The learners will conduct a needs assessment to determine community awareness of foundations and nonprofit organizations. Based on these findings and evaluation of the data, the learners will arrange for and conduct an oral interview with the director of a foundation or nonprofit of their choice. They will compile their findings in essay form, to be combined later into a philanthropy pamphlet. The learners will design a pamphlet of foundations and nonprofit organizations their local community can access. The pamphlet will be placed in the counseling offices, library and local community center.

Day One

Anticipatory Set:
Write the following on the board as a journal question: “If you were conducting a needs-assessment survey to determine community awareness of foundations and/or nonprofit organizations, what kinds of questions do you think you should ask? List five questions. Allow the learners five to seven minutes to complete this task.

• Divide the learners into groups of three to four learners, depending on class size. Give each group Attachment One: Sample Needs Assessment Questionnaire . Their task is to develop ten questions they would ask in a needs-assessment survey. They may use no more than five questions from the sample survey.
  
  
• Using a piece of large white paper for each group, tell the learners to write down the questions they have chosen.
  
  
• Tape the lists in various corners of the room, and ask one person from each group to read their questions. As the learners are reading the questions, the teacher should be checking on the appropriateness of the questions and leading a discussion about their appropriateness.
  
  
• After hearing all of the questions, ask each student to put a check by the ten questions that they think are the most important. The questions that have the most checks by them will be the ten that are used in the needs-assessment questionnaire.

  Reflection Activity
  Learners react to the following prompt in their journals:
  I think that I will find out from my surveys that______________________________ because

  Instructor’s Note: Before Day 2, copy the list of the finalized questions enough for each peer group member to have five copies. Additional copies should be made available.

  Day Two

• Give each peer group copies of the survey questions. While in their groups they are to list the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the five people to whom they are going to distribute the questionnaire. Adults in the school building may be selected as respondents. Surveys are to be returned Day Three.
  
  

• Explain to the learners that the information gained from the needs-assessment questionnaires will be used to:

  • determine the level of familiarity their community has of foundations and non- profits and to
    
    
  • develop the oral interview that they will have with the directors of the nonprofit or foundation they have chosen. The interviews will then be compiled into a philanthropy pamphlet that will provide community members with the information they desire.
    
• Make a list of foundations and nonprofits from those discovered in Lesson One: Foundation, Nonprofit, All Matter to Me that are easily accessible in your community or surrounding communities, county and state. Ideally, each group should select at least two.
  
  
• Schedule your interview sessions.
  Reflection Activity
  In your journals, write how you feel about meeting and interviewing this person. Do you have any concerns? How are you going to prepare for this interview? Could you have done anything differently? What do you hope to learn?

  Day Three:

• Each group tallies its results. Have each group develop a bar graph depicting the results. Write down what they believe their results show and what are the needs they see to be incorporated into an interview with their representative of the foundation or nonprofit, and what they see as necessary to be included in their pamphlet.
  
  

• Lead the class in developing a total class needs assessment, ranking the questions most to least respondents.
  
  

• Compile a total respondents bar graph and post on the wall or board. Post the group bar graphs around the composite.
  
  

• Discuss with the class what they discovered their community really knew about foundations and nonprofits. Develop a list of areas that the community really needs to know. Some sample items may be: services provided, who is eligible to get assistance, location, times of operations, how they are financed, who is on the board, what percentage of the funds collected are distributed etc.

  Reflection Activity

  Ask learners to write in their journals two questions they think another group may ask.

  Day Four:

  Anticipatory Set:
  Ask the learners to suggest questions to ask of a foundation or nonprofit director or representative. The questions should be based on their surveys and what they have learned about the foundations and nonprofits in Lesson One: Foundation, Nonprofit, All Matter to Me and Lesson Two: Budget, Budget, Who’s Got the Budget. Possible questions should also be about operational characteristics.
  
  

• After modeling these potential questions, have the groups reassemble and devise five questions to ask a foundation or nonprofit representatives. Give each group Attachment Three: Interview Questions. Advise them that these questions must be asked and that they will add their questions to this list.
  Each peer group should come up with approximately 20-25 questions that the learners can ask the director of the foundation or nonprofit on the questionnaire. For extra credit, you can now ask one of the students to type up the questionnaire and you can make copies for every student to use when they go to the interview. Each learner in a peer group is to be responsible for a set of questions and an essay based on those questions to be submitted for evaluation.
  
  Give each group the scoring Rubric (Attachment Four: Rubric for Paper On Foundations and Nonprofits) to guide them in their essays.
  
  

• With ten minutes remaining in the class session, call the class together and have two students model an interview. Use Attachment Two: How to Make a Successful Phone Contact.

  Reflective Activity

Have the learners respond to the prompt, “I believe that our group will be able to provide information relevant to the findings in the survey because….”

Days Five-Seven
Begin the pamphlets. This can be done if the interview portion is not yet conducted.

• Describe to the class the paper size and design format that is preferred. It is encouraged that the class decide formatting.
  
  
• Review the elements to be included in their pamphlet.
  
  
• Include the interview with the foundation or nonprofit board member or other representative. The complete interview is to be written into an essay form of no longer than three pages. Learners will also submit for evaluation that portion of the interview they conducted.
  
  
• Allow sufficient time for peer editing.
  
  
• After completion of the interview process and writing assignment, schedule presentation times.

  Reflection Activity

  Journal entry which evaluates the lesson’s efficacy of the unit and service experience.

  Celebration

Schedule the counseling staff and/or media center staff member to come to your class and have your learners present the pamphlet.

Learners may volunteer their time, talent or treasure to the foundation or other nonprofit agency of their choice. They can also job shadow in the agency in which they conducted the oral interview to learn more about it.