Step 8

Deciding Which Agency Receives Your Grant

There are numerous ways for students to determine who should receive your grant. Factors include the amount of money you have to award, program implementation, student participation, etc. The important part of this step is to remember that we want student discussion and difficult decision-making. This is where learning occurs.

Final Round - Agency Presentations: Many schools invite representatives from the two or three finalist agencies to present to their group.  These presentations are usually limited to 10 minutes and may or may not involve the use of audiovisual aids - this is up to each group, but these guidlines should be clearly communicated to the agency representatives BEFORE they come to your school.  In some cases, the agencies present by themselves (with introductions by group members), and in other cases the students and agency reps co-present to the group.

Group Voting:  Most groups are rather large and limit voting rights to themselves.  Determing who get a vote and who doesn't is up to each group.  In some groups, like Mount Notre Dame's YPC, students are given "voting points" based upon their level of participation in the YPC meetings, site visits, and group discussions throughout the year. 

All-school Voting:  Some schools have presented their research to larger groups of students through presentations and use of video, and have allowed them to participate in the voting process.

Faculty Voting: One school had gropus of students present to a faculty panel who then chose the winner.

Group Consensus:  Smaller groups have simply reviewed the RFPs and discussed which agency receives the money, coming to a consensus.

There is no right or wrong way to select the winning agency, as long as the students and teacher(s) feel the process was done fairly and that due-diligence was observed.   Roger Grein and the other funders want the students to experience the difficulty of making decisions when it comes to donating of one's treasure - the thrill of saying "yes", and the pain of saying "no".