Progress Report 20 Time Project

For my field work that I ended up having to do today because I needed a classroom was conducting a survey talking about my project.

I haven't had a lot of time to look in depth through all the answers I got but from the 6-7 surveys I looked at so far there hasn't been any answers that surprised me. A lot of the answers talked about how the cookies that were for charity probably made more than the other cookies but one of the answers I found was that they said that the cookies that weren't for charity might have made more money. The reason they gave is that it might sound fake just saying that the money was going to a charity in general and not a specific charity. When I asked them why they thought the charity might make more money than the other cookies people often responded with answers about how they might feel bad if someone asked them to buy something for charity and they didn't end buy them. 

When people were asked if they believed that companies would make more money if the companies said that a portion of the proceeds were going to charity a lot of them said yes although there were a few people that believed that they wouldn't make more money if saying some of the money going to charity made the price of the product increase. Looking at that answer it kind of makes me ask if the charity cookies cost more money if people would still buy them. When I conducted my tests the cookies cost the same amount but I feel that if this was a situation with businesses they would raise their prices in order to make sure they didn't lose their profits. Just made me think a little bit about how I conducted my study. 

Below are the questions I asked my 5th period accounting class. 

1.       Do you believe that when a company says that a portion of the proceeds are going to charity they make more or less money than if they never mentioned anything about charity?

2.       Would you be more willing to buy a product if you knew some of the proceeds would be going to a charity?

3.       If you believe you would be more willing to buy this product please state why you would. If you don’t believe you would please give reasons why you wouldn’t. 

Survey Example Below

3/24/16 Project Continued

Tyler Johnson 

Period 7

3/24/17

Project Hook and Update 

I spent some of my time over spring break sort of finishing up my 20 time project. I have finally conducted all of the sales days and I just need to know what charity to donate the money to. By doing this while I was on break when I could have been doing other things that would have been more fun it shows how dedicated I am to my project. Also knowing that 90% of my 20 time project should also speak to how much I care about this project and why I should continue to do this project. I think that my hook for the video will be something on the lines of an infomercial or something like that where I start out saying something like “DO YOU LIKE MONEY AND WANT TO HAVE MORE OF IT”?!?!? Then I would explain that by saying something is for charity it makes people more likely to buy the product. I have changed a few things about my project though. I have moved away from the candy side of everything because there were too many problems concerning reselling something that I have already bought from a store for a higher price. However there is nothing wrong with selling cookies and that is exactly what I did. Not only was it a lot more legal but it was also cheaper and more profitable to make them. As for paying for the materials, I simply deducted the cost of the baking materials from the total revenue and kept the profits for charity. Everything worked out great and I even got the results that I wanted. 

Blog Post 4 "They say, I Say"

Tyler Johnson

Period 7

3/2/17

My 20 –time project

People might look at my project and think that what I’m doing is illegal or it might be too big of a project and it might have negative consequences for me as well as other organizations that might benefit from selling baked goods at school for a booster club. Another thing that people might say is that it might be too big of a project trying to keep track of all the money and that I might make mistakes while carrying out my project.

The people in my article think that the best way to sell things at school is candy and that if you sold other things there would be too many obstacles that would come up. For example, in article titled “selling candy at school” written by Yousef I talks about how if you were to sell things at school that weren’t candy and individually packaged then you would run into people that wouldn’t by your product because it could be seen as “germy candy that other people have touched". In other articles that I didn’t annotate it talked about how there might be "legality issues with reselling candy at school".

I have changed my views slightly on the candy side of it and have switched it towards baked goods. I have looked up the laws, met with the principle and have asked former booster club members what is legal and what isn’t. From the research I’ve done there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding the selling of candy at school however selling baked good is a lot different. Selling baked goods that you made isn’t illegal, it’s only really illegal when you sell something you have already previously bought from a store for a higher price than when you bought it.

As far as when people might think that I am going to have a tough time keeping track of the money, I would tell them that I am very confident that I can keep track of it. I’m taking a college level math class and accounting and are getting good grades in both. I will count my money twice every night and make sure that all of my transactions add up. Taking on a more difficult and challenging project is one of the reasons that I picked this project, however I believe that this project is completely do-able at the same time. I picked this project because I feel confident in all the things that I’ve learned this year and wanted to find a way to apply them in real life and this was the perfect way for me to do that.

Blog Post 3

I am starting to make some headway with my project now. I finally set up a meeting with my principal Mr.Kline and he says that he believes that it would not be legal to do it during school hours. But then I asked him if I could sell the candy after school and he says that would be different. He says that he didn't mind that as much but he did say that I might run into some problems with the booster club for track if I waited too long to do my project. So I have altered my timeline and I plan on selling the candy after school the next two weeks rather than 2 weeks from now. Another thing that he advised is that I should look at businesses that would be willing to help with my project. This weekend I plan on heading to either Wal-Mart or Sam's club and buy a decent amount of candy in bulk. I started asking students what kind of candy would interest them the most and I got a lot of answers about Snickers, Kit-Kats and Reeces so those will be the candy I buy the most of. My goal is to spend around $20 or $30 the first time I buy candy and maybe bump it up for the next day.

Checking in

Hey.

I think you might benefit from changing your questions to more broadly address charity, how to raise money, and what issues of legality might come up. Did you get a chance to do some investigating? Make an appointment with Kline?

As far as suggestions for raising money, maybe consider what charities the school already has established or connect with people doing service-learning projects and see if you can team up. You might even think about interviewing people who see this all the time like people who work at hyvee or the gas station we ask "Do you want to donate to _____ today?" Just an idea for where to start. Try to find ways to collaborate with others so you don't have to do this undertaking all on your own.

Week 2

There were some questions that came up when thinking about how I was coming up with my 20 time idea. For example I wanted to know whether purchasing candy at a store and then turning around and selling it at school was legal or not and if it being for charity mattered. Another question I had was what was the best way to go about selling the candy and any techniques that would provide the best results. My third question was going to be how much should I charge for candy. My last question that was brought up would be what charity should I donate the money to in the end and which charity would bring in the most money.

Week One 2/2

20 Time Project

I’ve always been interested in whether or not people would be more willing to spend money on something if they were told that some of the money was going to a charity. I also really find businesses to be really interesting and I’ve always wanted to have a lemonade stand or something like that but was never able to. So I merged both of those ideas and decided that for 2 weeks I am going to carry around a container of candy and sell it without telling people where the money was going to and see how much total revenue I would make in a 2-week period. Then after those 2 weeks I am going to put a charity sticker on the container. (Have not decided what charity yet, open to suggestions). After 2 weeks of that I am going to see what the total revenue of candy sales was and compare them. Some constructive criticism that came up was talking about how it may be illegal to resell candy on school grounds. So my plan for next week is to look up any laws on how it may be illegal and if I can’t find anything I am going to ask Mr. Kline for permission to do this and explain that all of the money is going to be donated to charity and how I will be keeping track of the money. Also I need to find a charity to donate to.