Refer to the Major Assignment 3 attachments for details on completing the assignment.

Prepare the written portion of this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the 

LopesWrite Technical Support articles

 for assistance. 

Benchmark Information

This benchmark assignment assesses the following general education competencies:

University Foundations

GED1C3: Articulate strategies of self-leadership and self-management.

Effective Communications

GED2C1: Construct logical, cohesive, and persuasive arguments.

GED2C3: Exhibit proficiency in Standard American English for academic purposes.

Critical Thinking

GED3C1: Demonstrate clarity and logic in asking relevant questions and acquiring knowledge.

GED3C2: Apply appropriate critical inquiry strategies (e.g., inductive and deductive reasoning, analysis, evaluation, and synthesis) to issues and questions.

GED3C3: Make informed decisions based on historical, current, reliable, and valid information.

Global Awareness, Perspectives, and Ethics

GED4C4: Use knowledge of the past to develop understandings concerning the present or future.

Christian Worldview

GED5C2: Analyze the impact of the Christian worldview as it relates to human value and dignity.

2

>Excel Grading Sheet Major Assignment

3

Excel Grading Sheet Rubric Category
(% weighting for assignment) Requirements for full credit (optional for student use) Did you meet the requirements? Possible Points Your Points % Score for Rubric Category Rubric Score Project Budget

(

1 5

%) You have entered your full name in the field provided. (Note that entering your name on this sheet is required in order to complete the assignment.)

2
You have listed at least

8

budget items total with at least 1 item in each category.

8
You have entered the number of times purchased and purchase amount for each item, and at least 3 items are purchased more than once.

8
Your

Total Cost

for each item is a formula multiplying the number of times purchased by the purchase amount, using appropriate cell references.

8
Your

Subtotal

formulas are correct for each of your

4

sections.

8
You have explicitly formatted your Cost Per Purchase, Total Cost, and Subtotal cells to display as Currency with the $ sign and 2 decimal places of precision. (1/2 point each) 1

0 Subtotals 44

0

0.00%

1
Budget Summary and Analysis

(

11

%) You have transferred your Subtotals from the Budget to the Summary and Analysis section, using formulas with cell references.

8
Your

Budget Total

is correctly calculated from your Subtotals as a formula using cell references.

2
Your

Percentage of Total

formulas are correctly calculated from the Subtotals and Budget Total in the Summary section, using cell references.

8
Subtotal and Budget Total cells are formatted as Currency showing the $ symbol and with 2 decimal places of precision, and percentages are formatted as Percentage with 1 decimal place. 9 Subtotals

2

7

0 0.00% 1
CPI Value

s, Slope, Y-Intercept, and Cost Projection
(1

6

%) Your month and year entries are correct following the first (generated) values. 10 Your CPI values are correct for the months and years given.

6
Your slope and y-intercept formulas are correct and use the appropriate Excel functions.

4
The year number to use for your CPI projection is correct, and you have brought your Budget Total forward using an Excel formula with appropriate cell reference.

4
Your formulas to calculate the projected CPI value, 5-year inflation rate, and 5-year budget projection are correct.

6
Your formatting is correct for all cells: your CPI values are formatted as number with 3 decimals of precision; your 5-year inflation rate is formatted as a percentage with 2 decimal places; and your 5-year budget and budget projection are formatted as currency with the $ symbol and 2 decimal places. 12 Subtotals

42

0 0.00% 1

Funding

– Inputs
(5%)

Your interest rates correctly match the corresponding entries from the table for the years and months given.

6
Your 5-year projected budget total is brought forward from the

Project Budget and Projection

sheet, using an Excel formula. 2

Your interest rates are formatted as percentages with 2 decimals and your budget total is formatted as currency using the $ symbol and 2 decimal places.

4
Subtotals 12 0 0.00% 1
Sponsorship, Fundraising, and Loan Payment Calculations
(12%) For your Sponsorship calculation, your number of compoundings and time inputs are correct, and your principal amount and 5-year sponsorship amount are correct Excel formulas using appropriate cell references.

7
For your Fundraising calculation, your number of compoundings and time inputs are correct, and your 5-year fundraising total calculation is a correct Excel formula using appropriate cell references.

5
For your Loan calculation, your number of payments and time inputs are correct, and your additional amount and monthly payment calculations are correct Excel formulas using appropriate cell references.

7
All cells with dollar amounts are explicitly formatted as Currency using the $ symbol and with 2 decimal places. Cells with n or t entries are formatted as Number with 0 decimal places.

11
Subtotals

30

0 0.00% 1

Project Budget and Projection

Budget Summary and Analysis

Subtotal Percentage of Total

Project Budget

Personnel Costs Budget Total

Total Cost

1 $1,000.00 $1,000.00

$1,000.00

Administrative Costs
Budget Item Quantity needed Cost Per Item Total Cost

Subtotal:
Outreach Costs

Number

CPI Value

Year

Budget Item Quantity needed Cost Per Item Total Cost 1

Your full name entry must be longer

2
3
4
5
Subtotal: 6
Program Costs
Budget Item Quantity needed Cost Per Item Total Cost

Subtotal:

1 Enter your full name here. If your full name is less than 10 letters long, add additional letters ‘X’ at the end until you reach length 10	Assignment Advisory: You must use the latest desktop version of Excel for Microsoft 365 for this assigment. (This is provided free by GCU; contact the Help Desk for more information and help installing the software.) Using an earlier version of Excel or a different spreadsheet program may result in missing or corrupted template elements. Copying cells from or into this template may likewise result in corrupted data.
	Legend
	If a cell is shaded		You should
	Blue		Enter a text response
	Green		Enter a number
	Gold		Enter an Excel formula
	Any other color		Make no changes
Budget Category
	Personnel Costs				$1,000.00
	Administrative Costs
	Outreach Costs
	Program Costs
			Budget Item				Quantity needed				Cost Per Item
Costs of your time (per week)	Budget Cost Projection
			Subtotal:
	Year	Month
							Your full name entry must be longer
Slope (m)
Y-Intercept (0, b)
The Year Number to use for your further 5-year projection (If you project forward another 5 years from year 6 in the chart above, what year will you be at then?)
The projected CPI value for that year
The 5-year inflation rate based on the last CPI value in the table and the projected CPI value
Your Budget Total (brought forward from above)
Your 5-year Budget Total Projection

2a Below, you will develop a budget for your project, including entries for personnel costs (for yourself, other paid individuals, legal or consulting services, etc.); administrative costs (rents, fees, utilities, insurance, IT costs, office supplies, travel, etc.); outreach costs (advertising, recruitment, fundraising, etc.); and program costs (supplies for use in assistance, cash distributions, payments for direct services to recipients, etc.). You must enter at least 8 budget items in all. Each category must have at least one budget item. For at least 3 budget items, your expense quantity must be greater than one. Format all costs as Currency with 2 decimal places. To start, modify the cost of your time as appropriate.

3a Below, you will generate a 5-year projected cost for your budget, starting with your budget total. You will base your projection on CPI values that you look up. Use this procedure to look up the CPI value:
1. Go to Bureau of Labor Statistics page link

https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?cu

2. Check the box to the left of text “U.S. city average, All items – CUUR0000SA0”
3. Press the “Retrieve Data” button at the bottom of the list. This should take you to a CPI table for about the last 10 years.
First, fill in the CPI value for the given month and year. Then, fill in the CPI values for the next 6 years, advancing exactly one year for each value. For example, if you start in February 2011, your next CPI value will come from February 2012. Format your CPI values as Numbers with 3 decimals of precision.

2b Here, use Excel formulas to transfer the subtotals and total from your budget into this table, and then calculate the percentage of the budget total represented by each category. Format the costs as Currency with two decimal places and the percentages as Percentage with one decimal place.

(CPI Values)

https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?cu

3b Now, from the year number and CPI values, find the slope and y-intercept of the best-fit line for your CPI values.

3c Finally, project the CPI forward an additional 5 years using your slope and intercept; calculate the 5-year inflation rate from your year 6 CPI value and the calculated value; and apply the inflation rate to your budget total to find a 5-year budget projection.

Funding

0

Your full name entry must be longer Your full name entry must be longer Your full name entry must be longer

Your full name entry must be longer Your full name entry must be longer Your full name entry must be longer

Your APR (r)

Number of years (t)

Legend

If a cell is shaded You should

Your APR (r) Complete the second interest rate entry in section 4 above Blue Enter a text response
Number of compoundings per year (n) Green Enter a number
Number of years (t) Gold Enter an Excel formula

Any other color Make no changes

Your name (brought forward from the Monthly Budget sheet):
APR Year
APR Month
Interest Rate
Bring your 5-year projected budget total forward from the Project Budget and Projection sheet
6 Sponsorship (invest a fixed amount for 5 years with annual compounding)	8 Loan payment (determine the monthly payment required for a 5-year loan to cover the remainder of the budget costs)
Percentage of your Budget Total to invest	Complete the first interest rate entry in section 4 above	The additional amount you need to cover your 5-year budget costs (P)
Principal amount to invest (P), based on your budget total and the percentage in B29			Your APR (r)	Complete the third interest rate entry in section 4 above
Complete the interest rate entry in section 4 above	Number of payments per year (n)
	Number of compoundings per year (n)			Number of years (t)
The monthly loan payment (PMT)
Your 5-year sponsorship total
7 Fundraising (invest monthly donations for 5 years with monthly compounding)
Monthly contribution amount (PMT)		Complete the second interest rate entry in section 4 above
Your 5-year fundraising total (Hint: use the “future value of periodic payments” formula in the assignments instructions)

4 On this sheet, you will consider how to cover the projected cost of your Project Budget. In particular, you will calculate the 5-year balance for a percentage of your projected cost assumed to be invested at a given interest rate with annual compounding; the 5-year balance for a given monthly donation amount invested at a second interest rate; and a monthly loan payment required for a 5-year loan to cover the remainder of your 5-year projected cost, using a third interest rate.
Start by looking up rates to use as APRs in the following historical table of 30-year fixed mortgage rates:

http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/pmms30.html

5 Now, perform each of the calculations indicated. Recall that the loan payment formula for the amount PMT that must be paid n times per year for t years to pay off an initial principal amount P, assuming interest accrual at a rate of r, is given by
PMT = P*(r/n)/(1 – (1 + r/n)^(-n*t))
Format all amounts as Currency with the $ symbol and 2 decimal places, and all n and t entries as Number with 0 decimals.

(Mortgage Rates)

http://www.freddiemac.com/pmms/pmms30.html

Enter these items as percentages or decimals; for example, a value of 4.03 in the table would be entered here as 4.03% or 0.0403. Also format each rate as a Percentage with 2 decimal places.

MAT-144 Major Assignment 3 Instructions

Please follow these instructions when completing Major Assignment 3. You will be creating a project writeup in Microsoft Word and completing an Excel template for the assignment. Refer to the assignment rubric for details about how the assignment will be scored.

Overview

You have decided that, 5 years from now, you will dedicate 12 weeks of your time to implementing a project to provide humanitarian assistance to people in your local community. At that time, you will take a break from your work or retirement and spend at least 30 hours per week for 12 weeks engaged in realizing a project that you are designing now and that you will work to plan and fund between now and when you start your project.

Project details in Word

For your project, you will identify a group of local people that you will assist with a need such as housing, health care or nutrition, education or vocational training, safety, mental health, neighborhood cleanup, or a similar project that has the potential to improve their lives in both the short and long run.

You will contact representatives from local churches, charities, non-governmental and/or governmental organizations to get information about areas of need in your community.

For your project, you will provide specifics of what you will achieve and how the success of your project should be measured.

To ensure that your project will succeed in the 12 weeks provided, you will divide your project into two halves, identifying what will be accomplished at the end of each 6-week interval and how it will be clear to outside people that the step has been accomplished successfully.

For the project as a whole, you will also identify the people, resources, and materials needed to provide your service. Your project must include the assistance of other people, either whom you will recruit as volunteers, whom you will pay for expert assistance, or both.

You will provide a detailed write-up in Microsoft Word (2,000 to 4,000 words) with specifics of your project implementation. For full credit, you must address each point in each section. The objective here is to demonstrate that you have thought through in detail what it would mean to provide certain types of assistance. You must provide a separate section in your document for each item, as indicated here.

Although you may cross-reference points between sections, the questions from each section must be answered in that section to get credit for your response. The amount of credit you receive will depend on how thoroughly you have considered your implementation: you should attempt to write so that a reasonable reader would need to ask few or no follow-up questions to clarify your overall objective, people you will help, assistance provided, project management, timeline, assessment procedures, ethics and CWV analysis, and reflections. Write-ups that leave many questions unanswered or with significant gaps will earn less credit.

Here are the separate sections to provide in your write-up:

1. A title for your write-up, including your name, the date, the course and instructor’s name. Your title should capture the essence of your project (e.g., “Tiny Homes for the Homeless in Mendenhall, MS”)

2. Whom will you help? (250 to 500 words)

a. What characterizes the group? What is their economic status? What mix of ages and genders are they? Etc.

b. Where do the people live? At a specific location or in various locations? In what part(s) of town?

c. How will you decide what kind of assistance and how much assistance to provide to whom? For example, does the assistance provided change based on age, gender, family grouping, etc.?

d. How will you approach people to offer help?

e. How will you keep track of whom you are helping?

3. What assistance will you provide? (250 to 500 words)

a. What specific assistance will you bring to the people who need it (goods, services, training, cash assistance, etc.)? (Here, a response like “cash payments of $50 per person per week” is better than “cash payments”)

b. How and where will you provide the assistance? Will you maintain a location for people to come to? Will you visit people where they are? Will you provide transportation if needed (or if that’s part of your service)? Etc.

c. What kinds of skills are needed to provide this assistance? What special training or certification (if any) is required?

d. How will this assistance help people in the short run? That is, how might people be better off immediately because of the assistance you provide?

e. How will this assistance help people in the long run? That is, how might the assistance you provide have lasting effects, even if it is time-limited?

f. How will you track and document the process by which you are providing assistance?

4. How will you manage your project? (250 to 500 words)

a. Where will central operations for your project be? Will you rent a location, look for a donated location, or work in a distributed way (say from people’s houses)?

b. What documentation will you need to generate and maintain for the project, and how will you ensure the security and confidentiality of that documentation?

c. How will you coordinate volunteer efforts, and what will volunteers do? How will you screen volunteers? How many volunteers do you expect to have?

5. What will you accomplish in the first half of your project? (250 to 500 words)

a. What are the starting and ending dates of your project? (These should be 5 years in the future and run for the 12 weeks of your project.)

b. How many weeks will you need to start up your project before beginning to provide your project assistance? What will you need to accomplish during these weeks? How would you prove to an outside person (e.g., an auditor) that everything is in place to proceed with your program?

c. In the remaining weeks of the first half of your project, how many people do you expect to be able to assist, and in what ways? Provide evidence that the volunteers and time available are sufficient to achieve this goal.

6. What will you accomplish in the second half of your project? (250 to 500 words)

a. How many weeks of operations will you have before starting to wrap up your project? During this time, how many additional people do you expect to be able to assist, and in what ways? Again, provide evidence that you have enough people power to achieve your objective here.

b. In the remaining weeks, what steps will you take to wrap up your project? What records will you retain, and how will you archive those? What steps are required to finalize any location-related expenses?

c. How will you conclude relationships with people you are assisting? What additional sources of support can you direct them to after your project is complete?

7. How will you evaluate your project? (250 to 500 words)

a. If you had to determine immediately after the end of your project whether your assistance had helped, how would you do that? What kind of metric or metrics could you use to determine whether a particular individual had been helped? What questions would you need to ask to determine this?

b. Similarly, how could you determine, 3 months after the end of your project, whether your project assistance was still having an effect? How would you get back in touch with people you had helped? What characteristics of their condition could you measure to determine whether any positive impact from your assistance still remained?

c. What else might you need to know before your project starts in order to evaluate success after the project ends?

8. An Ethics and Christian Worldview analysis (250 to 500 words), addressing the following:

a. How does your project demonstrate the Judeo-Islamic-Christian ideal of loving your neighbor as yourself? What other religious and/or ethical principles does your project strive to exemplify or realize?

b. How are the people you propose to help different from you, and how might you structure your project to help bridge differences and lead to increased mutual understanding and respect?

c. How does your project further the goal of affording human value and dignity to all people?

9. A summary and reflections section (250 to 500 words), addressing the following:

a. Whom did you contact to learn about needs in your local community? What input did they provide to direct your investigation?

b. What other local needs did you consider? What was compelling to you about the one you chose?

c. For the assistance you plan to provide, what other avenues are there for people to receive that assistance? How likely is it that it will be available to them?

d. What other factors (legal, political, social, etc.) that were not considered as a part of this presentation might you need to investigate if you were actually to implement a project such as this one?

Financial computations in Excel

Separately from your presentation to sponsors, you will complete calculations in Excel detailing your expected costs, sponsorship and fundraising contributions, and loan details. A template is provided for this part of the assignment, including additional information to assist you.

As part of your financial calculations, you will develop the following:

1. A budget for your project, including personnel, administrative, outreach, and program costs, plus a percentage breakdown of each type of cost and an estimated cost per person that you expect to assist. Budget costs will be in current dollars.

2. A 5-year forward projection of your budget cost, using extrapolation of CPI values from 5 years that you will look up in a table.

3. A 5-year projection of a sponsorship amount; the sponsorship amount will be a given percentage of your 5-year budget projection and will accrue interest at a given APR.

4. A 5-year fundraising total that you expect to raise through monthly donations; the monthly donation amount and APR will be provided.

5. A 5-year loan payment calculation in which you calculate the monthly payment amount required to pay off monthly, over a period of 5 years, the difference between the cost of the project and the sum of your sponsorship and fundraising totals. (The loan would be taken out at the time the project is implemented.)

Financial formulas

The following formulas, given symbolically and in Excel format, may be useful for completing Major Assignment 3:

Compound interest formula: If an initial amount P grows at an annual rate r with n compoundings per year, then the value A of that amount after t years is given by the formula

A = P*(1+r/n)^(n*t)

Future value of periodic payments: If an amount P is contributed at the end of each of n periods per year for t years and the balance earns interest at an annual percentage rate of r, the total amount A accrued after t years is given by

A = P*((1+r/n)^(n*t)-1)/(r/n)

Loan payment formula: The amount PMT that must be paid n times per year for t years to pay off a loan principal amount of P at an APR of r is given by

PMT = P*(r/n)/(1 – (1 + r/n)^(-n*t))

Inflation rate formula: Given an old CPI value at one point and a new CPI value n years later, the n-year inflation rate IR is given by

IR = (new CPI – old CPI)/(old CPI)

© 2020. Grand Canyon University. All Rights Reserved.

© 2020. Grand Canyon University. All Rights Reserved.

Your Title Here (should capture the essence of your project)

Your name

MAT-144

The date you most recently edited your write-up

[A note about grading for this write-up: Although you may cross-reference points between sections, the questions from each section must be answered in that section to get credit for your response. The amount of credit you receive will depend on how thoroughly you have considered your implementation: you should attempt to write so that a reasonable reader would need to ask few or no follow-up questions to clarify your overall objective, people you will help, assistance provided, project management, timeline, assessment procedures, ethics and CWV analysis, and reflections. Write-ups that leave many questions unanswered or with significant gaps will earn less credit.]

Whom will you help? (You must change this section title to summarize its contents)

In this section, you must address the following questions:

1. What characterizes the group? What is their economic status? What mix of ages and genders are they? Etc.

2. Where do the people live? At a specific location or in various locations? In what part(s) of town?

3. How will you decide what kind of assistance and how much assistance to provide to whom? For example, does the assistance provided change based on age, gender, family grouping, etc.?

4. How will you approach people to offer help?

5. How will you keep track of whom you are helping?

What assistance will you provide? (You must change this section title to summarize its contents)

In this section, you must address the following questions:

1. What specific assistance will you bring to the people who need it (goods, services, training, cash assistance, etc.)? (Here, a response like “cash payments of $50 per person per week” is better than “cash payments”)

2. How and where will you provide the assistance? Will you maintain a location for people to come to? Will you visit people where they are? Will you provide transportation if needed (or if that’s part of your service)? Etc.

3. What kinds of skills are needed to provide this assistance? What special training or certification (if any) is required?

4. How will this assistance help people in the short run? That is, how might people be better off immediately because of the assistance you provide?

5. How will this assistance help people in the long run? That is, how might the assistance you provide have lasting effects, even if it is time-limited?

6. How will you track and document the process by which you are providing assistance?

Project Management

In this section, you must address the following questions:

1. Where will central operations for your project be? Will you rent a location, look for a donated location, or work in a distributed way (say from people’s houses)?

2. What documentation will you need to generate and maintain for the project, and how will you ensure the security and confidentiality of that documentation?

3. How will you coordinate volunteer efforts, and what will volunteers do? How will you screen volunteers? How many volunteers do you expect to have?

First Half of the Project

In this section, you must address the following questions:

1. What are the starting and ending dates of your project? (These should be 5 years in the future and run for the 12 weeks of your project.)

2. How many weeks will you need to start up your project before beginning to provide your project assistance? What will you need to accomplish during these weeks? How would you prove to an outside person (e.g., an auditor) that everything is in place to proceed with your program?

3. In the remaining weeks of the first half of your project, how many people do you expect to be able to assist, and in what ways? Provide evidence that the volunteers and time available are sufficient to achieve this goal.

Second Half of the Project

In this section, you must address the following questions:

1. How many weeks of operations will you have before starting to wrap up your project? During this time, how many additional people do you expect to be able to assist, and in what ways? Again, provide evidence that you have enough people power to achieve your objective here.

2. In the remaining weeks, what steps will you take to wrap up your project? What records will you retain, and how will you archive those? What steps are required to finalize any location-related expenses?

3. How will you conclude relationships with people you are assisting? What additional sources of support can you direct them to after your project is complete?

Project Evaluation

In this section, you must address the following questions:

1. If you had to determine immediately after the end of your project whether your assistance had helped, how would you do that? What kind of metric or metrics could you use to determine whether a particular individual had been helped? What questions would you need to ask to determine this?

2. Similarly, how could you determine, 3 months after the end of your project, whether your project assistance was still having an effect? How would you get back in touch with people you had helped? What characteristics of their condition could you measure to determine whether any positive impact from your assistance still remained?

3. What else might you need to know before your project starts in order to evaluate success after the project ends?

Ethics and Christian Worldview Analysis

In this section, you must address the following questions:

1. How does your project demonstrate the Judeo-Islamic-Christian ideal of loving your neighbor as yourself? What other religious and/or ethical principles does your project strive to exemplify or realize?

2. How are the people you propose to help different from you, and how might you structure your project to help bridge differences and lead to increased mutual understanding and respect?

3. How does your project further the goal of affording human value and dignity to all people?

Summary and Reflections

In this section, you must address the following questions:

1. Whom did you contact to learn about needs in your local community? What input did they provide to direct your investigation?

2. What other local needs did you consider? What was compelling to you about the one you chose?

3. For the assistance you plan to provide, what other avenues are there for people to receive that assistance? How likely is it that it will be available to them?

4. What other factors (legal, political, social, etc.) that were not considered as a part of this presentation might you need to investigate if you were actually to implement a project such as this one?

References

© 2020. Grand Canyon University. All Rights Reserved.

© 2020. Grand Canyon University. All Rights Reserved.