We decided to invest in Canoe Creek Animal Shelter, it was a 3 to 1 vote. The Animal Shelter is a really great place and we hope our money will go toward keepimf their animals alive longer. We easily raised the 100 dollars and we will be giving then all we have including the money from the education foundation. The small group environment made it easier to present ideas and our opinions. Phoebe had a problem with donating to a kill shelter and I ended up being the deciding vote. I ended up picking the Animal Shelter because they work really closely with the other program and also need the money a lot more. She was unhappy with our decision, but majority rules. I don’t know what to expect for next week, I don’t know what we are doing.

Qualitative an quantitative are 2 different ways to evaluate companies. Personally I think qualitative should count more than quantitative, because how you treat people and animals is very important. Pet Alliance is a very charitable company , but a lot of there animals that come there for help end up worse off.

It is easy to evaluate charities, but they are all doing really well. Animal control and Wellington are 2 really good charities and their speakers both did really well. I think our toughest decision will be between the 2 of them.

Pet Alliance has a great 990 form, but has a horrible customer rating. They have 2.8 stars out of 5. So after reading the rather scalding reviews are group decided that we won’t be donating to them.

My organization got a 10 in every category by they have a terrible customer satisfaction and seem to mistreat animals, so just because they are amazing at filing taxes doesn’t mean they are a good charity.

Having a purpose or goal is important because it gives you something to strive for and something to care about it. Our team’s purpose is to serve our community by improving and protecting animal welfare.After arguing about what we really want to accomplish we came up with the vision statement: We can imagine our money being used to save animals in bad situations live a better and happier life.

I hate talking to strangers so I can imagine that reaching out to an organization will be hard for me. I think they will be polite to me, I mean I want to donate money to them, but I feel like it will be awkward and I will freeze up.

The Brown Paper Bag Activity was very interesting. I learned that Taylor Smith has been a cheerleader for 13 years and is very emotional/has road rage. Emily loves her second family at school,owls,and Notre Dame. Pebble loves horses and is very religious. Everyone has some kind of connection to animals. We will be holding a series of bake sales out of different teachers classrooms.

                 Last Thursday  we used the MAD cards and it was an amazing experience. All of the cards represented something worthy of our support and I was surprised how hard it was to choose one.  In the end my top three were People with Physical and Mental Disabilities, Animal Care, and Veterans and Service People Care. I was very sad that I couldn’t choose hunger or medical research, but I know that one day I can help them if not today. It was also interesting to hear the reasons why people chose certain causes. Most people had a story or personal experience that influenced their decision. I am fortunate enough to not have anyone in my family with a major health condition (knock on wood)and that’s probably why I didn’t choose the same as many people. I am very excited to help whatever group I am put in and learn about taxes!

-Allie