Fundraising Project Plan: London School of Business and Management

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Managing Operations & Projects
Project Plan

Abstract
Project management is associated with various operational management theories and concept
that are in relation to planning, resourcing and measuring of effectiveness of an organisation.
From the use of planning, technique needs to be employed for development and implementation
of organisational projects and solving challenges. In this project, a fundraising event by the
London School of Business and Management will be conducted and the aim is to raise £2019 in
a day. Thus, the project manager was recruited in order to provide a detailed plan. This plan
includes project overview, cost management, time management using Gantt chart, network
diagram and critical path analysis as well as risk management plan to mitigate the identified
risks.
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Project overview/scope....................................................................................................................4
Definition.....................................................................................................................................4
Rationale......................................................................................................................................4
Constraints...................................................................................................................................4
Assumptions................................................................................................................................5
Project charter..............................................................................................................................5
Project cost management.................................................................................................................6
Resource analysis.........................................................................................................................6
Budgeting.....................................................................................................................................6
Cost control..................................................................................................................................8
Project time management................................................................................................................8
Gantt chart...................................................................................................................................9
Network diagram.........................................................................................................................9
Critical path analysis..................................................................................................................10
Project risk management................................................................................................................11
Risk identification......................................................................................................................12
Risk analysis..............................................................................................................................12
Risk matrix and Risk Mitigation Plan.......................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
Project management is referred as a practice that involves initiation, planning, execution,
controlling and closing of a work by a group of members in order to achieve a specific set of
goals that help in achieving success in a stipulated time frame. It is related to operational
management theories and concepts in relation to organisational planning, resourcing and
measurement of effectiveness. The aim of this assessment is to develop a project plan that will
help in undertaking the specifications of the charity function and raise the expected sum of
amount. It will include a project overview, cost management, time management and risk
management which in a collaborative manner will help in describing the limitations of the
project and ideating ways of mitigating them.
Project overview/scope
Definition
The project involves a charity fundraising event by the London School of Business and
Management that wanted to celebrate the end of an academic year with this event. It was
supposed to take place in May 2019 and the aim of this event is to raise approximately £2019.
The project manager was appointed for this occurrence and thus, a comprehensive project plan
needs to be established and submitted to the authorities. The fundraising event was conducted in
order to help in charitable work as well to celebrate the end of an academic year, thus, the aim
was to collect the funds within a single day.
Rationale
The rationale behind the project management was to collect a sum of money, approximately
£2019 in a single day. This event was a mark of the end of an academic session in the London
School of Business and Management as well as a charitable function specifically for the students.
Thus, the purpose behind this event is to generate a sum of money from the students as well as
the facility of the college that would be donated for charity work. Thus, a project management
plan was required prior to the commencement of the event that includes analysis of cost, time
and risks, which are the major factors that may affect the success of the event.
Constraints
From the initial analysis of the project management, it can be stated that the constraints that
would hinder to achieve success in this project within the stipulated deadline were allocation of
resources, allocation of enough cost to sufficiently conducting all the activities in the planning
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and execution process, allocation of adequate time to complete each task with success and risks
associated with the project. According to Kerzner and Kerzner (2017), it is important to
undertake a project plan that outlines all the constraints and hindrances affecting the plan for
planning the mitigation plan for them.
Assumptions
Harrison and Lock (2017) opined that assumptions are considered an important aspect of project
planning because they help in forecasting various components and factors and addressing them
in an effective manner. The assumption that can be made in this case in relation to:
● Number of students that will attend the function
● Number of faculties present in the event
● Minimum amount of money donated by each attendee
● Cost required
● Approximate time of closing the event
From the perception of the project manager, it can be stated that it is essential to assess the
assumption and plan accordingly. This is because it will help the manager and the team to
understand the requirements and move forward.
Project charter
As opined by Martin and Haggerty (2017), a project charter is a statement of objectives within a
project. This involves detailed project goals, responsibilities, roles and identification of the main
stakeholders and level of authority of the project manager.
The project goals of the fundraising event are:
● To raise a fund of £2019 in one day
● To effectively plan the project in relation to cost, time and risks
● To outline cost, time and risk-related factors in the plan in a detailed manner
The entire responsibility of the project is on the project management team and the college
authority.
Stakeholder Types of Stakeholders
Students Internal
College Authority Internal
Project management team Internal
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Charitable Organisation External
Government External
Table 1: Stakeholder of the event
Project cost management
Resource analysis
Pheng (2018) opined that in a project, it is critical to allocate appropriate resources for successful
accomplishment of goals. The resource analysis involves determination of resources, effective
management of resources to undertake a project or event. The four important resource categories
include in the fundraising event are:
● Location
● Human resources- project management team
● Capital
From the discussion with the college authority, it was confirmed that the college campus was
selected as the location of the event. The source of capital is an important and critical factor and
the major source is the board of directors and college fund that organise the annual function to
mark the end of an academic year.
Budgeting
Expected Income= £3000
Expected Expense= £981
Aim of Event= £2019
Event proceedings Estimated Cost (in £)
Sales of Graduation photographs 600
Sales of event photographs 150
Auctions 1000
Other Income 250
Sponsorships 300
Donations 700
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Total Income 3000
Figure 1: Estimate Income for the event
(Source: Created by developer)
Expenses Estimated (in £)
Hiring of Equipment 300
Audiovisuals 200
Staffs 300
Tables and chairs 81
Decorations 100
Total Expense 981
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Figure 2: Estimated Expense of Event
(Source: Created by developer)
Cost control
As stated by Wang et al., (2016), cost control is a process that helps in identification and
reduction of expenses in the event to increase the amount raising for funds and it is included with
the budgeting process. From the above-mentioned budget, various analysis and cost-cutting
techniques were employed by the project manager in order to minimise the expense bored in this
event and thus, maximising the amount of fund being raised. This involved monitoring of all the
costs in real-time that offered a clear picture of all the expenses and allocating the budget
likewise. This is a baseline budget that involved cost controlling methods, thereupon, recoding of
actual cost, calculation of different metrics and updating of forecast need to be done over time.
Thus, in this budget allocation, cost above marginal price was included.
Project time management
From the opinion of Fleming and Koppelman (2016), it is evident that create a project schedule
that outlines individual tasks and the interval of time required to attain the expected goals of the
project in a successful manner. For doing so, there are a number of tools and project management
software that can be utilised in order to illustrate the timeframe. The utility of the time
management or scheduling process is to represent the stipulated time duration of each activity
that needs to be complete in order to move to the following step. This step-wise progression of
the project would guarantee the success of the project at maximum level. In the case of
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fundraising event of the London School of Business and Management, the use of three essential
tools had been selected. The three tools are:
● Gantt chart
● Network diagram
● Critical path analysis
Gantt chart
Figure 3: Gantt chart of the event
(Source: Created by developer)
In this chart, different tasks that need to be conducted in this event had been specifically
identified and week-wise segregation of time was allocated. This helps the project management
team to conduct each of the tasks as mentioned in the bar chart (Mohammad et al., 2016). It
demonstrates the scheduling processes where the tasks need to be conducted are represented on
the vertical axis and time interval, in this case, week-wise on the horizontal axis.
Network diagram
According to OKANO et al., (2019), network diagram is a graphical illustration of tasks, work-
flow and responsibilities in this event. The use of this diagram is to map the work sequence and
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schedule of the work or activities in the project in order to track the progress of each phase until
the completion of the project. It is found to incorporate each action and results that are associated
with the eventuality that specifically demonstrates the scope of the project.
Figure 4: Network diagram
(Source: Created by developer)
Critical path analysis
Critical path analysis is a type of algorithm that is used for scheduling of various elements of
project activities. MacCrimmon (2016) opined that this is commonly used as a synchronisation
action with review techniques and program evaluation. Thus, it is considered an important tool
that helps in forecasting the success rate of any given project. This is mostly being used for
managing complex activities. Along with the other two methods, namely Gantt chart and
network diagram, it helps the project manager to organise and arrange all the required tasks that
need to be completed in a systematic and sequentially manner.
This critical path analysis was conducted based upon the given network diagram by selecting the
critical path of this fundraising event.
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Figure 5: Critical Path Analysis for achieving the goal of the project
(Source: Created by developer)
Project risk management
Analysis of risk is a method involving identification and assessment of potential challenges that
might have a negative impact on the critical projects. This would help the business or project to
mitigate the risks in an effective manner to achieve the pre-defined objectives of the project. In
this case, there are a number of risks that might affect the amount of fund raised in the event. The
steps performed in this process are:
● Identification of risks
● Analysis of risks
● Risk matrix
● Plan to mitigate risks
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Figure 6: Risk management process
(Source: Carvalho and Rabechini Junior, 2015)
Risk identification
In this process, the risks are identified specific to the project in order to understand the risks and
its impact on the deliverables of the project. The risks that had been evaluated after a thorough
analysis of various aspects of the fundraising event of the college were:
● Uncertainty of donor’s willingness
● Lack of clarity
● Lack of transparency
● Lack of collaborative efforts of project management team and college authority
● creation of unrealistic goals
● Injury
Risk analysis
After the identification of risks, it was important to analyse them in order to understand them and
plan mitigation strategies. From the assessment, it is evident that donors may not be willing to
donate because of several reasons (Schuyler et al., 2016). It is not possible to evaluate the wish
or mentality of the donor in any form. One of the reasons that the event may fail is due to a lack
of clarity that may affect the decision of donor as well as sponsors. Clarity in such a event is
critical for raising funds and helping a noble cause. Transparency and collaborative approach
between the stakeholders of the project is essential for successful completion of the project. Lack
of these factors might lead to complete failure as the stakeholders had worked in different
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