333 ACC (Farrell)
Classes 30 and 31 Fall 2011
Field Research Project
Assignment Your group will develop a proposal for a hypothetical fundraising event for a not-for-profit organization in the region. The event itself must be held in the Oxford area and must be developed for one of the not-for-profit organizations listed in the attached Appendix. Your goal for the event is to end up with a net profit of $5,000 or more that can be donated to the organization. You will prepare a proposal that includes a thorough discussion and analysis of each of the following: 1) Description of not-for-profit organization and its goals 2) Type of fundraiser 3) Location of fundraiser 4) Targeted audience(s) 5) Marketing/promotional plan 6) Pricing strategy (i.e., how you came up with the amount(s) you'll charge those who attend your event, why those amounts are reasonable, and support for each source of revenue) 7) Detailed revenue and cost analysis (i.e., how you came up with estimates for each revenue and cost line item, with support for each) 8) Cost-Volume-Profit analyses (each with a break-even computation) for three scenarios: o Expected scenario o Pessimistic scenario o Optimistic scenario You may consider including in your proposal possible donated funding from other area businesses and organizations that have a history of supporting events of this nature in the Oxford, in an effort to offset event expenses.
Requirements Choice of not-for-profit organization Each group across all of Professor Farrell's ACC 333 sections must select a different not-for-profit organization for which to develop a fundraiser (about 12-16 groups). The choice is first come, first served. Thus, it's in your best interest to make this decision as soon as possible to insure your groups get the organization of your choice. To choose the organization, no later than Tuesday, September 20th, one of your group members must e-mail Professor Farrell ([e-mail]) with the following information: section, group number, and group member names first, second and third choices of organizations (in that order), from those listed in the attached Appendix Professor Farrell will reply to your e-mail to let you know which organization you can proceed with, or will ask you to choose again if all organizations you listed have already been selected by other groups.
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ACC 333 (Farrell)
Classes 30 and 31 Fall 2011
Interim report Professor Farrell needs to approve of the type of fundraiser you'll have. As such, a bullet-point summary of the following information is due on Thursday, October 20th: section, group number, and group name name of not-for-profit organization type of fundraising event (e.g., 10K, dinner, auction, tournament, golf outing) why event is consistent with not-for-profit organization's goals targeted audience(s) (e.g., students, alumni, families, faculty and staff, movie buffs, athletes) preliminary marketing plans (e.g., e-mail, Facebook, posting flyers, ads with local media) where the event will be held businesses you plan to contact for supplying event needs (e.g., food, equipment, supplies) Submit the interim report to the secure folder on the FSB server named g:\turnin\acc\farrela2, using the subfolder for the field research project interim report. Use this naming convention for the document: Group##_Interim, where ## is your group number. Submitting the interim report to the wrong folder or not using the correct naming convention will each result in a deduction of five points from the score on the research paper. Written proposal The content of the written proposal is worth 75 points, and all members of the group will receive the same score. Proposals will be evaluated by Professor Farrell. Across each of the eight required topics in the proposal, the first will be worth 5 points, the second through sixth will be worth 6 points each/30 points total, the seventh (detailed revenue and cost analysis) will be worth 20 points, and the eighth (three CVP analyses) will be worth 20 points total. For the detailed revenue and cost analysis, all numeric estimates must be appropriately justified, supported, and properly cited based upon your own research into similar fundraising events in the area. The estimates must come from appropriate and relevant sources, such as the not-for-profit itself and potential suppliers to the fundraiser. Personal interviews are acceptable but not required, but if used must be properly cited. To obtain estimates of attendance for your event, you should consider conducting a small survey of some sample of your target audience. You should consider asking whether local businesses would (hypothetically) donate items for your fundraiser. Such items should be included as a line item in the CVP analyses, but the dollar amounts will be zero. In the pessimistic scenario, you should consider what would happen if such donations fall through. In other words, you will need to research and/or speak to lots people of in the Oxford area to obtain information relevant to your project. Waiting until the last minute is not likely to result in a quality proposal! The written proposal must use MLA (Modern Language Association) reporting and citation styles (if you don't know what this is, there are plenty of resources on the web if you look for them). The proposal should be 12 to 18 typed, double-spaced pages including references and appendices, using 12 point Times New Roman font and 1" margins. Include a cover page with your names, your group number, and your section (this will not count toward page length). The seven topics listed in the assignment could serve as subheadings in the proposal. All groups, regardless of presentation day, must submit their final written proposals by the start of Class 30. See the syllabus for the very strict policy on missed deadlines. Submit the research paper to the secure folder on the FSB server named g:\turnin\acc\farrela2, using the subfolder for the field research project research paper (if you do not use the correct folder, I will consider the report late). Use this naming convention for the document: Group##_ResearchPaper, where ## is your group number (if you do not use this naming convention, five points will be deducted from the score). Submit one hard copy of your group's research paper at the start of class on Tuesday, December 6th. Include a cover page with your section, group number, and the names of only those group members who participated in completing the project (the cover page does not count toward the page length).
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ACC 333 (Farrell)
Classes 30 and 31 Fall 2011
Presentation content and style The group component of the presentation is worth 10 points, and all members of the group will receive the same score. The individual component of the presentation is worth 15 points. The presentations will be evaluated by Professor Farrell, and may also be evaluated by members of the business community who are invited to attend the presentations (the latter will be announced in advance of the presentation days). Groups as a while and individuals will be evaluated on appropriateness of attire, presentation style and organization, clarity of content, transitions between speakers, visual aids, and speaking style. In Class 9, we'll have a random drawing for presentation dates. Presentations will be made in Classes 30 and 31. Each group must submit its presentation slides by 10:00 Eastern time the night before their presentation. Submit the presentation to the secure folder on the FSB server named g:\turnin\acc\farrela2, using the subfolder for the field research project presentation (if you do not use the correct folder, I will consider the report late). Use this naming convention for the document: Group##_Presentation, where ## is your group number (if you do not use this naming convention, five points will be deducted from the score). Each group must e-mail its presentation slides to Professor Farrell ([e-mail]) by 12:00 noon the day of their presentation. Professor Farrell will load the slides up on the classroom computer to facilitate fast transitions between presentations. Each group will have a maximum of 18 minutes to present its proposal, and each group member who participated in preparing the project must present for at least 3 minutes of that time (although each group member does not have to do their share of speaking in all one chunk of time). Some tips on the presentation: Arrive in class early to load your slides! Eighteen minutes is not much! Don't plan on getting through more than 20-25 slides in total. Be thorough, but present only important details (e.g., don't include every line item of each CVP analysis and its justification). Try to generate excitement for your fundraiser (even though we're really not doing them)! Practice your presentation orally in advance do not simply run through it in your head. It takes much longer to clearly speak out loud than to speak in your mind, and we do not have the luxury of having enough class time for each group to go over their allotted time.
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ACC 333 (Farrell)
Classes 30 and 31 Fall 2011
APPENDIX List of Not-For-Profit Organizations in Oxford Area 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. Alcohol and Chemical Abuse Council American Red Cross of Butler County Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Butler County Boy Scouts of America, Dan Beard Chapter Community Adult Day Services Community Counseling and Crisis Center Family Resource Center LIFESPAN Inc. Oxford College Corner Clinic Oxford Community Arts Center Oxford Community Choice Pantry Oxford Community Foundation Oxford Habitat for Humanity Oxford Seniors Oxford Talawanda Dental Service PARACHUTE Butler County Partners in Prime SELF (Supports to Encourage Low-Income Families) Shared Harvest Food Bank Sojourner Recovery Services Three Valley Conservation Trust Transitional Living, Inc.
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