College of Business Administration

GROUP MEMBERS:

Ruby Banks
Ingrid Congini
Alexandrina (Juana) Franklin
Megan Navarette
Claudia Nowlin
Ray Scott

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Purpose:

The purpose of our project was to obtain donations for Polinsky children’s Center by contacting companies and asking their donations. The Polinsky Center is dedicated to providing emergency shelter for abused, neglected, and abandoned children in San Diego. The center has been providing care for disadvantaged children since 1994 and offers a wide range of programs for more than four thousand children each year. At first, we intended to collect donations from companies in order to provide the children with a Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas celebration; we therefore named ourselves the Holiday Fairies. However, as we made our first contacts with some businesses and were confronted with the difficulty of the process, we decided to concentrate on donations for the Thanksgiving holiday. As we made our first contact with Polinsky, we learned that their teenagers were the ones who needed the most attention. We were informed that the center receives donations from private companies and the public but they are mainly directed to babies and toddlers. We then decided to concentrate our efforts on collecting items specifically for the teens to be delivered around Thanksgiving time.

Methods:

The group came together to decide on the details of the project and we agreed that the best contact method would be by mail. Ingrid volunteered to draft a letter directed to businesses including a wish list and a donation form. The letter contained information about Polinsky’s mission and our project. It also included Heidi Staples as the contact person at Polinsky as well as our professor’s information for verification of the validity of the project. In the letter, we instructed the companies to send their donations directly to Polinsky but to fax the donation form to us so we could learn of any donations. We also established an e-mail account in case any companies wished more details on the project or preferred to communicate their donations that way.

We agreed on a goal of contacting at least one-hundred companies. Each of the six members in the group was requested to research on companies and send out at least eighteen letters so we could reach our goal. We were responsible for the expenses related to copying and mailing the letters. We did not limit ourselves to the letters however; some contacts were made in person. Ingrid contacted Target Mira Mesa, Sav On Mira Mesa, Best Buy Mira Mesa, Marshals Mira Mesa, Ross Mira Mesa, and Mira Mesa Beauty in her neighborhood, Juana contacted Henry’s Marketplace and TLC Homes, Claudia spoke at a meeting of representatives of fifteen Chevrolet dealers in San Diego County. We had publicity aired by KKSN 1320 Palomar College.

Our inter-group communication was basically conducted through e-mail. As we took on responsibilities such as drafting the letter (Ingrid), composing the social change project proposal and scope of service (Juana), contacting media outlets (Ruby), project progress report and executive summary (Claudia), cost/benefit analyses (Ray), final Power Point presentation (Ingrid/Claudia), ethical frameworks for final presentation (Megan), we shared the outcomes with the group by means of attached documents to our e-mails. In every instance, we were able to edit each other’s work until we agreed on a final document. The contacts with Polinsky were made mainly via phone but a couple of trips to the site were also necessary to obtain a signature and to deliver the donations.

Results:

The response we received was mainly a result of the contacts we made in person. We had only one response from a letter that was sent. It was from GAP and it was a denial letter. We received a total of $1,100 in cash from Spescom ($500), TLC Homes ($250), California Corporate Benefits ($250), and Courtesy Chevrolet ($100). Courtesy Chevrolet also donated six wristwatches ($250), and Mira Mesa Beauty Supply donated hair care products ($47). The monetary benefit of our project amounts to $1,397 and the costs to $690. Although we had a net benefit of $707 as a result of our project, we consider also the learning experience and the personal growth as immensurable benefits. The project has opened our eyes to the social responsibility of businesses. We have experienced first hand the social changes that can be achieved when businesses act philanthropically. We have also seen in practice some of the ethical theories we learned in class. The group promoted distributive justice when focusing on the needs of neglected teenagers. Also, the outcome of the project was unknown; but regardless of the results, our actions were based on the belief that it was right to help the ones in need. We therefore, assumed a deontological approach to our project. The social contract theory was also present because it established the “way we are to treat one another”; that is, us caring for the children at Polinsky.

Conclusion:

As a social change project, the group decided to collect donations for Polinsky Children’s center in San Diego. We sent letters out to businesses requesting the donations and we also made in-person contacts. We received donations in a total of $1,100 in cash and $297 in watches and hair care products. The measurable net value of our group project was $707. Aside from the monetary benefit achieved by the group, we consider the personal value of the results immensurable. We experienced the importance of businesses’ involvement in the community and had a chance to practice the ethical theories of social contract, philanthropy, and deontology. Our greatest success was the outcome in donations we received and our greatest failure might have been having too high expectations on the companies we contacted via mail.

We consider the outcome of our group project as positive and personally rewarding.

Recommendations:

We recognize and recommend that any effective, long-lasting social changes require more than one school semester to be achieved. We also learned and recommend one-to-one contacts as being more effective than letters.