Students, teachers, and donors to the soccer camp are the three audience groups that the project is targeting.  The students will apply online and get excited about the upcoming camp each year.  The teachers will have access to the camp to hopefully spread the word to other teachers at their schools to move the camp past the one at Bennet-Kew Elementary using my camp as a model.  Donors will look at the site to become more interested in donating to the camp.  After they donate the money they will be able to see the final product of their contribution.

This site does not have any competitors in the sense that there is another philanthropic organization that is competing for the same students to bring to their camps, but  my competition is with the people that are trying to get the same funds for their projects.  For example, West Coast Athletic Organization is a group that distributes a certain amount of funds every year to projects like mine.  If someone pitches a better project to them than I do, than they get funds and I have to find another donor to contribute.  My main competitor would have to be the current state of the economy.  With less money circulating in the system, there is less money to give to philinthropic organizations.  But I have already made very good connections with several big donors so the fear of competition is minimal.

One of the special features that will be tailored to this site is You Tube.  Students who are not familiar with the game of soccer but want to get the experience of camaraderie and team skills can join the camp and learn about the sport.  But to better facilitate that learning curve, if potential campers are exposed to soccer clips via You Tube they might get more excited for the camp and learn more quickly.  Their could be demonstrations of how to turn the ball or kick it properly.  The camp will be able to progress more quickly and further the ability of the students.  Their success is not completely pertinent to how much fun they will have (which is the most important facet of the camp), but being good at something and knowing that you can accomplish is always fun and great for these kids.

I would also include a blog for students and parents to chat about soccer and how exciting the camp will be.  This part is not that crucial to the success of the camp but will be a good environment for children to learn to use the internet as a social networking device.  This will also bring student to a closer contact with the adds that will later be discussed. (need to figure out how to link this to the bottom of the age)

The costs of the creation and maintenance of this connection to the GDMLS Camp is my time and effort in constructing the site and putting up available information for my viewers to gain information about the camp.  In addition, the time of students to participate in brief interviews for player biographies will be greatly appreciated to convey to viewers of the site how the camp positively affected them.  The time of donors will be considered in the cost as they too will write on how their donation to the camp was worth while promoting the donations of other potential donors.  Another cost will be in the current head councilor of the camp.  That individual will have to take photographs of the children and other councilors during camp and upload them to the site; moreover, he or she will have to read applications on line and pick the best of the candidates. I will oversee all of these aspects and make sure that all are done well and effectively.

Financing Model

The most important way the camp will bring in money is through donations into the camp.  This is a nonprofit organization so no money is to be made by those of us whom are running the camp.  Donations are vital to this camps existence and will be the top priority during the time preceding the camp every year.  The head councilor of the camp will mainly be in charge of seeking donators to look at the camp.  The website will hopefully do the rest of the job in inciting them do give to the soccer camp.  Since human interaction is sometimes highly desired, the head councilor will also go to meet the investor if there are any further questions that could not be articulated online.  Hopefully the site will be able to satisfy all those needs yet sometimes donators like to see something a little more tangible to know that their hard earned money is going somewhere that is worth going.

I will also put up adds on the site that are related to soccer equipment, gear, and other soccer related sites.  This will be beneficial to the new players who may not be equipped to play yet and it will bring in another source of income that will be treated as a donation to the camp. All money will be funneled into the camps account for the benefit of the children.  The adds may be directed to companies that are more geared toward lower income products so the children will be able to afford the products.

Potential Problems

The biggest problems that I foresee are security.  I will need some sort of security system that will be easy enough for the new users of the internet to use but too difficult for spammers to use and clog up the system.

My second biggest problem is for all the children to have the ability to access a computer.  In this impoverished neighborhood I doubt that there is a high percentage of people that have a computer.  Maybe this can be avoidable if there is one central place at the school that will have a computer or computer cluster.  Maybe my next project will be in getting computers to this school.

Garrett Delgado 

May 1st, 2009