My team decided on Grace landing because we felt that the representative was very nice and well spoken and that they could really benefit from the money. We decided to give them the full amount of money we raise because we feel like it will be spent well. I find working in my group to be very easy because we all get along and are agreeing on where to put our money. I expect next week to be very heart warming when we deliver the money to them.

My experience using the MAD cards was definitely interesting because I had never done anything like that before and I had never really given any thought to who I would give to if I had the opportunity to give. I learned that my interests are pretty different than most of my classmates and that wasn’t shocking to me at all  because I picked things that have both affected my life and are a very predominant part of my life, which I’m sure is what my classmates did as well. Picking out the cards taught me a lot about my classmates, what they are most focused on and what some would like to do if they too were able to make a difference.

My experience in creating my purpose, vision, and mission statement was very clarifying. It gave myself and my group a specific goal and a set of directions on what to do to reach that goal which is extremely helpful. I expect to receive a positive response when we reach out to organizations this week because we’re offering them a chance to earn money for their organization and every nonforprofit needs more money.

The brown paper bag activity taught me a lot about my classmates and what memories and mementos that they value most and also what they think describes them. I learned about myself that a lot is important to me but when it came to picking my top three it was a no brainier. My team will be holding several bake sales around school though out the time period of week 2 up until the money is due for charity.

What I learned from the non-profit panel that will help me decide how to distribute your funds is what they’re all about and what they do with their money. I’m learning from my teams fundraising activity is that it’s a lot more difficult to raise money than I thought. I pleasantly interviewed my mother because I knew she had some past experience in her sorority with different philanthropy projects. What surprised me was how involved she actually was and how much time she volunteered. I realized that there are a lot of different organizations that need help with raising money.

I’m learning that there are a lot of different things that need to be done in order to see if an organization meets all the requirements. I find that it’s best to look up the 990s and just go from there, seeing the way an organization handles there money says a lot about them. I find that it’s easy as long as you follow the steps given to you in the book and calculate using the charts and equations.

This week I learned that one of our top organizations does not have a 990 for us to review and it seems that only one of the organizations we were considering has one to learn from. However, we have put calls out to the organizations without 990s and have asked them to come speak anyways to show us just what they have to offer. It is important to look at the numbers from a 990 before investing because you want to make sure your investment is going to the right place. Some organizations designate most of their money to pay the staff and others to help use for more fundraising, our goal was to pick one that put the majority of its money back into the organization. Although we didn’t learn much from the tax returns because only one was able to be found, we did learn about how that one used the majority of its money to help the organization.