College of Business Administration

GROUP MEMBERS:

Germany
Giovanni
Halsey
Kee

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Our project was designed to reach out to the children of City Heights. In an effort to connect with children of an underprivileged community, we decided that they needed a creative after school outlet where they could have a safe environment off the streets: an environment where they could benefit from social interaction, tutoring, and after school programs. Both the Boys and Girls Club of America, and YMCA offer such programs. We decided that we would chose between these two organizations, and the decision was based primarily on their respective locations. The Boys and Girls Club is centrally located between both Central Elementary and Rosa Parks Elementary School and they provide assistant's that go and pick up the children after school.

The goal of our venture was to reward children in elementary school with a scholarship for one year to the Boys and Girls Club of America. The original goal was to reward the best student in every grade but after speaking with representatives of the schools we came to the conclusion that the faculty would be more suited to select the recipients at the end of the year because they would know who would benefit most from the scholarship. By focusing on a specific community we were able to unite three sectors of the community: Business, Schools, and the Boys and Girls Club of America. Local businesses in City Heights were the main contributors toward our project. We went door-to-door distributing donation letters and Boys and Girls Club paraphernalia. Many of the contributions have already been gather with more to come. Their donations are going to be used to sponsor kids from one of the two prospective schools.

Both schools are about equal distance from the Boys and Girls Club. We have not currently elected one school over the other due to the fact that they are still in the approval stage by the faculty of each the schools to ensure that there are no legal entanglements. The Director of the Boys and Girls Club, William Chapin was extremely receptive to our idea and has been exceptionally supportive. He took the time to write up the donation letter for us and gave us pamphlets for distribution.

The donations letters have Mr. Chapin's telephone number and address on them so all correspondence go directly to him to ensure the continuation of the program. A few of the businesses we contacted have already made contact with him inquiring more about the program and what it has to offer. We believe the reason that people responded to our program was because the act of giving to children strikes a nerve for many people alike.

When we took on the project we had no idea how people would respond to the program. After talking to many people, we were able to see how receptive they were. Even those who could not contribute to the programs agreed that it was a worthy cause. Everyone agreed that the children deserved the opportunity to become a part of an organization like the Boys and Girls Club. Many of the people in the area fell into followers of the Utilitarianism Theory. In Rachel's book he talked about what seventeen dollars meant to us and what that same seventeen dollars mean to an child in a third world country. The same theory also applies to the children of City Heights

It cost about two hundred dollars a year to send a child to the Boys and Girls Club, but the children's contributions is only seven dollars per year. Most people waste seven dollars per day buying lunch or snacks. When it was put in this context it was extremely difficult for anyone to disagree with the fact that they would not miss the money, and even then those who still would not contribute were left with a lasting impression. We made a point to leave the door open so that they could still make a contribution in the future.

We did not receive as many donations as we had hoped, but we still feel our project was extremely successful. Yes we faced resistance by many businesses but we penetrated so many more. We established solid contacts for Mr. Chapin that we are sure will be fruitful for many years to come. The school principal at Rosa Parks has already met with Mr. Chapin and he has a meeting set up with Central in the next week. We had nothing but success in dealing with the director and we are certain that with the connections we have made for him; and the response that we have received, that the school project will be a great success.

COST BENEFITANALYSIS
As a group we contributed over fifty-eight hours to the project including meetings and telephone calls. The average salary for the group is fifteen dollars. The estimated cost for the project is eight hundred and seventy dollars. As a group we could not come up with a dollar denomination for the benefit that will be received from our time and effort. When you take into consideration that the children will have a safe environment, and their parents who won't have to worry about their children, not to mention the feeling of reward that the scholarship recipients will receive, there was no real basis for comparison. Even if we had doubled our hours we would still not be able to put a price on the benefits that will be received. The benefits out weight the cost of our time and our effort ten times over.