Permalinks not working in Custom function

[trishasalas]

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