Overview
Some instructions from professor:
----The pitch is a simple type of proposal. You will be requesting permission to research the operations or services of a particular charity in ALBERTA. Your focus will narrow down to specific operations or services as your project goes forward. Please look at these items on Moodle:
The A2 assignment specifications
The video taking you through the A2 Project Pitch assignment
One you have digested these, please start your draft (and your thinking) by posting on Discussion Forum 3, "Getting Started on your Pitch."
Go through the Charity database and select a charity to work on. Take your time figuring out which charity really interests you!
Do some preliminary research via the charity website and the two databases on our Moodle platform.
Then post a short item
naming your charity
describing its focus
telling us why you picked it
pointing out something fascinating - or at least interesting! - you have found out about the charity.
Note: You don't have to stick with this charity if you change your mind - if you find another organization suits your interests better, for instance.
----Here are two important points about your A2 Project Pitch assignment:
The point of your Pitch is simple: You are proposing A PROJECT and asking for AUTHORIZATION to continue your work from the charity leadership. You are not proposing anything else. You are not making any recommendations to the charity: You don’t know enough about the charity yet.
Before you make any recommendations, first you need to show you understand the goals and mission of this charity and what operations and initiatives and projects have been under way at similar organizations. You will be looking at both internal AND external factors that affect possible new operations of the charity - external meaning regulations, laws, "competition," the economy, etc. that might have a bearing on the charity's opportunities (and problems, if there are any). This will all be part of your upcoming A3 Progress Report assignment, not this one.
-----In your A2 Project Pitch assignment, your “action plan” will include research you plan to do as well as each of your upcoming assignments.
A word about your research: Most (perhaps all) of your research will come from secondary sources – that is, material that has been published online or as a book, magazine, journal, etc. Primary research will be limited to interviews with supervisory/management personnel and/or subject-matter experts. Otherwise, you won’t be interviewing regular staff or volunteers at the charity – or anyone who interacts with the charity. Academic research has ethical restrictions on using “human subjects” in research work without a wide array of precautions.
Surveys will also not be used, for the above reason and also because, more often than not, they are statistically meaningless unless done by people with ample training.
Finally, if you do wish to contact management personnel at your charity, to help you with your research, please explain the context of your project (a CMNS class at Kwantlen) and provide my contact information. (You don’t have to contact your charity, though, if you don’t wish to.)