Write a response to each discussion post.

Shearman 4.1

Opportunity costs seem to be a difficult concept in the nonprofit world. Planning fundraisers is so important for organizations and if it is managed poorly, without considering opportunity costs, it could mean a lot of money lost because of it.

For example, if an organization chooses to have one silent auction asking for $100 from the target audience rather than doing a mailing that could be thousands than the organization could lose a lot of money because the donors already "gave" $100 so therefore they do not need to contribute more.

It's important to really take everything into consideration including the previous year's donations and see how certain fundraising events could affect the efforts.

Brown 4.1

Mosaic is a nonprofit organization serving individuals with intellectual disabilities. The organization is required to use an online database to track client behaviors, habilitation, medication administration, incident reports, and much more. This is required as part of their contract with Medicaid-funded services.

It would be beneficial for Mosaic to invest in tablets or computers for each residential site so that staff can enter data during regular shift hours. This would be possible as there is often downtime when staff overlap between shifts. If computers are not available onsite, then staff must stay on the clock to travel to the administrative offices and be paid for additional time to enter data.

This situation is an example of Return on Investment. There would be the initial investment of the computers or tablets and internet access upfront but Mosaic would not have to pay staff for additional time spent solely on data entry - saving both money and time. Also, if data is entered late or not at all, it can delay Medicaid payments.

Also, it could be argued that entering data directly into a database on a secured server better guarantees confidentiality, rather than transporting binders with written data between locations. Data may also be more accurate, meaning less of a chance of Medicaid fraud when submitting billing information.