Directions: Read through the case study "A Not-for-Profit Organization" on page 30 of your textbook and answer the following questions:

List three needs that have been identified in this case study.

What is the project objective?

What assumptions should be made regarding the project to be undertaken?

What are the risks involved in the project?

In 500-750 words, submit this assignment in MS Word to your instructor via the dropbox. This assignment is worth 30 marks.

CASE STUDY 1 A Not-for-Profit Organization

At a local college, the officers of the student community service organizationwhich collects and buys food and distributes it to people in needare having their February meeting. Sitting in the meeting room are Beth Smith, the organizations president, and two officers: Rosemary Olsen, vice president, and Steve Andrews, volunteer coordinator. Beth announces, Our funds are almost exhausted. The demands on the food bank have been increasing. We need to figure out how to get more funds.

We need to have a fund-raising project, responds Rosemary.

Steve suggests, Cant we ask the city government if they can increase their allocation of funds to us?

Theyre strained. They may even cut our allocation next year, replies Beth.

How much do we need to get us through this year? asks Rosemary.

About $10,000, answers Beth, and we are going to start needing that money in about two months.

We need a lot of things besides money. We need more volunteers, more space for storage, and more food donations, says Steve.

Well, I guess we can make that all part of the fund-raising project. This is going to be fun! says Rosemary excitedly.

This project is growing. Well never get it done in time, Beth says.

Rosemary responds, Well figure it out and get it done. We always do.

Is a project what we need? What are we going to do next yearanother project? asks Steve. Besides, were having a hard time getting volunteers anyway. Maybe we need to think about how we can operate with less money. For example, how can we get more food donations on a regular basis so we wont have to buy as much food?

Rosemary jumps in. Great idea! You can work on that while we also try to raise funds. We cant leave any stone unturned.

Time out, says Beth. These are all very good ideas, but we have limited funds and volunteers and a growing demand. We need to do something now to make sure we dont have to close our doors in two months. I think we all agree we need to undertake some type of initiative. But Im not sure we all agree on the objective.

CASE QUESTIONS

1.What are the needs that have been identified?

2.What is the project objective?

3.What assumptions, if any, should be made regarding the project to be undertaken?

4.What are the risks involved in the project?

GROUP ACTIVITY

Contact a local not-for-profit organization in your community. Tell its officers that you are interested in learning about their operations. Ask them to describe a project that they are currently working on. What are the objectives? The constraints? The resources?

If possible, have your team contribute a few hours to the project. Through this process, you will be helping someone in need and learning about a real-world project at the same time. Prepare a report summarizing the project and what you learned from this experience.