Glide Foundation

Shannon Brady 415.674.6081

sbrady@glide.org

Date: November 21, 2010

Team Members: Patrick Sudlow, Alyssa Andrade, Sarah Bunevich, Peder Steen, Noelle Lee

Table of Contents

I. Executive Summary ………………………………………… 1II. Introduction ……………………………………………….. 2III. Statement of Purpose …………………………………. 2IV. Methodology ……………………………………………….. 3V. Results …………………………………………………….... 3VI. Analysis of Results ……………………………………….... 4VII. Recommendations ………………………………………… 7VIII. Conclusion ……………………………………………...... 9IX. Appendix: Figures and Supporting Data …....………... 10

Executive Summary

Our team’s main service was to provide donations of hygiene products to the Glide Foundation that they could distribute to their community. At first, we split our team up into three parts to focus on three separate categories: hotels, businesses/doctor offices, and USF students. Our initial efforts with outside companies were not successful, so we decided to change our method and pursue a more efficient system which in the end, allowed us to have exceptional results. As a team, we decided to focus all our energy into the one network we all knew: on-campus students. By changing our team dynamics from three separate entities into one strong unit, we were able to increase our success rate of gathering donations of hygiene products for the Glide Foundation. Appendix A contains the final results of our hygiene kit drive.

There were many situational factors that arose that hindered us from reaching our maximum efficiency. Since our community partner contact had some health concerns, we had some communication problems that made it difficult for us to focus on soliciting donations and concentrate more on communication to complete our treasure hunts. Glide’s reliance on self-directed teams provided us with a unique challenge of what to do when our primary contact was not as available as planned. Self-directed teams, while often more productive, have the risk of a single point of failure when specific individuals are not available to play their roles.

Within our team, these situational factors challenged us but we also had some role factors that added to our struggles. Each team member knew what tasks needed to be done, but we failed to have a leader appoint clear goals and give appropriate feedback. Even though we created a timeline to keep us on track, we did not appoint a role for the team leader so as that he or she could focus his energy on managing the team, rather than focusing on soliciting donations (see Appendix B).

For future service-learning teams, we came up with three strong recommendations that would ensure a successful outcome. First, it would be necessary to schedule more check points between the group and the Glide Foundation to increase motivation and to ensure a steady flow of communication between the service-learning team and the Glide Foundation. Also, while the most successful method of soliciting donations is using the face-to-face method, it is equally important to build that relationship with the donors by having fact sheets as a marketing tool which includes how many people need hygiene kits and how often people need them (see appendix c). Using a visual aid to depict actual numbers would make service teams more determined to produce results because they could set realistic goals and donors could understand exactly why they would be donating these products. This fact sheet would ensure that everyone understands the mission of Glide and how this donation/service helps Glide reach its mission. Last, instead of relying on short-term relationships with outside donors, it would be beneficial to create long-term relationships with companies to ensure that Glide receives donations throughout the year. For a future service team to build these long-term relationships, they must point out

what they will be doing to give back to their corporate donor such as providing advertising on banners/posters at community-wide events put on by Glide, etc.

Through the analysis of our results, we were able to come up with these three beneficial recommendations that would allow for continued success for the Glide Foundation via outside service groups.

Introduction

In 1969, Glide’s social services were started when a couple of volunteers initiated a Monday night meal to the poor and homeless people of the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. Since then, the Glide Foundation has become one of San Francisco’s largest and most comprehensive suppliers of services to poor and marginalized people. The mission of Glide is “to create a radically inclusive, just and loving community mobilized to alleviate suffering and break the cycles of poverty and marginalization.” Glide’s, “core values emerge from Glide as a spiritual movement. They are rooted in empowerment, recovery and personal transformation. [Their] core values inspire and guide [their] behaviors. They are the ground [they] stand on.” Furthermore, Glide has outlined the five pillars in which they stand on: Radically Inclusive, Truth Telling, Loving and Hopeful, For the People, and Celebration.

Glide offers seventy programs in the following areas, all with very little help from the local and federal government: daily free meal, health services, permanent supportive housing, drop-in center and emergency services, family and youth/child care services, women’s center, youth education, and workforce development. These services, which range from food to housing and everything in between, align very well with Glide’s mission of alleviating suffering. Glide serves nearly 950,000 meals annually—all of this requires the talent of 27 staff members. Tens of thousands look to help Glide out each year, totaling 60 percent of its work capacity. The purpose of our work with Glide was to gather toiletries (or money to purchase them) in order to make hygiene kits to give out to their clients.

Statement of Purpose

Our team decided to split the work up into teams, so as to reach our communities in the best way possible. Noelle and Alyssa are Hospitality Majors and therefore were chosen to target hotels to get donations. Sarah and Peder worked on soliciting companies and businesses in the area to donate. Patrick lives on campus and therefore was chosen to raise Flexi (cafeteria money allocated to on-campus students) in order to purchase toiletries. Since much of our work wasn’t physically at Glide, we sent weekly updates to our community partner, Shannon, and USF-Glide liaison, Cassandra, to let them know our work in progress. This plan was implemented about halfway through our project. We found that because we weren’t working on-site, it wasn’t clear to Cassandra or Shannon what our progress had been. Because of this, for the first half of the

project, they were left in the dark. After we started implementing this weekly update, Shannon and Cassandra were more receptive to our requests for support because they knew we were working hard and could see that through the weekly updates. Glide’s goal for our project was simple—get toiletries—and it was entirely up to us to how we thought it was best to use our surrounding community to achieve that.

Methodology

In order to accomplish these three areas (hotel, companies, and on-campus), we made a GANTT chart, which was a timeline of each teams’ goals from start to finish. Each team sat down and decided what their timeline would look like in order to have the deliverables at the end of the project. This helped us keep our work constant so that we would not fall behind in the work we were doing. In order to better understand Glide and the framework it works under, we went to volunteer at Glide in the soup kitchen preparing sandwiches for the lunch hour. This allowed us to see what supports their movement and how the organization operates. We also attended their volunteer orientation, which gave us direct information on the supplies they needed for their hygiene kits. This information combined, guided us to get the deliverables.

Results or Findings

Working with the Glide Foundation was a unique way to understand the lives of people living below the poverty line, as well as an opportunity to learn how non-profit organizations are operated. Our community partner gave us a mission to raise as many hygiene products for the Glide community as we could. Initially, we organized a technique that we believed would be the most beneficial to our project—soliciting donations from businesses; however, after seeing results, we decided to change our method. Throughout the process of attempting to raise money/ hygiene products, we encountered a few challenges with both the technique we were using as a group, and the organizational structure of the Glide Foundation. The initial outcomes we observed allowed us to change our method and pursue a more successful system, which in the end, allowed us to raise $2,780 through Flexi donations.

Originally, our plan was to divide our group by individual tasks. During our initial group meetings we analyzed the group members’ strengths, and based on our results, we gave each person a primary assignment. As the project progressed, we realized some issues with our technique. Although everyone was able to successfully conduct their assignments, our group leader, who was assigned to raise money by asking for Flexi donations, was raising a much larger amount of money/donations than the rest of us. Other members in the group were assigned to ask for donations from companies and hotels; however, we realized the chain of command in many corporations, and the timeliness it took to collect products was becoming an issue. As a result of the great success of Flexi donations our team decided it would be best to concentrate on

raising money through the USF community. Once we began using this method, to solely focus on collecting donations from USF students, our project became very successful. Although our second plan was very profitable, we believe our original plan could have been more successful if we had asked for more direction or information from our community partner.

Although we received some feedback every now and then, our relationship with Glide Foundation, in many ways, was not as strong as we had hoped. During the time we were doing our project, we recognized the lack of communication between our group and the Glide Foundation. Our initial orientation provided us with the basic mission of Glide, and what our project would consist of; however, we felt that we were not given or we ourselves had not asked for some information that later, we realized could have been beneficial. Glide is a large foundation that is recognized throughout San Francisco. We assume throughout the several years Glide has existed, they have formed many relationships with companies throughout the Bay Area. Perhaps, if we requested more information on companies Glide has worked closely with, and hotels or corporations that make an effort to give annually to Glide, we could have used this information to our advantage. Throughout our business education, we have been taught that networking and forming strong relationships is one of the keys to success. It is very difficult to form business-to-business relationships in a mere four months. We attempted to create new relationships for Glide in order to collect products; nevertheless, we came to the conclusion that working closely without network was the most efficient and beneficial means of collecting money for the hygiene products. For future reference, we think it would be helpful if Glide shared their networks and previous soliciting strategies with organizations or companies that plan to volunteer to help solicit donations. We also feel it would be helpful if “fact sheets” or other marketing tools would be given to companies who are donating goods so they can have a better understanding of the quantity of hygiene kits needed in order to set a goal to work towards.

Analysis of Results

When looking at the results of findings, there were a couple of problems that we had as a group that might be beneficial to analyze. As already mentioned, the method we used to approach the project gave us problems as time went on. In the early phases of the project, our group had a clear vision of how the tasks were going to advance after we analyzed each group member’s strengths and weaknesses. This way of designing our team created some good standards for us, but it was also what created the major problems. By designing the team in this manner, we clearly defined the team roles, and based on the set of behaviors each team member had—a team leader was assigned. We were also clear about our team norms, which created informal rules and shared expectations to everyone related to our project. The way our team considered how we were going to cooperate did not end up like we were hoping for. It was hard for us to realize that each team member focusing on his or her field probably was an unproductive form of teamwork. We might have been too confident after having success in the team-development phase, and therefore we thought we could keep having success with the way

we assigned the different group member’s tasks. Each team member was aware of exactly what was needed to be done, but not how to get it done. Our timeline had helped us stay on track, but we definitely did not utilize it enough and ensure that each team member was exactly where they needed to be. We were all too busy focusing on our own tasks and we failed to realize that the team leader maybe should have been the manager instead of having his or her own strategy of soliciting donations. The problem of understanding how to do the assigned work can be related to a couple of factors. There is one model that illustrates four factors that directly influences voluntary individual behavior and performance, and this model is called the MARS model.

As we can see from the MARS model, the four factors that influence an individual’s behavior and performance are motivation, ability, role perception and situational factors. Within our group there were no problems regarding the motivation and ability. We were all goal directed and prepared to put down the time and effort needed to help the Glide Foundation in the best possible way. At the same time, we knew that each team member was more than capable to successfully complete this task. The problem that came up was heavily influenced by the factor called role perception and especially one particular aspect. As a group we understood the tasks that were assigned to us, but the understanding of the preferred behaviors needed to accomplish the assigned tasks were lacking. First of all, instead of splitting up the work, we probably should have done it all as a team. To have one team member asking different businesses for donations, while another asking hotels is probably not the preferred behavior. We might have been more successful if we had certain periods were the whole team focused on one specific field. As an example, the entire team could have started approaching hotels, as a team, and then moved their focus on to on-campus soliciting. We realized half way through our project that a more efficient

way to utilize our team members was to approach the project all together as a team in a concentrated field, rather than focus on the field individually.

It was also important for our team to know which methods that were successful, in the past, by the Glide Foundation in order for us to have clear role perceptions. Since we were neither given, nor did we ask for previous successful strategies or a list of previous companies who have donated in the past, we delegated a couple weeks out of our timeline to research and “cold-call” different companies which was not successful and was not the best use of our time. At that moment, we thought the reason for our failure was because of lacking information and guidance from Glide on how to approach the project. But when thinking back and looking at the results, we realized that this probably was a major part of the task. To simply create our own structure and guidance on how to successfully begin and complete the assignment, by constructing our own kind of role perception. Therefore, after a rough start with contacting hotels, different businesses, etc. we moved all our focus to soliciting Flexi donations. There is obviously more than one method for us to perform the work that was needed, and we believe that we came up with the solution that suited our group the best. Our mistakes became our treasures, and that’s why our group felt like we accomplished the results we were hoping for. For future success in raising hygiene kits, Glide should make the volunteer groups aware of this. We still believe that it is important for Glide to set clear expectations for their service learners, but at the same time make it apparent that the challenge of figuring out role perceptions is what generates the learning process.

The performance of our teamwork did also depend on how well the situation supported our task goals. Situational factors consist of conditions beyond our team’s immediate control that constrains or facilitates the team’s behavior and performance, and there were some situational factors that played a huge role when it came to our relationship with Glide. First of all, our choice of communication channel was something that turned out well. Most of the communication between Glide and us was based on computer-mediated communication, and e-mail was a medium where we easily could have a dialog with our community partner. But problems occurred when Glide was unable to receive the messages we transmitted. Glide was unavailable to give our team their full attention because of illness and over load of work. The fact that we were unable to get in contact with our community partner was a situational factor that negatively affected the performance of our work, since we had to spend more time on the treasure hunts and less time on our project.

This was also a situation we, to some extent, may have misinterpreted. There were occasions where Glide wasn’t able to answer our messages, and therefore we made assumptions right away. Assumptions that probably can be connected to the theory called Attribution errors, especially the bias called fundamental attribution error. When our team didn’t get the response within the time period we were hoping for, we tended to “look” at the organization rather than the actual situation. The fact that there was illness involved and situational factors that

constrained Glide’s availability, is something that we might have ignored, just because we were trying to complete a task given. When entering this project, we probably expected to always have Glide’s full attention at every occasion. The fact that it probably costs Glide the same amount of effort to make this project available for us was something that we kind of overlooked, and it can probably go back to when we created our team norms. Since we framed Glide as key part of our team, we created some expectations to them that might have been too demanding, given their busy workload. Glide was our partner and perhaps we should not have expected them to conform to our team norms. Glide is a large foundation that is well known throughout San Francisco, and helping us with a voluntary program is just one of their tasks. This was something that we didn’t consider in the early phases. But all in all, the difficulties of getting in touch with our community partner were caused by situational factors from both sides, which had some negative impact on our performance. Recommendations

Overall, this semester-long project has been a very substantial learning experience for the entire group. We were able to see on what terms we excelled in, and in what ways our teamwork needed more help. As result of the whole experience, we were able to brainstorm some changes we feel could have been made during the whole process on our part, and when it came to working with Glide as well. In the future we feel that it would be necessary to schedule more check points within our group to make sure each member is on track and working diligently towards their assigned tasks. With all of the other school work that each member had to take care of, it was easy to push service-learning projects to the side since the due date seemed so far away. If each member was required to report weekly on their tasks to the team leader, it would push them to make the project a bigger priority. Also, our group needed to be more proactive when it came to dealing with the businesses that we solicited donations from. We tried e-mailing and calling to get in contact with businesses that we could potentially donated money or items; however, many did not respond or could not help us because the holiday season was fast approaching and they were very busy. To avoid this situation from happening again, group members need to try the face-to-face method with companies, because it is more personal and would allow businesses to perhaps better understand our project. Businesses should be contacted earlier in the semester, so that they can have adequate time to plan their involvement in helping donate hygiene items.

Glide was an amazing organization to work with and we highly respect all of their work and commitment to assisting the low income and homeless people of San Francisco. It takes very dedicated people to work together and plan how they will help out the maximum number of people every single day. With that being said, we did notice some communication difficulties between Glide and their volunteers. As previously mentioned, our team had some trouble working on the last two treasure hunts because of the amount of input that was needed from our service-learning coordinator. It does not reflect poorly on our coordinator because we understand

she was dealing with a heavy workload and health issues. Something that possibly could have benefited our project in the case of Shannon’s absence, would have been the availability of a “back up” volunteer who would be able to help use move the project forward in the absence of our primary contact.

In terms of the gathering hygiene kits for their organization, we also had a few recommendations of actions Glide can take to help the process of finding volunteers and developing business partnerships. In the beginning of the process, Glide was very clear as to what items they needed, but it would be helpful for people to also see a fact sheet with numbers that show how many people need kits and how often people need them (see Appendix C). With a visual that depicts actually numbers, we feel this would make volunteers more determined to produce results because they could set realistic goals and work to help the number of people they see are in desperate need of necessities they might take for granted. In this fact sheet that could be drafted up and given to volunteers, it would be nice to also read a small story from a person who has received a hygiene kit in the past. Seeing something personal also affects the emotions of volunteers and would be great at making an impact on a volunteer’s drive for successful donations. We would recommend that a volunteer or future service-learning team be tasked with the creation of a flyer that explains the hygiene kit program to potential donors.

As for the companies and businesses that were solicited for donations of money or items for these hygiene kits, we recommended that Glide initiate and maintain a strong relationship with them that would stay strong for many years. Instead of a mere short-term relationship, long-term relationships should be created with businesses in which Glide could depend on their financial or physical support to assist with hygiene kits. If they were able to do this, it would decrease the amount of work Glide and volunteers had to do each year to contact new businesses for help with donating items. Of course, it is understood that after awhile, some businesses would no longer be able to help in one way or another, but at least for some time being, the businesses would know that once a year, in their assigned month of donating, they could contribute in some way to help Glide with this important drive. Also, for Glide to show their appreciation towards the companies that help out, they could make banners that have the business’s logos to promote them at special events that might throw for the community. We realize that many events that Glide puts on benefit the low income or homeless people of San Francisco, and other who might not be able to necessarily afford any product or service that the companies that donated have to offer, but it is still a way to show who has been so generous in helping Glide out.

Our last recommendation for Glide, consequently came into action while working on this final paper. We were going to advise Glide to allocate a certain section of their website for hygiene item donations and with contact information for one who was interested in helping out. Our group was very happy to see that the website was recently changed and this section had been added, because we fill it will generate a lot more volunteer opportunities and assistance for Glide with their ongoing quest for hygiene kit donations, as they do go fast.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there were many situational factors and role factors that hindered our team’s efficiency; however, in the end we shifted our strategy to ensure that we fulfill our goals and objectives: to provide a service to gather donations of hygiene products to the Glide Foundation that they could give out to their community. After looking over our recommendations we came up with, we hope to gradually improve the donation process to guarantee successful partnership for the service-learning teams to come.

1. Appendix A 1.1. Results: After tabling for Flexi Donations from students that live on-campus for over 30

hours, we raised $2,780.00 to go towards purchasing hygiene kits for the Glide Foundation.

2. Appendix B 2.1. Timeline

3. Appendix C 3.1. Fact Sheet

Glide Foundation Fact Sheet- Hygiene Kits

Contact Person: Shannon Brady 415.674.6081sbrady@glide.org

Number of Hygiene Kits given out each month out of the year

Jan Feb Mar April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

# of kits

Previous Donors who have participated: ____________________

Most popular/needed hygiene item: ____________________

Cost of one hygiene kit: ____________________

$10.00 can buy: ____________________

Amount of money donated each year towards hygiene kits:____________________

PICTURES & A STORY!

4. Appendix D4.1. Steps to Solicit Flexi on Campus

1. Contact USF’s Bon Appetit Regional Director to home a meeting to discuss that you will be collecting Flexi and that you’d like Bon Appetit to order hygiene items at a better, cheaper price.

2. Get Flexi donation sheets from Bon Appetit’s catering office.3. For tabling in residence halls, contact the Assistant Hall Directors of the respective

residence hall. 4. For tabling in the University Center, Harney Plaza or Lone Mountain, email Event

Scheduling to resume tables on behalf of your professor.5. Flexi donations need to be from $10-$30.6. Turn in sheets when done and have Bon Appetit make order.