The British Heart Foundation

Introduction

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is a UK charity organization established in 1961 by medical professionals who were concerned about the increasing heart diseases and high death rates resulting from heart diseases (British Heart Foundation, 2012). According to British Heart Foundation (2012), they then decided to fund extra research into the causes of heart diseases, teach the public on preventive measure to avoid developing such diseases and provide free diagnosis and treatment. The organization has been funding various activities including education, care and cardiovascular research. According to British Heart Foundation (2012), this charity organization relies mostly on voluntary donations to meet its goals, though part of its income is obtained from investments. It also collaborates with other organizations in combating disabilities and premature death resulting from cardiovascular disease, which helps the organization to attract income from other sources such as government grants and contracts.

BHF internal and external environment

BHF has a chain of charity shops throughout UK as well as in Scottland and Wales. According to Retail Technology review (2011), the organization had established over 600 retail shops and over 80 furniture and electrical shops by 2010. On average, the retail shops have been making approximately 13% of the organization’s annual income in recent years (Retail Technology review (2011). These shops are staffed predominantly by slightly more than 10,000 volunteers. Each of them has a manager, a shop assistant and in some cases, a retail assistant, all of whom are paid.

According to British Heart Foundation (2012), BHF focuses on five major goals in addressing the issue of cardiovascular health. First, BHF is involved in continuous research into the causes of heart-related diseases and has more than 260 nurses providing free care services for individuals with cardiac diseases across UK. Secondly, it provides vital information related to the causes of heart diseases and efficient prevention methods in order to help people to reduce risks of developing heart diseases (Jowett, et al, 2007, p. 8). For instance, the organization has established over 1,620 Heartstart schemes in UK to educate people on the causes heart diseases as well as preventive measures they need to undertake (British Heart Foundation, 2012). The schemes also alert people on how they should respond to all emergency situations, including those not related to cardiac problems. According to British Heart Foundation (2012), Heartstart also engages in direct training and by 2010, it had trained more than 1.2 million people in schools and communities in UK.

The charity organization also involved in massive campaigns meant to push government to develop policies that will help to minimize chances of people developing heart as well as circulatory diseases. It stresses the need for health organizations to attain the highest possible standards of care and support for individuals who have already developed heart diseases (Jowett, et al, 2007, p. 8). In addition this charity organization is popular in pushing health organizations other private and public institutions to collaborate in reducing inequalities in treatment of individuals with heart diseases across UK.

BHF funding largely focuses on research, care and prevention. In 2010, for instance the BHF spent £48.4 millions on researches, which accounted for 57% of the organization’s income (British Heart Foundation, 2012). 41% of the income was allocated for care and prevention activities such as ongoing activities in healthcare centers, placing of defibrillators and producing heart health resources for individuals of all ages. Part of the income is sometimes used in establishment of new programs and facilities as well as in the organization’s Heart Information Series.

BHF also engages in sponsoring of television programs to spread information related to heart diseases. It has been sponsoring to television series known as Kid’s Fit Squad and Kitchen Detective, which are produced by Twofor (British Heart Foundation, 2012). The two series encourage people to adopt health eating habits and to do regular excurses and provides specific advices for people from different age groups. As noted earlier, the organization collaborates with other non-governmental organizations such as Cancer Research UK to campaign against habits that increase chances off developing heart diseases such as the use of tobacco

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis refers to the process of analyzing an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Henry, 2008, p. 68). The strengths and weaknesses relates to an organization’s internal environment while opportunities and threats are external factors to an organization. The following are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of BHF.

Strengths

BHF, like other charities in UK is tax exempt. As such, it has been possible for the organization to offer products in the retail shops at a discount since there are no tax expenses (British Heart Foundation, 2012)

BHF has volunteer staff in the numerous retail shops. The volunteer staff enables the organization to make a lot of savings to the organization which is particularly important for efficient running of the organization. The board of directors for BHF is composed of volunteers, which gives an added advantage to the charity (British Heart Foundation, 2012).

BHF has well trained and experienced board of directors compared to most of its competitors in UK (British Heart Foundation, 2012).

This charity organization has grown to attain high levels of public awareness, more than most competitors. It is thus easier for BHF to attract donor funding than most competitors

BHF has strong organizational beliefs and values which support constant innovation and development.

BHF receives very little support from the government, which helps it to retain authority off independence (American Heart Association, 2007, p. 90).

Weaknesses

As noted earlier, the largest portion of BHF’s income is comes from legacies and wills. These sources are increasingly becoming unpredictable and sometimes, the organization’s total income is less than the organization’s expenses, making it difficult to fund some of its vital activities (British Heart Foundation, 2012).

The budget problem sometimes extends to limited ability to pay competitive salaries to the organization’s workers, making it difficult to attract some the most trained and experienced personnel in UK (British Heart Foundation, 2012).

In charity organizations, professionals typically focus on job satisfaction as compensation. However, some professionals working with BHF have been found to focus on salary as a major source of compensation. Such persons may end up providing low quality services especially when they are dissatisfied with payment (British Heart Foundation, 2012).

Opportunities

BHF defines its opportunities as the grants to which the organization is eligible. BHF has been attracting a huge amount of funding from legacies and wills. In 2010 for instance, the amount collected from legacies and wills was more than £40 millions (British Heart Foundation, 2012). BHF also attracts sizeable support from volunteers. The amount of funding from volunteers accounted for 32% of the organization’s income in 2010. The various retail shops for BHF makes a lot of profits which greatly adds to support the activities of the organization. In 2010, the retail shops made £16 million. BHF makes considerable returns from other investments. In 2010, they accounted for 5% of the total income (British Heart Foundation, 2012).

Threats

The biggest threat facing BHF emanates from the use of animals for testing. BHF conducts research using animals and according to civil society (2011), it subject to a national boycott campaign planned organized by Animal Aid. Animal Aid has been planning to urge the public through the media to stop BHF unless it stops using animals for testing. For instance, protests to place in November 2011 calling for BHF and University of Leeds to refrain from using dogs in their co-funded experiments. The protesters claimed that more than 100 dogs had died during experiments since 1988.

Heavy reliance on Legacies and wills makes BHF to be quite vulnerable to economic crisis. Usually, when economic crisis sets in, most or donors are adversely affected and they cut back on charitable giving (Saxton & Guild, 2010, p. 46)

Being a charity organization, BHF is held to a higher standard than just to make profits. Since it depends on contributions, BHF is constantly faced with the threat of creating an impression of impropriety. Quite a small scandal can be quite damaging for the organization (American Heart Association, 2007, p. 90).

Presence of government regulations that sometimes undermine effective performance of charities.

BHF areas of competitive advantage

BHF has several competitive advantages. First, BHF has an ability to demonstrate its success and achievements compared to competitors (British Heart Foundation, 2012). Secondly, the purposes and activities of BHF are unique and it is perceived to focus on sensitive needs and interests of a huge number of people. BHF invests in a highly skilled workforce compared to most competitors enabling the organization to produce exceptional results in its activities. It has established good relations with all stakeholders by keeping close to their needs. It has a large database of loyal supporters who provide huge amounts of donations in form of legacies and wills (British Heart Foundation, 2012).

BHF gap analysis

Gap analysis refers to determining the difference between the desired and actual performance of an organization (Berke, et al, 2008, p. 43). The prime objective of BHF is to play a leading role in the fight against heart and circulation diseases and hence and reduce the number of people developing such diseases as well as deaths resulting from such diseases (British Heart Foundation, 2012). It thus requires a lot of funding to support it to achieve this objective. BHF largely applies externally driven strategy in its management (Saxton & Guild (2010, p. 38).

Externally driven strategy involves raising funds through sources such as legacy, wills and government grants and contracts. As mentioned earlier, the biggest proportion of BHF income comes from legacies and will. BHF thus lacks proper marketing program and applies very little incentives which resemble fundraising. Reliance on such sources is highly likely to be unsustainable as donors may hold back on their donations during periods of economic crisis (Saxton & Guild, 2010, p. 47). Secondly, legacies may leak away to other organizations as they get better and better in marketing. Saxton & Guild (2010, p. 46) noted that income from wills is increasingly becoming unpredictable and insufficient. These challenges are likely to adversely affect the performance of BHF and its competitive edge.

Strategic recommendations

There are several strategies open for BHF to adopt as it seeks to improve its performance and gain competitive edge. Currently, BHF relies on externally-driven strategy, largely depending on funding sources such as legacy and will. Three other strategies which can be applied in isolation or in combination can help BHF to effectively adjust to the changing competitive environment. First, BHF can adopt differentiation strategy and focus on defining the organization by products, audiences or specific belief (Saxton & Guild, 2010, p. 45). It can also apply the niche strategy which focuses on increasing market share through either geographic area or through a specific issue. Finally, BHF can adopt the awareness strategy which focuses on maintaining high levels of public awareness. Generally, BHF need to apply the most suitable strategy or combination of strategies and establish strong brand and corporate positioning.

Likely competitor reactions

If the use of any or all of the above strategies proves to be quite effective for BHF, it is highly possible that its competitors are going to adopt the same strategies. This is likely going to result into increased competition over sources of funds, government grants and contracts as well as share of mind volunteers, donors and commissioning officers American Heart Association (2007, p. 89).

Assumptions about the future of the marketplace

The market place for charity organizations is likely going to change in future as organizations adopt new and most suitable strategies. Currently, just like in BHF, most charities in UK are created on niche strategy and proceed in this line indefinitely (Saxton & Guild, 2010, p. 46). In the future, it is likely that the biggest number of charities in UK will move from niche strategies to differentiation. As well, there is high possibility that a sizeable number of charities will progress directly from niche to awareness.

References

American Heart Association, (2007), Financing Cardiology Research: The British Heart

Foundation, journal of American heart association, vol. 115, pp 85-90

Berke, D., Kossler, M., E. & Wakefield, M., (2008), Developing Leadership Talent, John Wiley

& Sons, London

British Heart Foundation, (2012), ‘About BHF’ accessed 25 February 2011 from

HYPERLINK “http://www.bhf.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do.aspx” http://www.bhf.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do.aspx

Civil society, (2011), Animal Aid calls for donation boycott of top medical charities, accessed 25

February 2011 from, http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/fundraising/news/content/9869/animal_aid_calls_for_donation_boycott_of_top_medical_charities

Henry, A., (2008), Understanding Strategic Management, Oxford University Press

Jowett, N., Thompson, D. R. & Boyle, R., (2007), Comprehensive Coronary Care, Elsevier

Health Sciences, London

Retail Technology review, (2011), British Heart Foundation finds that The Retail Suite from Itim

is the key to growth, accessed 25 February 2011 from, http://www.retailtechnologyreview.com/absolutenm/templates/retail_supply_chain.aspx?articleid=1516&zoneid=1

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2011 from