Business Charity

Introduction

The world over, families have passed through life changing experiences that have left hilarious scars on their lives. The miseries that befall these individuals have been courtesy of events that are beyond their control. My conviction is that these individuals together with their families pass through more than they can overcome.

The life changing experiences that victims of fire, flooding and earthquakes go through after the catastrophes have left me thinking on how I could touch such lives (McDaniels, 2008). In this regard, I am considering collaborating with competitors and like minded persons to start a not for profit organization that seeks to address the plight of victims of natural disasters like Floods, Fires and Earthquakes among others (Hond et al, 2007).  The probable organization name would be “Heart Komforters”

Heart Komforters

Description of the organization

Heart Komforters is a not-for-profit organization that plans to offer financial, material and psychological support to victims of natural catastrophes like floods, fires and earthquakes among other calamities. The suffering borne by these victims is enormous and without the existence of a company that can address their plight, their situation only becomes worse (Hond et al., 2007).

Mission statement

The mission of Heart Komforters is to provide material, financial and emotional support, restoring comfort to victims of natural catastrophes is our calling.

Corporate objectives

• To alleviate the suffering that victims of calamities go through as they adjust to new lifestyles.
• To undertake a new and rigorous commitment aimed at delivering material, emotional and financial support to calamity victims.
• To promote the highest level of service to our clients who are calamity victims.
• To establish a corporate ideology of extending a hand to victims of calamities as a current movement and in the near future
• To enhance sustainable transparency and accountability in donor resources solely contributed to assist victims of calamities presently and in years to come.

Job descriptions

Getting the very best employees on board requires clearly crafted job descriptions customized to the particular position in consideration. The process of writing a job description is a proactive approach that requires enough time to design (Kovach, 1996). A poorly designed job description may lead to the hiring of the wrong employee. The wrong new hires will not only fail to deliver but also the overall organizational performance gets deeply affected.

For this assignment, two job descriptions are worth designing. This includes one for a fundraising manager and another one for an Accounts Executive.

Job description of a fundraising manager

Heart Komforter is a not for profit organization that plans to fill the position of a fundraising manager. The firm is looking to appoint a fund raising manager to develop and manage short and long-term fundraising initiatives and plans. The following is the purpose of the job of a Fundraising Manager:

1. Under the direction of the Marketing Manager, he/she will be responsible for all aspects of the fundraising department, ensure all fundraising initiatives run efficiently, effectively, and profitably (Kovach, 1996).
2. As a member of the Senior Management Team, attend meetings to provide regular briefing on activities of fundraising development.
3. Be responsible for development and implementation of fundraising strategy in support of organizational relief efforts.
4. To provide professional leadership to the Fund Raising team including staff and volunteers in achieving the laid down targets.
5. Ensuring that fundraising best practice are adopted and promoted individually and collectively in the fundraising department

Duties and Responsibilities

• Enhancing regular performance reviews, annual appraisals and organizational fundraising development.
• Developing, implementing and managing fundraising strategy in liaison with the marketing manager.
• Identifying and drawing annual fundraising targets together with the marketing manager.
• Ensuring the cost effective use of resources allocated to the fund raising department.
• Arranging fund raising events and promotional events as required.
• Developing and managing on going fund raising programs.

Qualifications

• At least 5 years experience in the same field with three years served as a Fund raising manager in a reputable organization
• A degree in social sciences preferably sociology, those with a masters degree will have added advantage (Kovach, 1996).
• A certificate or postgraduate diploma in public relations

Job description of an Accounts Executive

Heart Komforter plans to fill the position of an Accounts Executive. This Account Executive requires a focused results oriented individual who will maintain the financial information of the firm. The following is the job description:

1. Developing fund raising strategies in collaboration with the Fund Raising manager
2. Maintaining good financial records on the donations and grants the organization receives.
3. Maintaining sound books of accounts concerning revenue and expenditure of the organization
4. Preparing financial statements concerning the financials operations of the organization

Duties and responsibilities

• Developing and implementing financial strategies for the organization.
• Liaising with donors in financing relief programs
• Preparation of regular expenditure accounts as per the requirements of the board of directors.
• Attending Senior Management Team meetings and designing annual financial strategies and presenting then during meetings (Kovach,1996)
• Cost accounting of overall expenditure decisions of the organization

Qualification

• A degree in Business related specializing in Accounting or Finance
• A professional qualification preferably ACCA
• 2-3 working experience in a similar organization.
• An individual of high personal integrity
• Self motivated individuals.

Financial Proposal

Although the organization is a non-profit organization, it requires financing to stay  afloat. It requires money to run the daily operational expenditures. The estimated amount of funds required is $300,000 to finance the starting up and six months of operations without giving any relief service. The money raised meets staff overhead dues in the head office of the organization. Ideally, the start up will utilize services of volunteers in executing its relief programs but staff will be deployed in only the critical areas like fund raising, accounts, administrative officer and chief executive officer (Kovach,1996).

Daily operating expenditures such as stationary, rent and fueling of the firm’s vehicles require money. A petty cash kitty will be maintained to carter for irregular small financial commitments.

The most courted sources of obtaining this start up capital include three sources. They include raising money through bank loans, donations and grants and organization owned revenue-generating activities (Hond et al., 2007). The board plans to raise about $650,000 through a loan from a financial institution. Although the firm currently possesses no particular collateral to enable it obtain funding from a bank, it plans to take a Guarantee from the government and other non-profit organizations. These not for profit organizations are those that share in the spirit of comforting the hearts of disaster victims to adjust their lives (McDaniels, 2008).

Secondly, donations and grants form the next source of start up capital. This sole source is targeted to account for the biggest chunk of start up capital. The targeted amount of funds to be raised using this form is $350,000. This source of financing will play a key role in future revenue generation. Moreover, part of the start up capital is to be invested in revenue generating activities. The revenue generating activities should be investments that independently will raise funds to run the organization. The investments include capital assets like real estate and public transport vehicles among other options.

Generating Support (Marketing)

The project idea is a public domain project that will require continuous publicity to gain public acceptance and sympathy in form of donations and grants. This makes marketing communication strategy a necessary part of organizational operating process (Hond et al., 2007). The best form of generating media publicity being through Television and Radio Commercial marketing communication strategy.

            Television / Radio commercial script

The main theme of the script is to indicate suffering on women and children resultant from a calamity. The storyline starts when a mother unfortunately lights a faulty gas cooker which bursts into flames. Fortunately, she rescues the only child but everything else is gutted in the flames leaving them not only homeless but also unable to meet other basic needs. The storyline shifts to indicate the child asking the mother why they are not going home like other families are doing yet it is getting dark. The mother simply looks at the child with eyes welled in tears.

The child’s innocent hunger and coldness cry worsens the already grief crowded atmosphere. Breaking of the grief is by a narration of life assurance of Heart Komforter, going like, “Worry no more, you’ve got a friend in us”. The narration goes on to appeal for public donations and support for the cause of giving hopelessness-ravaged souls victims of calamity a reason to smile again (McDaniels, 2008).

The despair-ridden mother’s face should beam with hope and radiance on learning of hope at last. The message should be short, the setting simple and the message precise. The audio version needs to emphasis on communication despair and hope when Heart Komforter comes in.

Form of Evaluation

The general objective of the organization is to restore hope in families who are victims of calamities. The restoration of hope is through provision of material, financial and emotional support to the best capability of the firm. To evaluate the success of the firm, historical records of the number of victims the organization has approached and their success rates in regaining hope in life will form a basis of appraisal of the efforts of the firm.  The duty of the organization is not to compensate victims of their loss but provide a solution to their uneventful outcome of a natural calamity.

Thus, the revenue generating activities and the coping abilities of the victim families will form a criterion of assessing the success of the project (Hond et al., 2007). The project aims to restore hope in the victims in a humane manner. Moreover, the caring attitude of employees and volunteers in serving the victims forms part of the appraisal. Interviewing the victims to disclose the attitude of the staff and volunteers towards their plight forms a clear basis of assessing the success of the project (McDaniels, 2008).

The other objective would be to  change the corporate ideology towards the cause of making victims lives better and alleviating their suffering. The corporate ideology is aimed at assessing the attitude of corporates and individuals towards giving for the cause. When positive attitude is attained towards giving for the cause, this will be a measure of success to the project. However, this yardstick holds less assessment consideration since there are more factors that affect the corporate attitude than other areas.

Conclusion

The basis of formation of the organization is to eliminate suffering and restore hope in the families that are victims of disasters (McDaniels, 2008). The project initially will depend on donations and a bank loan to start up. The subsequent revenue will come from donations and income generating investments that the project commits to invest. Finally, the success of the project is based on achievement of the laid down objectives.

           References

Hond, F.D et al., (2007) Managing corporate social responsibility in action: talking, doing and measuring, Burlington: Ashgate publishing

Kovach, K.A (1996) Strategic human resource management, Lanham, MD:University Press of America

McDaniels, N (2008) Non profits overcome challenges to get the job done, Wanatchee Business Journal, 22(12) 16-19