The field trip on Friday affected me more than I thought it was going to. The Ronald McDonald House was my favorite out of the three places we went, and I can’t even put what I felt during that trip into words. It was the most magical place I have ever seen. I have never wanted to volunteer somewhere so bad and I definitely plan on volunteering even as a teenager now, and in the future. I loved the turtle exhibit at Pine View Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, and the personal stories that some of the women at Mahala’s Hope shared were extremely touching.

Overall, Mainstreet has given me the feeling of what it’s like to give back to the people who do so much for others, and I will never forget that feeling. This program changed me as a person, and I want to do more for the world and give back. I would do this program 100 times again. I had so much fun, but I would definitely do things differently. I cannot wait until I start to volunteer more.

Our team decided on really the only two organizations we were thinking of because they reached out to us more, but really only one charity continued to participate and answer our questions. We have decided to give all of our money to that foundation, the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Working in a group environment wasn’t okay, but sometimes others didn’t want to do as much or participate as much which kind of sucked. We didn’t really have an disagreements on anything, and did a really good job working together to agree on a charity and fundraiser. For next week I expect to learn more about the charities we have got in contact with and listened to. I am very excited to visit some of the places groups are donating to!

Alexis week 7

I have learned that giving money is harder than I thought it was going to be. Hearing all of the different charities share their stories and what they are doing for others makes it extremely difficult to pick which charity I really want to help. I want to help them all now that I’ve heard what they are doing and what the are planning to do. I also want to volunteer at some of the places we talked about now, and want to do more volunteer work in general. Raising money wasn’t really the hard part, even though we didn’t reach our goal… but giving is even harder. Our group is still thinking about two or three different charities to decide on.

I learned a lot from the panel of non-profit leaders. I learned that it is not easy getting a non-profit organization started. I also learned how passionate the members are about their charity. They truly love what they do and they do it because they care, and no other reason. It really amazes me how much the people do for their organizations, and all of the great things they are doing. I think I will end up doing more volunteering after hearing how much good is done by volunteering and how many people are affected.

From my fundraising experience, I am learning that it is not easy setting up the fundraising. You have to find times that everyone is available, make sure everyone is contributing and everything is being done fairly. Also making sure what we’re selling is being sold at a fair price and hopefully getting a lot of people to buy.

I am learning that it is extremely important to not only evaluate a charity in one aspect of their organization, but in as many ways as possible. Looking at the quantitative part of my charity, I learned that they are very stable financially, and use a large percent of their profits to help the kids and families in need. I feel that the qualitative part is just as important as the quantitative because you can find out more about your charity through questioning. If the people at the charity are respectful and seem interested, that is usually a good sign. If they’re not, maybe then they’re not the right charity to donate to. I am finding it actually quite hard to evaluate the organization because they are only able to email maybe once a week, when I have many questions to ask, and they are not able to make the days we have open.

I didn’t get to talk too much with the person from my organization, but I do know that they support a lot of families and without them, those families would be in an even worse situation than what they are in right now. It is important to look at the numbers before you make an investment so you know what the organization does with the money they raise. Also to see how your charity is doing, because if they’re not doing so good financially, maybe you’d want to donate there instead of donating to someone who is doing extremely well. If the charity looks like it’s doing horrible and that they’re not gonna stay up for much longer, you might want to look at another charity that isn’t doing as bad so your donations are more useful.

The organization that I looked at was the Ronald McDonald House Charity, and I learned that they are doing extremely well financially. They are using their money for all the right things, and they scored a three in every box but one, and for that box they were just short 1 month to get a three.

Creating the purpose, vision and mission statements helped us organize what we want to do, why we want to do it, and how we plan to do it. Our purpose is to improve conditions or states of families with children who are sick and all around try to help improve the medical field environment by raising money. This will show not only the children who are sick, but also the families and people around them that there are others who care about them. We also hope that by doing this, we will hopefully increase the awareness of this charity and the situations families are in all around our community. We have many steps in our process; finding a charity, spreading the word, decide on a fundraiser and money goal, and more.

I contacted one of the Ronald McDonald House Charities in Eastern Wisconsin, and talked to a really nice lady, and was able to talk to her about this program. Then she said she would put me on a different line with a lady named Heather who unfortunately did not pick up, but I left her a voicemail and emailed her.

I wasn’t here the last meeting, but in my paper bag I had a softball, because I have been playing softball my entire life and I cannot live without it. I also had a sketch book because I love drawing and I do it in my free time to relive stress. My final object was a necklace that a received from my grandpa. It was his wife’s necklace. She died from cancer when my dad was really young so I never really got to meet her, and nobody really talks about her anymore. It means a lot to me that he gave me that necklace.

The MAD cards made me realize that not only are there a higher number of charities that exist than I thought, but also that I could make personal connections with some of the charities. I also learned that other people tended to choose the top charities they did because they also had personal connections with the charities.

From Main Street Philanthropy, I hope to become more knowledgeable about not just one but the whole variety of charities, and about how I can help those charities during my everyday life.