StudioPress Community Forums - Permalinks not working in Custom function

I wrote a custom function for displaying random buddypress groups and the permalinks arent' working no matter what I do. I have tried printf() as well as echo...all it does is display the link itself next to the item I want to be the link.

The code is in a custom template with other standard genesis widgets before and after it.

I am fairly new to php but know enough to at least get this far and understand what I'm doing but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Can anyone help with this?

Here is the link: http://dev.trishasalas.com/

and here is the code:

PHP Code:


		
			
$args = array(

     'type' => 'random',

     'max' => 3

);



    if ( bp_has_groups ( $args ) ) {

 

        echo'<div class="featured-middle-left">';



        echo'<h3>Check Out Our Growing Network Of Groups</h3>';

 

        echo'<ul id="groups-list" class="item-list">';

           while ( bp_groups() ) : bp_the_group();

 

        echo'<li>';



        echo '<div class="thumbnail">';

            

        echo'<a href='.bp_group_permalink().'>'.bp_group_avatar().'</a>';



        echo'</div>';

         

         echo'<h2>';



               printf('<a href="%s">%s</a>',

                bp_group_permalink(),

                bp_group_name()

                );



           echo'</h2>';



        echo'<div class="item-desc">';

        bp_group_description_excerpt();

        echo'</div>';

 

         do_action('bp_directory_groups_item');



        echo'</div>';

 

        echo'<div class="action">';

        

        bp_group_join_button();

        echo'</li>';



        endwhile;

          echo'</ul>';

          echo'</div>';

      }

Thanks!
Trisha in Tulsa