Last week we visited the Ronald MacDonald House, Pine View, and Maholas Hope. I thought visiting these charities was very fun and we got to see more of what they had to offer and did. The Ronald MacDonald House really surprised me. I didn’t think it was going to be that big and kid friendly but it was. Getting that tour made me feel grateful and happy that we were giving to them. They do so much for the kids and families there and it melted my heart.

My over all experience with Main Street Philanthropy was pretty good. I liked helping and giving to the charities. The most valuable thing would be seeing some of the different charities we were giving to. It gave us a better perspective of there organization and what they do. For the future MSP participants I’d say find a charity you really find meaning or one that interests you a lot and give to them. It feels good to be a philanthropist because you are helping out others. It makes you feel good about yourself.

My group didn’t make as mush as we wanted and that had a impact on who we picked to donate to. Because of that we are only donating to one charity and that is the Ronald MacDonald House. Another reason we picked them is because they got back to us right away. They had good answers to the questions and didn’t stop responding like the other charity did. We made 100 dollars and were giving them the whole 100.

Our group was very good. We worked together very well and there was not arguing what so ever. We all got along and got done what we needed to get done. All of us put in some kind of time for selling our protein balls. The whole group was in agreement on decisions being made.

Next week I expect it to be fun and a great opportunity to visit these charity’s.

I knew nothing about taking the veterans to Washington D.C. I thought this was very interesting and I kept wanting to hear more. Also, for shinning stars I didn’t know that they don’t do fundraising. She keeps donations in her bank account and she accepts donations. She also will pay for things herself and I think that’s just awesome.

I learned form the fundraising experience that It was difficult to sell when coffee was selling because everyone wanted the coffee. We learned to bring people in by telling them when they walked into the door other than just standing there the first day.

The overall giving experience has been a lot of work but It is worth it in the long run. It’s not difficult just time consuming.

My group has somewhat talked about that. We only made 100 which isn’t bad. Our goal was 200. I think we will be giving to the Ronald McDonald House.

We’re learning about qualitative and quantitative because our groups are calling different charities to get information about them so we know who to give our money too. We want the charity to be reliable and not just waste the money on something else. I’m finding that it is difficult to evaluate the organisations because when I called no one answered or called me back when I left a voicemail.

My organization didn’t get back to me but I know from the website that, It helps people that have had cancer, get back into shape. It’s important to look at the numbers to see if the organization has enough money invested. If they don’t have enough money then your not gonna wanna donate to them. For fundraising the organization gets a good amount of money. The coast to raise a dollar is 68.60 dollars which isn’t too bad but still kind of expensive.

Our purpose statement is to improve conditions of families of children. Then we came up with our Vision statement which, is to show that you care and get people aware of the charity. For our mission statement with five things we came up with is fundraising/ finding dates, talking/ contacting charities, spreading the word, decide on a money goal, finally, pursue fund raising/ collect profits. With these three statements that we came up with, my experience was that it felt good to be helping charities. When reaching out to some charities I feel like some wont answer or they wont contact us back. A fact about cancer is, “Cancer is a group of deceases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread d of abnormal cells. There are over 10 types of cancer. Any part of the body can be affected.”

From the brown paper bag activity I learned that Alyssa likes tea and that Brooke has been in the Big Brother Big Sister club for 7 years. We talked about doing a Go Fund me, brat fry, or selling chocolate bars. We haven’t deiced when we will be doing our fundraiser. So far we talked about doing some organization with MS cause there is two people in my group that has a family member with it. My family said that what we are doing is a very good thing. They like that we are helping out families and supporting the research.

I found the MAD cards to be hard to only pick six cause there were a lot of good ones to choose from. I know my friends at my table were having a hard time picking as well and some of us picked the same ones as our top three. I did’t expect there to be so many cards. I want to learn more about charities and what some of them do. I also want to learn about charities I’ve never heard of before.