Essay Sample on How Superintendents Perceive Fundraising or Unrestricted Donation at the District

Introduction

Over the recent years, there has been tremendous growth in the number of charity organizations in the US by various well-wishers to support the various community activities as well as the education of the less fortunate in the society (Barrett, 2016). These charities come in the form of community fundraisings, unrestricted donations as well as restricted donations. However, there have been cases of such donations being used wrongly especially for the case of funds from fundraisings and unrestricted donations. As a result of the need to ensure such unrestricted donations and funds from fundraisings are placed into good use for the purposes of solving the underlying social problems such as those of students in various districts without the ability to fully fund their education, it is crucial for all charities to understand what unrestricted donations are and how they can use them advantageously (Fritz, 2006). Mostly charities prefer unrestricted funds since they can be in a position to determine the ways that they can use the donations as compared to the restricted funds from donors that wish to leave a legacy gift that opts to dictate the purposes that their gifts should be used for.

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With the educational sector being among the sectors that most charities choose to utilize the unrestricted donations as well as those from fundraising, superintendents find themselves at the heart of the whole process as they are among those tasked with putting the donations into advantageous as wished by the donors and charities. Besides, no superintendent would like to have a bad legacy of how various unrestricted donations are put to use in support of the education of the needy students within their districts. Additionally, the district superintendent would also like to ensure that the education systems within their designations run without interruptions from fund scarcity and thus find themselves looking for various ways in which their districts could gain from community fundraising and ways which the district could increase unrestricted donations.

Moreover, with the results of the US Census Median Household Income of the period between 2013 and the year 2017, the districts of Bixby, Owasso and Jenks Cities reported a median household income above the average median household income for the entire US of $57,652 with household income medians of $80,638, $67,130 and $90,039 respectively (US Census Bureau, 2018). Such values indicate that most citizens within the districts live above the average household income and thus could be indicating the availability of surplus income that could be tapped through community fundraisings or as unrestricted donations. Further, the three districts also reported a percentage of persons above the age of 25 who are high school graduates or higher that is higher than the average percentage in the entire US of 87.3% (US Census Bureau, 2018). Owasso City reported 92.8% while Bixby city reported 95.2% and Jenks City reporting 94.9% (US Census Bureau, 2018). This is a clear indicator that the district superintendents within these districts have something special in outsourcing resources to facilitate the high levels of graduates within their jurisdictions despite receiving equal funding from the federal government.

The unique statistics from these three districts thus raise the question of how superintendents in these districts perceive fundraising or unrestricted donations within their districts for them to realize results above the national average. Besides, the inadequate research regarding how superintendents should perceive fundraisings and unrestricted donations at the districts raise the question on how the donations should be handled for the public schools within a given district can improve the average number of students completing their studies regardless of the financial problems that may be encountered as a result of poverty. Therefore, this study will be investigating how superintendents in the districts of Owasso, Bixby and Jenks city perceive fundraising or unrestricted donations at the district with a keen look on the ways that their districts aim at gaining community fundraisings and how the superintendents can improve unrestricted donations to their districts.

Study Setting

Owasso, Bixby and Jenks city districts reported percentages of high school and higher graduates above the age of 25 which were higher than the average US percentage of such graduates (US Census Bureau, 2018). Despite the same districts also having higher median household income than the average median household income in the US, there are various factors that might have attributed to the high levels of high school graduates within these districts such as district superintendents within the three districts employing measures that could have helped tap unrestricted donations and their perception of the same being peculiar.

Besides, with the districts having small populations and among the best volunteer programs in the entire Oklahoma State, it is evident that the achievement of higher levels of high school graduates as compared to other districts and states is as a result of the perception of the various leaders who include superintendent for this case to ensure that the less fortunate also get the opportunity to complete their studies through community fundraisings and unrestricted donations that can be used to sponsor the studies of such students in the various public schools.

Additionally, Oklahoma State has many of the highly rated charities in the US which makes the three educational districts ideal for a study that involves charity (Newsok, 2007). Besides, the cities have the best school systems in the entire Oklahoma state and the diverse economic activities of the people living within the state make these school districts the best to carry out the study with the aim of establishing whether the good school transition has anything to do with how the superintendents perceive fundraising and unrestricted donations in the districts.

Literature and Theoretical Perspectives

Having sufficient knowledge that Owasso, Bixby and Jenks districts have a potential to supply help or assistance in terms of resources, it is vital for the superintendents to put in place effective mechanisms to ensure the process is a success. Intentions of channeling the resources to a community-based programme such as bursaries on education superintend effective financial resource management is critical. According to the American School Administration, for a superintendent to fully qualify to handle finances of a specific school from charity, it is best that the superintendent is versed in skills such as budget implementation and creation, data analysis, problem solving and effective management of resources (Glass & Franseschini, 2007). The process in itself proves to be tiresome and stressful for a superintendent who lacks the skills and competency for the job. The American Association of School Administration has recently re-evaluated the conditions suitable for a working superintendent in school. Basing their argument on charity funds channeled to enhance education for schools in districts, for instance, Texas, the association strongly accounts for accountability of charity funds by superintendents, only in the exception of the financial situation being out of control (Dott, 2007). Thus, before any initiatives can be put in place to ensure that superintends pools resources for charity services as many as possible, the question is whether the manpower in place will be able to effectively manage the funds and tap the resources to benefit the majority of needy people.

(Martin, Rueben, & Melaville, 2012), research takes a more wide perspective channeling resources allocated for community programs through community-based partnership. Superintends in this research are viewed as managers who foster community development through effective resource management in allocating funds for social services, youth development, health services and focus on academic excellence. The question of how the superintends raise funds to address these charity needs is best addressed in this research. As Martin et al 2012, clearly points out that low-income families face hardships amongst them being lack of proper housing, utility shutoffs, and inadequate health, superintends are faced with the challenge of tapping surplus resources. The research however clearly documents solution to these challenges, such as the ability of superintends to effectively network with partners sharing common ground in pursuit of seeking charity funds. Superintends in conjunction with the community and the partners all are expected to have the same expectation and goals (Wayne, 2001). In the quest to ensure that philanthropists and well-wishers have easy accessibility to practice their humane act of giving, superintends are expected to create a central office capacity within a district central office.(Wayne, 2001), suggest that easy accessibility is the root towards effective resource pooling for charity funds. Providing a platform where well-wishers can effectively donate their finances with ease, is amongst the basic steps in ensuring that superintends get to tap resources of events, corporate or personal foundations. Pekon, (2005) suggest that schools in these community-based programs can best capitalize on assets of financers through leveraging community resources.

To ensure easy access to unrestricted resources, it is paramount for superintends to understand what donors deem restricted or unrestricted. Joanne, (2012) defines restricted donations to those being under strict specification on which areas of charity use are the funds to be deployed. The unrestricted donation, however, is open for any other use dependent on the superintends goals and objectives in conjunction with the community development needs. Hanken, (2018) takes a more narrow focus on unrestricted donations and further suggest ways to attract charity foundations to non-profit. Recent trends indicate a surge in a non-profit organization or charity organization access to charity funds due to more direct engagement of philanthropists and individual donors. The trends have led to spark of charity organization such as DonorsChoose.org amongst other charitable giving initiatives that intends to tap on the surplus resource and bring development of the needy in particular districts. However, with the trend proving advantageous charity organizations, a number of non-profits are faced with the threats of financial insolvency. According to the Nonprofit Finance Fund, superintends are faced with the overall challenge of maintaining financial sustainability throughout the globe (William, Sandra, & Hopson, 2011). The United States for instance only has a total of 20% allocated funds for unrestricted donation. The challenge further arrives from the type of unrestricted funds a superintendent expects to receive mostly coming in categories of individual, donor or government grant. Hanken, (2018 )suggest that it is the dream of most superintendents and fundraising organization to receive multiyear grants from donors and institutions that further gives the non-profit organization constant stream of income to sustain its operations. Apart from the financial benefit in long term multi-year funding, accountability and transparency are fostered between the two parties. Research suggests that multi-year grants have many benefits in increasing in charity foundation operational capacities and sustainability...