final project

As the name suggests, non-profit organizations are meant to offer services for public good and mutual benefits and not for purposes of generating profits. Non-profit organizations can take any form starting from universities, hospitals, self-help groups, labor unions, local churches, and informal neighborhood associations. According to Anheier (2014), non-profit organizations can generate profits, but the profits are used to help the targeted populations and not distributed to the owners. These organizations play a huge role in the American society and evidence indicates that non-profit organizations contribute around $900 billion to the United States economy. An estimated ten percent of the U.S. population, or about 10 million people, are employed in what has been variously called the third sector, independent sector, voluntary sector, philanthropic sector, social sector, tax-exempt sector, or the charitable sector (Luckert, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to create a non-profit organization that is meant to help serve the needs of the youth and solve certain social issues surrounding the society. The organization created is named YOUTHS MENTORING AND JOB OPPORTUNITIES ASSOCIATION (YMJOA). The paper will provide details on the mission statement of the organization, its market, the design of the program, and funding strategies. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Please specify what youth-related social issues your nonprofit organization plans to address.

Market Research and Mission Statement

Demand for YMJOA Services Comment by Microsoft Office User: You can start the market research section by discussing the social issue, the scope of the issue, the negative impact of the issue, existing organizations that address the issue, the gap in the existing services, and so on

The Youths Mentoring and Job Opportunities Association (YMJOA) will work to mentor youths in the United States and equip them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in life. The program will also work to help youths find better job opportunities through networks and resources. There is high demand for this program as there is the growing need for youth mentorship in the society. With the growth in diversity and globalization, there is need to break barriers such as ethnic boundaries and create opportunities for success. Evidence indicates that youths are not performing well in life and others are not getting jobs because they lack self-esteem, they do not embrace members of other races, they do not have the ability to relate well with other people, and they lack decision making abilities in career and work choices. According to Meltzer and Sunders (2020), mentoring youths will provide pathways to creating and cultivating supportive and productive communities. All these indicate that there is need for the services this program is going to offer. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Information about current youth employment situation and youth skills will be helpful to illustrate the issue. It will also be helpful if you define what age group you will serve (or what you mean by youth). Comment by Microsoft Office User: Will your organization focus on ethnic minority youth? If so, then your market research should specify the gaps in youth service, i.e. ethnic minorities do not have the same opportunities or there are not enough programs that address ethnic minority youths’ needs. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Please cite studies that discussed these issues and causes.

Mission Statement

The mission of YMJOA will be;

“To bring out hidden talents and capabilities through mentoring and empowering youths with the support and resources they need to reach their maximum potential and cultivate a better community and future for all. we welcome the youths and offer them the space they need to growth financially, professionally, and socially”. Comment by Microsoft Office User: How about specify what youths, i.e. at-risk youth, youths of all ethnic backgrounds, etc.?

From the mission statement, it is clear that YMJOA aims at empowering youths to achieve the best in life and provide job opportunities to those that are struggling. The mission statement has three main components which include; Comment by Microsoft Office User: Is it “provide” or “help them secure jobs”?

1. Empowering the youths

2. Improving lives

3. Building communities.

The first and the second component goes together whereby YMJOA strives to improve the lives of the youths by providing them with the guidance they need and offering job opportunities to those who are in need. These services will be available to all youths regardless of which part of the United States they are. The last component is closely related to the first component and it involves empowering the youths to produce better communities. YMJOA will not only focus on empowering youths and connecting them to job opportunities, but it will also work to address serious social issues that affect the growth and development of our communities. Albright, Hurd, and Hussain (2017) assert that problems such as crimes and drug abuse exist because there is no proper youth mentoring in our societies. According to the authors, mentoring is essential to improve youths’ social concept and building stronger social bonds for a stronger society. Comment by Microsoft Office User: These are proper components for program design part, which should elaborate on the components of programs and services. Comment by Microsoft Office User: This sentence mentions social issues of crimes and drug abuse, which can be moved to the beginning of the market research part.

Competition

The major organization that YMJOA will be competing with is the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) which is so far the leading non profit organization in youth development, social responsibility, and healthy living. YMCA has Grown rapidly to become the best youth association worldwide. YMJOA aims to reach and surpass YMCA but we still have to start by offering our services within the United States, then we will go international after we have developed fully. Comment by Microsoft Office User: What is the service gap of YMCA that YMJOA will address? How will your organization be different from YMCA?

Program Design

The YMJOA mission will be achieved through the services and programs we will offer in communities across the United States of America. We know youths are the backbone of the society and positive growth and development of our communities has to take place through them. The programs are also about their social, emotional, and mental well-being. Our programs will help all Americans and they will cover all parts starting from health, professional, and social development. Our programs will help all youths get a chance to connect with others, break barriers, build support networks, work together towards goals, build stronger communities, and create a stronger America as a whole. Our programs include; Comment by Microsoft Office User: Do you mean American youths?

Education and Training

Education and training are the best way of mentoring youths. Our education and training programs will focus on imparting positive knowledge, skills, and behaviors that will see youths grow up to be responsible people in the society. They say learning is a continuous process that can take you wherever you want to be. By educating, we will be able to build literacy and provide life and social skills that will equip the youths with knowledge that will lead to better job opportunities and bright future, and for everyone, a better America in the future. YMJOA education programs will be designed in a way that there will be courses and workshops that will support youths in their long-life journey of learning. Some of the programs to be offered include: Comment by Microsoft Office User: Why these courses?

· Professional development programs Comment by Microsoft Office User: Please avoid using bullet points in your paper. Instead, use sentences and paragraphs.

· Cultural awareness courses

· Guidance and counselling

· CRP courses

· YMJOA fitness training

· Language assessment

Our programs will also focus on achieving equality and breaking boundaries of inequality and ethnicity. Augsberger et al., (2018) asserts that it is through the education and mentoring of the youths that we will achieve reduced social inequalities. We are living in an age and era where there is rapid globalization and our youths need to co-exist and embrace the differences among them for a better society. This will help address the problems of social injustices, discrimination, cultural barriers, and many more. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Please clarify how your program can help achieve equality.

Employment Services

YMJOA believes that when everyone has access to better employment opportunities, the entire society benefits in different ways. As an organization dedicated to better the lives of the youths in America, our organization has seen the negative effects of income insecurity on the youths in our societies. It is not easy to find a job especially for the youths. Even for those who have completed their studies up to the college level, it may be possible to find themselves jobless. The situation is even difficult for those whose highest level of education is high school. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Is this another issue your organization plans to address? If yes, please specify it in the market research section.

YMJOA employment services will extend to the unemployed and underemployed youths in the United States. The organization will work to ensure it provides the much-needed employment programs by the youths to break the barriers that exist in the labor market. The organization will work to build networks with employers and other service providers both locally and internationally, to provide comprehensive services that youths need to find a job. By working in unity, YMJOA will connect a lot of individuals to employment opportunities, thus giving more American youths the chance to succeed and build themselves professionally. Employment programs that will be offered by YMJOA include;

· Job placement opportunities Comment by Microsoft Office User: Please avoid using bullet points in your paper.

· Workshops for job search skills development

· Placement opportunities

· Employment resource centers

· Apprenticeship information

· One-on-one mentoring

· Entrepreneurship support.

The programs will be offered depending on the needs of the youths in a particular region. This will ensure youths do not struggle or engage themselves in risk activities such as crimes and drug abuse.

Community Initiatives

This is the most important of all the programs that will be offered by YMJOA. The program’s main aim is to ensure better, developed, and productive communities through youths as the main instrument. A healthy and developed community has opportunities for everyone. For YMJOA, this means coming up with projects, programs, and services that will help meet the different needs of different people in the community. It will also push the organization to stretch further beyond its abilities to provide its services where they are needed most. Our organization will deliver different community initiatives depending on the needs of a community. Some of the programs and services that will be offered by YMJOA at the community level include; Comment by Microsoft Office User: Why do you provide these programs and services? What specific social issues do these programs address?

· Immigrant services – the organization will work to ensure all youths coming into America are welcomed into their new home. The goal is to give them a settlement experience they need and help them find a way to adapt to the American life.

· Social activities – there will be social activities that will work to bring people in the community together.

· Child and family development – this will be made up of programs where families will come together to interact and strengthen their bonds.

· Housing services – the organization will ensure everyone in the community has a place to call home. We will provide support and resources to help people find places to live in. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Your program design section needs to address human resource plans as well.

Funding Strategy

There is a strong relationship between the availability of finances and the performance of a non-profit organization. YMJOA is a charity and that is why it will operate for the community and people’s good rather than making profits. The organization will provide financial assistance to ensure every youth in the community can access its services, and provide different programs and services that target various populations in the community at zero cost. The organization will be for everyone and its funds will come from different sources. Funds diversity play a critical role on performance, diversification of funds sources reduces the dependence of organizations and consecutively improves their performance (Ferreira, Carvalho, & Teixeira, 2017). The organization’s sources of funds will be;

· Youth care Comment by Microsoft Office User: What age group will you serve? Please specify.

· Health and fitness membership Comment by Microsoft Office User: You didn’t mention fitness services In your program component

· Program fees

· The government

· Corporate sponsorship (partnerships)

· Donors

Being a non-profit organization, YMJOA will rely on grants, patron support, and private donations to meet all its expenses. Also, to reduce staffing costs, the organization will rely on the support from volunteer and its other networks in the United States. YMJOA will also charge fees for membership to allow people from the community to use its facilities and resources, but the organization will not benefit from the fees. The fee will rather be used in paying for essential services, maintain facilities, and fund all the programs that will ensure YMJOA achieves its goals and objectives in the society. Membership fees will be a very reliable source of funds that will ensure a recurring donation for our causes. The organization will in return offer special benefits such as recognition and tickets for special events to those individuals who sign up for membership. Membership is also important as it encourages and promotes a sense of ownership, thereby motivating members to contribute even more.

Activities to Raise Funds

YMJOA will focus on property development to ensure organizational development through utilized properties. The organization will be a social enterprise that will accommodate income generating activities to raise funds for all its programs. This will include tourism activities that will be guided by the youths who will be mentored by the organization, and other money generating projects. This will welcome tourists from different nations to participate in our activities and sign up for membership, thus generating more funds. We will also come up with campaigns such as “invest in our youths” to mobilize people to contribute funds towards supporting the education and training programs. The campaigns will be done both manually and through online social platforms. We will use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to raise awareness about our organization, the reason why we need funds, and provide directions of how people can give their contribution. This will see potential donors invited to contribute towards our programs. The donors will not only be from America, but anyone from any part of the globe will be allowed to contribute towards our programs. The different fundraising projects will focus on youth empowerment and development including general community well-being. This will ensure the organization has a broad and diversified base of resources for long term sustainability.

Grants from Counties, Local, State, And Federal Governments

The organization looks forward to grants from the federal government, cities, counties, and states as the main booster of funds to meet its goals and objectives both in the short term and in the long term. Grants from these powerful sources will help transform the organization’s annual budget. Aside from financial assistance, the funds will also ensure; Comment by Microsoft Office User: You need to provide examples of specific grants you plan to apply for.

· YMJOA receives more credibility which will help secure more funds from other donors. Government funding will assure the public that the organization’s programs are legit.

· A big difference and growth of the organization to the international level as grants from the government always come in huge amounts.

· Growth in responsibilities as government grants require responsible spending and using the funds as outlined.

Corporate Sponsorships

A lot of organizations and businesses are concentrating on corporate responsibility as a way of attracting customers. According to Aguinis and Glavas (2019), businesses are seeking to find meaningfulness in what they do and this is where charity organizations come in. By partnering with big businesses, the organization will be able to; Comment by Microsoft Office User: ou need to provide examples of specific corporate sponsors you will go after.

· Find businesses to partner with who will support our programs and fund specific initiatives.

· Find partners who will be willing to offer similar services as our organization, and then we can match our programs

· Get monetary donations from other businesses related to our partners.

· Our partners will offer free publicity of our organization by mentioning it in their conferences, announcing our partnership, and other activities. This will boost awareness and help generate more revenue.

· Partners who will offer volunteer grant programs that will motivate employees and other people to easily offer volunteer programs to our organization.

Conclusion

Non-profit organizations contribute a lot to economic and social development of a nation. The organization created above will ensure youths are empowered and communities develop and become productive. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Here are some suggestions to help you improve. You first need to narrow down the social issue you plan to address. You mentioned a few issues in your paper, such as unemployment, crime and drug abuse, lack of knowledge and skills, and so on. You need to conduct more research to elaborate on the social issue your organization plans to address, and then design your program activities that can effectively address the issue. You should demonstrate and clearly articulate the connection between the program activities and the solution to the issue. You also need to specify the target population. Hope this helps.

References

Aguinis, H., & Glavas, A. (2019). On corporate social responsibility, sensemaking, and the search for meaningfulness through work. Journal of management, 45(3), 1057-1086.

Albright, J. N., Hurd, N. M., & Hussain, S. B. (2017). Applying a social justice lens to youth mentoring: A review of the literature and recommendations for practice. American journal of community psychology, 59(3-4), 363-381.

Augsberger, A., Collins, M. E., Gecker, W., & Dougher, M. (2018). Youth civic engagement: Do youth councils reduce or reinforce social inequality?. Journal of Adolescent Research, 33(2), 187-208.

Anheier, K. (2014). Nonprofit Organizations. New York, Oxon: Routledge.

Luckert, K. (2012). Nonprofit organizations (Definition and examples). Retrieved September, 5.

Ferreira, M. R., Carvalho, A., & Teixeira, F. (2017). Non-governmental development organizations (NGDO) performance and funds—a case study. Journal of Human Values, 23(3), 178-192.

Meltzer, A., & Saunders, I. (2020). Cultivating supportive communities for young people–Mentor pathways into and following a youth mentoring program. Children and Youth Services Review, 110, 104815.