conditions of workers
within the supply chains of the food industry. These concerns have made many individuals and
groups to develop positive attitude towards the organization and support for its efforts.
Threats

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The main threat of the organization is the massive market and financial power of the
corporations which the Coalition of Immokalee Workers frequently negotiates with over a wide
range of issues that include the prices of farm products, the conditions of the workers, and how
the workers are sourced. Being a threat to the business interests of powerful corporations in the
food industry makes the work of Coalition of Immokalee Workers relatively difficult.

Coalition of Immokalee Workers Strategic Plan

Strategic planning is an important tool that organizations use to achieve their objectives
and comply with its mission and vision. Therefore, Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) can
use strategic planning to achieve its goals, such as combatting modern slavery, fighting human
trafficking and gender-based violence, and seeking improvement of the working conditions of
farm workers in the food industry. However, these objectives cannot be achieved if the
organization does not implement the strategic plan in an effective manner.

Implementation Strategy

An implementation strategy is just as important as the strategic plan itself. Many strategic
plans fail to have the desired impact not because the strategic plans are poorly crafted but
because they are either unimplemented or poorly implemented (Aboramadan & Borgonovi,
2016). An effective implementation strategy clearly spells out the inputs, outputs, and outcomes
of the strategic plan which guide the implementation process.
Inputs include all the resources that an organization commits to a given program or plan.
They include financial resources, expertise, staff, facilities, and methods (Aboramadan &
Borgonovi, 2016). Implementation of a strategic plan can only succeed if all the required inputs
are made available. In the case of CIW, inputs include the money required to fund its activities

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geared towards achievement of its objectives, its employees, experts, volunteers, and partners,
such as the students and faith-based organizations.
An implementation strategy should also be clear about the outputs and outcomes that the
strategy is trying to achieve. Even though they are usually used interchangeably, there are
significant differences between outputs and outcomes. Outputs are the numerical counts that are
associated with a given program or activity (Fritz, 2018). Outputs for CIW include the number of
cases of gender-based violence that it addresses in a given year, the number of workers that it
saves from conditions resembling modern slavery, and the raise in wages and other benefits it is
able to win for farm workers. Outcomes, on the other hand, are anticipated changes resulting
from implementation of the strategic plan. Outcomes represent the impact that the strategic plan
has on people upon its implementation. For CIW, outcomes include changes in conditions of
farm workers, and changes in knowledge and attitudes of the public towards issues such as
gender-based violence, modern slavery, human trafficking, and conditions of workers within the
supply chains of agricultural products.

Performance Measures

Performance measurement is a key component of a strategic plan. It is through
performance measurement that organizations are able to assess their outputs and outcomes.
Results of performance measures help an organization to determine its level of efficiency,
effectiveness, transparency, and accountability. Such kind of information is not only important to
the organization but also to its stakeholders. In the case of CIW, the stakeholders include its
major donors without whose financial support the organization cannot fund its activities.

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Some of CIW’s performance measures to consider include its outcome and impact
performance. Outcome performance provides information that shows the extent to which the
organization is able to achieve its goals while impact performance relates to the positive as well
as negative results of the organization’s works (Fritz, 2018). Another key performance measure
is financial transparency. The ability of a non-governmental organization such as CIW to attract
donor funding to a large extent depends on its financial transparency (Fritz, 2018). Financial
transparency measure provides information that shows how well the organization prepares its
financial records and how accurately it captures its financial data.
The program’s financial and non-financial efficiencies are also important performance
measures. The former provides information on how well financial resources of the organization
are used to achieve the desired outputs and outcomes while the latter provides information
regarding how non-financial resources such as staff, time, and volunteers have been used to
achieve the targeted or planned outcomes (Fritz, 2018). Other performance measures to consider
include partnership level and fundraising efficiency. In regard to partnership, the performance
measure examines how well the organization works with its partners and the relevance of such
partnership in the achievement of the goals of the organization (Fritz, 2018). In the case of
Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the measure will look at its working relationship with the
student and faith-based organizations and how such partnership helps the organization to achieve
its goals that have been spelt out in the strategic plan. As for fundraising efficiency, the
performance measure will consider the organization’s ability to attract donors.
Implementation of the Strategic Management System

For a strategic plan to have the desired effect, it needs to be implemented effectively.
Implementation involves turning the strategic plan into actions. It is these actions that lead to the

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achievement of the goals of the strategic plan. One of the implementation measures that CIW
will take to ensure smooth implementation of the strategic plan will be to provide clear
responsibility to everyone associated with the implementation of the plan. For instance, every
employee and manager will know what to do, how to do it, where to do it, and when to do it.
Through such clear assignment of responsibilities, there will be no passing of the buck. Another
implementation measure will be proper communication. Implementation of many strategic plans
fail because of poor or non-existence communication among key parties tasked with its
implementation (Aboramadan & Borgonovi, 2016). In regard to CIW’s strategic plan, all parties
involved in the implementation of the plan will be provided with all the information that they
require at the right time and in the right manner.
Lastly, to increase the chances of success of the implementation of strategic plan, the
required human and financial resources will be made available. Effective implementation of a
strategic plan requires certain skills and competencies (Aboramadan & Borgonovi, 2016). If the
available workforce lacks the required skills and competencies, such as advocacy at
congressional level or attorneys to offer legal help to victims of gender-based violence, then the
organization may be forced to hire people who possess such skills or train employees to acquire
the skills. All the activities and programs contained in the strategic plan will also budgeted for so
that no aspect of the plan’s implementation structure involving management structure and the
lines of authority to facilitate seamless implementation of the strategic plan.
Comparison of Public and Private Sector Strategic Planning Efforts
Both public and private sector organizations use strategic plans to guide their actions,
activities, and programs so that they can better achieve their mission and vision as well as the
strategic objectives. In preparation of strategic plans both public and private sector organizations

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prepare SWOT analysis so that they can come up with realistic strategic plans (Alford & Greve,
2017). However, there are also significant differences between strategic planning efforts of
public and private sector organizations.
One of these differences relates to their objectives. Often, private sector organizations
prepare strategic plans whose objectives concern business or market interests, such as increasing
profits, increasing shareholder value, or increasing market share (Alford & Greve, 2017). For
public organizations, the objectives are usually about public service. Coalition for Immokalee
Workers, although a non-governmental organization, is as good as a public sector organization as
far as its objectives are concerned. The goals of its strategic plan relate to provision of services
such as offering help to victims of gender-based violence and advocacy for causes such as efforts
against modern slavery, human trafficking, and poor working conditions for farm workers.

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References

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Gilbert, G. (2015). Lessons from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for low-wage workers.
Waging Nonviolence

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https://wagingnonviolence.org/2015/02/lessons-coalition-immokalee-workers-low-wage-
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Gonzalez, M. (2005). Awakening the Consciousness of the Labor Movement: The Case of the
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