To decide which organizations were best for our investment, we tried to pick at least one that went with our original cause, which was cancer. We picked one organization that helps cancer patients. We picked it because it seemed like a good organization with high qualitative and quantitative numbers. We picked our other organizations based on how their leaders talked about them at the panel discussions. We chose ones that, based on the their leaders talking about them, made us want to donate to them and their cause. My experience working in a group environment was good. I found it was easy because we all got along really well. We didn’t all know each other before this, but we just clicked and were able to agree on decisions. I expect that next week will be a neat experience to actually visit a charity. I have never been to one before and I never thought I would get to visit one to see how it operates.

I learned from the panel of non-profit leaders that there is a lot of different ways a charity can be run and how they can help people. I found it interesting that the Shining Star’s leader donated her own money if she needed more because she just wanted to help. I also found it interesting that Mahala’s hope was a charity where women lived there. Listening to the leader of the Big Brother Big Sister made me realize I am really interested in helping troubled kids when I’m older, either through helping out at a charity or becoming a child psychologist. I am learning from my fundraising experience that kids are more willing to donate than we expected. It was difficult to get our fundraiser started and sort out all of the details, but now that we are collecting it has been easier and we are raising more money than we expected. Our group is almost ready to make a final decision. We have been leaning toward one charity, but we are not 100% sure yet.

I learned that there are two ways to evaluate an investment in a company; qualitative and quantitative. I see more value in evaluating the quality of the charity, so you know exactly what your money is being used for. You want to know that your money is going to the cause, not the company’s expenses. I found that it was pretty easy to to evaluate non-profit organizations, since we have an outline to follow in our book.

I learned that my organization didn’t have any employees that got paid for working at it. I also learned that my charity donates the money they raise to families with a member that has cancer to help pay for their medical bills. It is important to look at a charity’s numbers before making an investment because you want know exactly where your money is going and make sure they don’t use most of it toward their own expenses and employees. It is also important to look at their numbers to ensure that they are a stable charity and a good place to invest. I learned that my organization was a pretty good organization to donate to. They earned three’s in the program ratio and management ratio, and two’s in the fundraising ratio and cost to raise $1, earning them a pretty good overall score.

When creating our mission statements we thought about what we wanted to accomplish. Our vision statement is important because it tells everyone exactly what we want to do. I️ expected my organization to answer my phone call, but they did not. I️ left a voicemail, but they have not called back yet.

I learned that many of the items I put in my bag were similar to the items people in my group put in their bags. I learned that many of my classmates valued their families, friends, and pets. Many people also had souvenirs from traveling in their bags. Our team is planning on doing the shave a teacher’s head fundraiser and placing donation jars at local businesses to raise money. We are not sure when will we hold our fundraiser yet. The people I told about Main Street Philanthropy thought it was a very neat experience. They thought it was cool that we were being given the opportunity to do this in school. When I told my mom, she was very excited to help us because we are looking into donating to cancer charities and her sister has cancer.

I had a hard time deciding my top 3 MAD cards because I realized how many causes there were out there that I wanted to help. The experience of picking the MAD cards taught me that certain causes that meant more to me were the medical needs and healthcare ones because I have had numerous family members that have had cancer and other diseases. I learned that other people also picked causes that were special to them. I hope to be able to help causes that are important to me through the Main Street Philanthropy program and to gain the urge to want to help people more.