I am applying the 5 Propositions of the Political Framework to a scenario. Please check the information I have, making sure it aligns with the...

/ Chapter 9, pg. 188-192

APPLICATION OF THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK

1. Organizations are coalitions.
2. L2S would have a coalition of contracts, community partnerships, media, grant funding, foundations, federated funds and fiscal sponsors.
3. Coalition members have enduring differences.
4.  L2S's need for funding competed with the service learning opportunities for middle school and high school students.
5. The Grant desire to tutor high school seniors in math does not align with L2S's mission of creating service learning opportunities for middle school and high school students - the tutors would need to be middle school and high school students, tutoring seniors.
6. Most important decisions involve allocating scarce resources - deciding who gets what.
7. Struggle to balance the pressure of finding funding and accepting appropriate grants. No one wants the building to close, however they are not meeting the needs of their volunteer base and put added stress/responsibilities on staff.
8. Scarce resources and enduring differences put conflict at the center of day-to-day dynamics and make power the most important asset.
9.  Relying on her authority, Sherry chose grants and accepted money for projects the staff must enact, despite their objections. Ex. the staff would be tutoring seniors in math instead of the middle school and high school volunteers.
10. Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining, negotiation, and jockeying for position among competing stakeholders. 
11. Bargaining: Purely in price?
12. Negotiation: L2S asks for $32,000 for a mural project that would cover graffiti in the area, the grant agency then awarded $28,000 for tutoring high school seniors in math? - L2S accepted the grant so that they could receive funding.
13. Jockey for position among competing stakeholders: N/A board/stakeholders un-involved.

SCENARIO

L2S: Who Serves Who?

Organizational Overview

Lead to Serve (L2S) is a non-profit organization in Tucson, Arizona that aims to create service learning opportunities for middle school and high school students. L2S is part of a national network of 36 other L2S organizations in other cities across the U.S and is affiliated with the L2S national headquarters in Oakland, California (where the first L2S was started). The mission of L2S is to engage youth in developing a positive, healthy, and safe community from the inside out. The Tucson chapter of L2S has been around for 19 years and has engaged over 2300 students in that time doing 64 projects in Tucson. These include fixing damaged playground equipment, tutoring elementary school children in spelling, leading after school activities for kids, painting over graffiti, engaging in dialogue with residents of an assisted living home, preparing food for homeless families, restoring homes for senior citizens, etc.

Participants and Staff

The participants in L2S are recruited by their school counselors and often sent as a team to work on a project. Each project has a team leader (college student from the University of Arizona) who guides the students through the pre project education, project completion, and post project reflection. The team leaders have to make a 1-year commitment to L2S and participate in a 2-week training. They then receive 3 credits of internship each semester for this role. In the past, being selected as a team leader has been quite competitive. In addition to the team leaders, L2S has 6 staff members-1 executive director (Sherry), 1 program coordinator who oversees the team leaders (Jeff), 1 program coordinator who sets up project logistics (Megan), 1 program coordinator who does outreach and partnerships with schools for participants (Eddie), 1 part-time accountant who also oversees project supplies (Rita), and 1 volunteer web designer (Sandra). Sherry directly supervises everyone on the team. The team meets weekly to discuss marketing strategies, new partnerships, project ideas, and any issues that need to be addressed. Aside from the staff, L2S has a 5-person board of directors. They are very hands off and tend to go with whatever Sherry thinks is best since she has been executive director for 12 years, longer than any staff or board member. The only thing the board does is an annual donor drive to raise money for the organization. Other than that, they meet twice a year to approve the strategic plan and budget.

Funding and Budgets

L2S receives most of its funding from local grants-through the city and county. These are used to fund specific projects, thus many of the projects the participants engage in are outlined by the grant. The other money they receive equates to about 20% of the budget. This is comprised of individual and corporate donations. This year's budget is as follows:

Revenues: