Functions Volunteer Organization Missionaries of Mercy - Case Study Example

Volunteering organization - "Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity" Introduction "The Missionaries of Charity is an international religious family of pontifical right composed of active and contemplative branches with perpetual public vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, and wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor, leading each sister to the perfect love of God and neighbour and making the Church fully present in the world of today. The Society was founded by Mother M. Teresa, M.C. in Calcutta, India, and now has houses on every continent and in most of the countries of the world. Their particular mission is to labour for the salvation and the sanctification of the poorest of the poor all over the world. Each member of the Society goes where she is sent and does not choose the place or kind of work. Candidates must be between 18 and 35; guided by the right intention; healthy in body and mind, and so able to bear the hardships of this vocation; able to acquire knowledge, especially the language of the people they serve; of a cheerful disposition; and able to exercise sound judgment. Initial formation periods are six-month pre-aspirancy, six-month aspirancy, one-year postulancy, and two-year novitiate. All candidates must come for a two-week "come-and-see" in the Bronx, New York house before they can be considered for entry." (http://www.cmswr.org/member_communities/MC.htm) Projects I was interested in the Missionaries of Charity because I was influenced by the warm personality and charity spirit of Mother Teresa. So, I thought offering volunteering work by teaching children. I was also an Assistant Teacher. I did year 1 children. I volunteered every Thursdays for more than 30 hours, started from January till end of February, which was 6 weeks. I helped the teacher as I was assisting children, reading books to them, helping their work, marking their work and did planning as to what I was going to do for. The empowerment of children's knowledge and skills is among the basic aims of the Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. In addition I decided to participate in a new project which involves preparing a reception centre and support for homeless mothers and their children where there will also be a special concern for refugees. The number of refugees and homeless people is continuously growing worldwide.. There are not any data for homeless mothers in general but according to estimations their number (due to the current global financial crisis, the number is estimated to be growing). The purpose of this project is to offer counselling and psychosocial support, shelter, reception and integration.. Thea aim of the counselling and psychosocial support is to empower mothers and refugees to cope better with daily life. Main activities: Psychosocial empowerment Counselling to mothers, children and refugees Providing up to date information regarding education, health treatment, social isurance, housing, financial help. Counselling on job opportunities and labor orientation. Labor integration of refugees and mothers. Providing financial support and provision of every day materials. My role as a volunteer would be to offer information regarding education and job opportunities to mothers once a week. Part of the program is to provide shelter for homeless mothers by offering them a safe living environment, food and care of their hygiene and their children hygiene.This part is strongly interrelated to the previous part since it provides social integration of homeless mothers and job opportunities. My role ist the same i.e. offer information regarding job opportunities. Social shelter for homeless people Thea aim is provide all necessary conditions such as food, hygiene care, secure living environment to homeless people. The last part of the program is to provide social support and integration to refugees.The purpose is to encourage refugees to participate in the society without losing their culture. The main activities of the programme are: To provide legal and psychosocial support To facilitate refugees' to acquire education and employment Health care (vaccination, check up etc.) Language courses, computer courses and homework assistance for children and adults To provide accommodation, food, hygiene care Interpretation Hotlines for support and for providing information Leisure activities My role will be to provide homework assistance for children. The basic difference between a volunteering organization and other service providers is that the administrative personnel is limited and most of the work is done through volunteers. The organization financial resources are based on donors'donations. The "pressure" that can be exercised on regular employees cannot be exercised on volunteers. The volunteers commit a limited amount of their time so there needs to be sufficient coordination of the various volunteers available time. The organization should have a sufficient number of volunteers so when someone is absent, his position should be covered by someone else. In addition, it is very difficult to train volunteers due their limited time and different educational background. Volunteers cannot be accountable for results since they provide their services for free. Their reward is mostly moral. Other service providers that are non profit organizations and they are based on volunteers work are many. International Red Cross is an organization that offers similar services to people. International Red Cross is a well established international organization that offers its services to a number of countries and it has many offices all around the world. Although the mission of International Red Cross is not the same as the Missionaries of Charity however it is activated in some similar areas. In brief, the mission of Red Cross is the following: "Humanitarian work in times of war. Specific sections on: aid for civilians and prisoners, reuniting families, tracing missing persons, spreading knowledge of humanitarian law. Includes relations with States, the international community and the private sector and cooperation with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement" (http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/activitiesOpenDocument). Strategy A SWOT analysis of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity is as follows: 1. Strengths Active in 133 countries They have schools for strebt children, homes for women, homes for orphaned children and dying people, an AIDS hospice and a leper colony. The still influential power of the name of Mother Teresa. Missionaries of Charity is currently run by Sister Mary Nirmala Joshi - a powerful personality. "Sister Nirmala has a master's degree in political science from an Indian university and additional training as a lawyer. She was one of the first nuns to head a foreign mission when she went to Panama. She later headed missions in Europe and in Washington D.C. in the United States, before being chosen to succeed Mother Teresa. She was based in Calcutta as head of the order's Contemplative Wing, in which nuns devote their lives to meditation. Sister Nirmala was awarded with Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India on the Republic Day January 26, 2009. "(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Nirmala) Specialized in serving poor people especially women, children and sick. Popular organization among famous people. It has received large donations and it is financially in a very good position." In 2005 it has received US$50 million a year in donations on its New York account alone." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionaries_of_Charity) 2. Weaknesses Negative reputation of Missionaries of Charity. The organization has been accused of having contacts with corrupted people and that it does not help the poor that intends to help. The organization may seem too religious to people that belong in other dogmas, religions so it may not be so attractive to them. 3. Opportunities People have become more sensitive towards the needs of others. The number of volunteers is growing worldwide. The already existing shelters and schools offer a limited range of services. 4. Threats The global financial crisis affects donations especially to other countries. People tend to help their own people who are in need. The SWOT analysis of International Red Cross is the following: 1. Strengths It has presence in over 60 countries and operations in about 80. Very good organized having a proper structure and modern management. It is financed by a number of official bodies ranging from State governments to individuals. More than 12,000 people work for International Red Cross. It enjoys excellent reputation. It won the Nobel Prizes in 1917, 1944 and 1963. It administers a number of funds such as Paul Reuter Fund, the French Fund Maurice de Madre, the Empress Shoken Fund and the medal Florence Nightingale. The International Committee of Red Cross is very strongly based." The community of states has given the IRC a unique role, based on international humanitarian law of the Geneva Conventions as well as customary international law, to protect the victims of international and internal armed conflicts." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Red_Cross) Strong financial position. 2. Weaknesses The organization is too large and lacks the flexibility of the smaller organizations. Its membership is to Swiss Nationals only, it does not have a policy of unrestricted membership. Very strongly related to victims of war, not known for offering help to other categories of people. Due to its involvement in war areas a lot of its personnel have been killed. 3. Opportunities Its large installed base and organization as well as its help from governments all around the world, facilitates its mission and projects. 4. Threats International Red Cross faces the same threats as the Missionaries of Charity but to a lesser extent. The global financial crisis affects all charity organizations. From the above analysis we may conclude the result that although Missionaries of Change is a smaller organization, it is more experienced in the target groups of the project i.e. homeless people, mothers, and children. IRC is more experienced in refugees but overall the Missionaries are more experienced. In addition, most of the work done by Missionaries is conducted by nuns and volunteers so the personnel cost is minimized. If we want to define SMART recommendations for the development of a volunteering organization and more specifically for the Missionaries of Charity the following should be taken into consideration. First of all SMART means the following: S stands for Specific M stands for Measurable A stands for Agreed Upon R stands for Realistic T stands for Time-bound The Specific means that the project should be well defined and clearly organized and planned. All project needs ranging from logistics, housing, finance and personnel should be carefully studied and organized in advance. Everyone that will be involved in the project should have proper knowledge of it. Measurable means to know if the goals can be achieved and when they are achieved as well as to know how far the completion is. This is also part of the strategic plan of the project. The goals should be clearly stated and they must be followed by specific actions. The actions should have a deadline. At the end of a specified period, control of the goals, actions and results achieved should be made. The control should be based on criteria set up in advance. There should be an agreement among all the stakeholders involved e.g. local communities, governments, the Missionaries, volunteers etc. The strategic plan should be realistic i.e. the time given for the projects should be feasible, the resources (personnel, money etc) should be available and all details and requirements should be known in advance. Finally, Time-bound means that there should be enough time to achieve the project goals and at the same time it should no be too much time which will affect project performance. Based on the above SWOT analysis of the Missionaries there are some areas that need to be developed in order that the project to be successful. First of all there are some weaknesses regarding the recruitment of volunteers and administrative personnel. A human resources policy needs to be created. This policy should state the needs and qualifications required for the Missionaries personnel and volunteers. Recruitment methods should also be arranged. The official site of the Missionaries should include a recruitment section where applicants can apply for vacancies online. The vacancy positions can appear in various newspapers and magazines since most of the media publish for free charity organizations requests/ads. Futher to human resources improvement, it is necessary to improve the marketing of the organization. Although, marketing may sound a frightening word for a charity organization (only businesses do marketing etc.) in the case of the Missionaries of Charity is imperative. First of all, there must be an improvement in the Missionaries image. This can be achieved by publishing regularly the Missionaries activities and by inviting journalists to see the premises created by the above project as well as the living conditions of people there. Success stories by homeless women finding a job etc. should also be published. Of course, this should be done with the outmost discretion since it could otherwise harm further the Missionaries image. Finally the third point of improvement is logistics. The project involves too many materials and people. The material includes products of personal hygiene, food, clothing, books, medicine etc. So far, logistics were done mostly by experience. The evolution of the projects and the expansion of the organization demand for more sophisticated logistics where the use of specialized computer programs is imperative. For this reason, the hiring of specialized logistics personnel is also important since they will have to handle not only the projects requirements but the requirements of all shelters. Conclusion There are not many differences for the strategic planning of a profit and non profit organizations. The basic principles are the same i.e. have marketing orientation, implement strategic planning, organize resources, design the marketing mix and implement control of the strategies. The issue for non profit organizations is that their revenue is significantly declined and it is going to be further declined. They also face two major challenges i.e. changes in the customer mix and new competition. Thus strategic planning is very important for them since they have to make clear where they are going and how they are going to get there. My employment as a volunteer has helped a lot. First of all, I realized how difficult it is to manage a project and run a volunteer organization although I did not participate at the management of it. At a personal level, my teaching experience helped me to develop my written/oral communication skills because I had to convey knowledge to children. My listening skills were also developed since I had to understand the problems of children who due to their age cannot express their thoughts clearly. Children are a difficult audience so my influencing skills were also developed since I had to convince them to do certain activities. In general, I believe that volunteering has helped me as a person and as a professional and I will definitely keep on offering to other people. List of References International Committee of Red Cross, viewed 06 March 2009, Kotler, P 2006 Strategic Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Sister Nirmala, Wikipedia, viewed 05 March 2009, The Missionaries of Charity, viewed 05 March 2009, The International Committee of Red Cross, Wikipedia, viewed 06 March 2009, Read More