The learner will:

• locate different nonprofit organizations that are featured in the news and describe their needs.
• allocate money to competing nonprofit organizations.

Anticipatory Set:
Distribute 100 Donation Dollars (see Attachment One) to each student. Explain to students that they may donate their hundred dollars to any nonprofit organization. Each student will have to decide how to divide up the money between different organizations. Instruct students to cut the dollar into the fraction of money they would like to donate and write the name of the nonprofit on the fraction of money. For example, if a student wants to give $50 to the Red Cross, he/she would cut the 100 Donation Dollars in half and write Red Cross on the half. Discuss how the students divided their $100's between competing nonprofit organizations.


• Explain to students that as a class they have set a goal to raise funds to donate to a family in need (see Lesson Four: FUNdraising Goal), but there are hundreds of other ways they could have donated the money. Nonprofit organizations are competing for community support. It is hard to focus on just one.
  
  
• Instruct students to find news articles relating to a need in the community, state, nation, or world, for example, earthquake relief agencies helping victims, wildlife preservation organizations saving endangered animals, homeless shelters giving food and shelter. As students locate articles, ask them to record the need or problem, why donations are needed, and how much money should be donated. See Many in Need (Attachment Two).
  
  
• Write on the board the amount of money the class has raised for the service project or an amount the class could realistically raise. Tell students that all of the other charities, nonprofit agencies, and organizations they just located in the news articles are competing for the class' service project funds.
  
  
• Have students share the information about needs in the community from Many in Need (see Attachment Two) and record them on the board. As a class, select or vote for the five most needy. With the five chosen, pair students to work together to divide the given amount of money into five shares. Have students analyze the severity of each need and decide an amount for each need from the total amount. See Decisions, Decisions—Distribution of Funds (Attachment Three).
  
  
• When students have finished their allocations, have students compare and contrast their distribution models.

Lewis, Barbara A. The Kid's Guide to Social Action: How to Solve the Social Problems You Choose — and Turn Creative Thinking into Positive Action. Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing, 1991.