This week in main street philanthropy we had our second board meeting. During the discussion i learned that most of the nonprofit organizations get volunteers to donate their time and support rather than cash donations. one interesting fact that i learned was that this one volunteer for big brothers big sisters is actually an artist and has all college degrees in some form of art. This just shows that you can be passionate and good at something, but your life might take you in a different direction than you already though. I dont think we are going to do anything different in our project because we are doing good so far and why change something that works. And for my personal life i would have to say that i would consider volunteering my time at a non-profit to possibly help them out a bit for that day. I learned that if people see a non-profit charity they will usually help and donate to that fundraiser.

This week in main street philanthropy we had our first board meeting. During the discussion i learned that most of the nonprofit organizations get volunteers to donate their time and support rather than cash donations. one interesting fact that i learned was that this one food charity sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in food to a third world country and then they just lost track of it on the way there. This shows that even though they can ship food there can still be people waiting to intercept that donation of food and keep it for themselves. I dont think we are going to do anything different in our project because we are doing good so far and why change something that works. And for my personal life i would have to say that i would consider volunteering my time at a non-profit to possibly help them out a bit for that day. I learned that if people see a non-profit charity they will usually help and donate to that fundraiser.

There are multiple ways to evaluate an investment in a company, such as researching their 990 form, or having them come in for an interview. its important to research the company before you invest so as to not just waste your money on a place that is not going to use your money for a good reason. for example you don’t want to raise a lot of money and then give it to a company that only wants to use that money to benefit themselves. you wanna find a company that will use it for the benefit of the community and surrounding environment/ people in the environment. it can be difficult finding a nonprofit because they aren’t always at the said company because the majority of the time the employees are more than likely a volunteer. overall this week we are just finishing up our board meetings and fundraising ideas.l

This week in main street we learned about the 990 forms. My charity in particular is a non profit, so the members of it dont get paid. they do it out of charity. my charity has a total revenue of $91,677 and their total expenses are $82,062. now its important to look at the numbers for these charities so that you dont invest in a place that going to misuse the money that you donate. our charity has a tax total score of 13. overall you should research your charities 990 form so you know not to give to a charity that wont use the money properly.

This week of main street philanthropy we decided our mission, vision, and purpose statements, it wasn’t that hard figuring it out because our was environmental protection, so for us it was more about the preservation of the wildlife we have left. These statements are important because it helps you get a concept of what you would like to do for your cause. It helps you visualize your goals and realize what you need to do to achieve your desired result or goal. While we haven’t reached out to any specific charity yet, we will be this week. While its going to be a little bit stressful to call them, i believe that they will be intrigued and it will also help us eliminate any charity’s we believe to be not fit for our cause or our donation. The real problems start to occur when your specific charity cant make it to any of board meeting we are having to help decide our charity. Hopefully our charity can make it.

In this weeks meeting with main street philanthropy, we did a brown paper bag assignment where we put three or four items in a bag that represent us. I put this eyeball charm in there because i got it from my mom, and i also put a paining in there because i like art. I learned that everyone has different likes and dislikes, some liked golfing and wrestling, others liked traveling, and religion, and for the second part of the questions of what our fundraiser will be. We aren’t sure yet, but it has to be something environmental, and we don’t know when we are doing it.

Today we learned about what exactly philanthropy was, by definition its the love for humankind. I learned that there are many different topics to choose from with the mad card. As well as many different opinion of people on the topics they believe we should target and work on the most. For me my top three choices for the issues i thought were most important were environmental protection, to help save our wildlife for future generations to come. Health research and education, to help improve our knowledge of diseases and ailments, to help maybe one day find a cure for aids, or any other disease. And last but not least social justice and civil rights, because without these we would be trapped in a system that is unfair, one that if i accused someone of murder they would just put him straight in jail without a trial, Our civil rights and social justice help keep us safe from false allegations and accusations. I learned that im more likely to pick something that’s going to help the environment or the whole population in general rather than one person, could probably say the same thing about my of my classmates. Overall this week was more of an informative on just what is philanthropy, and helped us get a better understanding of how main street affects the community and people in general,but one thing i would like to learn form this would be more leadership traits.