Our group decided it would best to donate to a local business. After having the Kewaskum Food Pantry come into the class and talk during the panel discussion, I thought it would be perfect for us to donate our money to them. They had a great high score for their 990 tax form, and put their time towards a cause that our group, Pack the Pantry, believes in. It was hard to work in a group where everyone had to take the bus home, did not have drivers license, and are Sophomores who didn’t have jobs. Under our circumstances, we did really well to be able to fundraise over $300.  Also, many of us disagree on things, so it took us longer to pick an organization to do a fundraiser with. We were able to understand each others opinions and work it out, making compromises when needed. Overall, we all were able to get along for the most part, and all have a consensus to donate to a non-profit that does good within the community.

I learned a lot from the 2nd panel discussion. There was a lot more people at the second than the first. I learned that the Food Pantry has been going for almost 10 years, with the community helping to donate food items and money donations. I felt like I really wanted to donate to a local business after the second panel discussion. I will feel more sympathetic towards people wanting donations, because know I know how hard it is to do a fundraiser. Fundraising can go very well and very badly. I have learned that it is always good to have a backup just in case. Overall, I really thought the 2nd panel discussion was better than the first.

Week six helped our team understand what happens in the world of non-profits. Each representative had at least one story about how their organization helped others in the world. I was really surprised about how they put donations into perspective, how it could help a family, create new homes for animals, or give someone an experience of a life time. It helped me understand the impact that non-profits can make in the community, wether it be a small or big donation. During the course of the next weeks I will continue to think about how we are helping our community and making a positive impact on someones life. Within our fundraising, I am realizing that hard work will go along way in getting our donations towards our non-profit. Overall the panel discussion was very informative and intriguing hearing about the representatives stories and answers.  I hope that the next panel disunion will be just as informative as this one.

Week 5 was an important week for picking our organizations. We have been throughly going through their tax forms, seeing who has the best numbers for donations. Over the last couple of weeks I have liked doing the quantitative analysis for finding how good  organizations are treating their donations that people give. I believe that it gives the facts and truths within the non-profit better. After finding the number for each organization, it is a real eye opener seeing exactly what they are doing with the money. For me, it is easy to evaluate potential organizations to donate to, if their numbers are higher, then the more likely they will receive a donation from us. Overall, week 5 helped with getting closer to picking our organization that we will be donating towards, with the help of evaluating the tax forms and developing questions to ask them at the panel discussion next week.

Week four of Main Street Philanthropy was confusing yet fun. In the beginning of the class we had a guest speaker talk about 990 tax forms which I didn’t understand at first. Then, they had us fill out our own tax forms with an example organization, which then it was clearer about what was going on. It really helped with having the layout of the equations on a piece of paper. Afterwards we were able to do the organization that we wanted to donate to. The Kewaskum Food Pantry, the organization that we are planing to donate to, had a score of 14/15 which is really well for a  local organization. It is important having good numbers so that it is more likely that people will donate to the organization. With lower scores someone might not donate due to the fact that all their money might go towards paying for their management staff and not the cause that the money should be going towards. Overall, week four was a week that someone would have to pay attention in so they understand the tax form. Week four was really eventful and interesting seeing exactly what happens to the money within the organizations that people donate towards.

The vision and purpose statements that we wrote as a group were very quite interesting. We got to know how others in our group felt towards what we should be as a whole. Overall it wasn’t very hard to come together and write the group statements. After we were done writing them separating we came together as a group, and we almost wrote the exact same thing for each person. The vision and purpose statements were easier to write than our mission statement as a whole, due to the fact that we didn’t want to keep repeating ourselves within all of them. These statements are important, because they show organizations what we do and what we believe in as a donating group. Reaching out to the organization shouldn’t be hard, as long as they pick up the phone. When we contact them, we hopefully will have cues written on a sheet of paper so that we are ready for whatever comes our way. We expect that the person will be able to direct us towards someone who would be willing to come in either dates of October. Overall I enjoyed writing the statements and preparing to contact the organizations. It had been just as fun and entertaining as last weeks meet up with Main Street Philanthropy.

For the second class of Main Street Philanthropy, we were assigned to collect 3 things that meant a lot to us, and showed who we are as a person and put these items into a paper bag. For me, I learned that it wasn’t an easy task for myself. There were many objects for me that showed who I was as a person and it was hard to narrow done to only just a few. This happened to me also when we had to chose our top 3 organizations that we would donate to in the first week. I found out that there are a lot of things that make up who I am as a person and that I strongly believe in. When we were put into our groups, I had some of the same ideas that others had. For instance, I had a toy car that my friend got me from Colombia, which showed how much friendship means to me, and someone else also had a knick back that their friend gave them, which represents the same thing to them. Another big one that others and I had in common was family. Everyone in our group had something that related to their family, like a picture, toy, card, etc.  With this activity I learned a lot about what makes me up as a person and how define what is important to them as a person. For our group, we have decided to donate to the Kewaskum Food Pantry. Our fundraiser would consist of baking and selling goods, and also a rummage sale. We have hopes that local stores and businesses will be willing to donate money or objects to be sold to raise money for our organization.  I will be hoping that we would do bake sales at sports events and other events held locally (hoping that the school approves of it). With other clubs doing the XXL cookies at all the football games, I hope that we will be able to secure a spot at basketball games that a lot of people show up at. Overall, I am really excited for these next weeks in Main Street Philanthropy, to be able to earn money and work with others towards a great cause.

For the first week of Main Street Philanthropy it was pretty interesting. First we were put into partners and were given 20 make a difference (MAD) cards. From there we had to choose 6 that we would donate to, which was pretty hard. For my 6th MAD card I was leaning either towards animal or environmental protection. After a long back and forth with myself I chose environmental protection, because where would the animals live if they had no environment to live in. Also, I was with one of my good friends doing the activity, and in my mind I made of list of what I thought they would pick, which ended up being completely different. For example, for one of them I thought that they were going to chose Emergency aid, but then they picked cultural preservation instead, which was very different from what I picked. It was a nice learning experience, seeing what I chose compared to my partner, also seeing and picking out what we cared the most about to ourselves. They might of had a back story leading to why they chose health research, or maybe they were close friends with a veteran, so they pick helping them. It was very fun and eye opening to seeing how yourself and your partner thinks. Overall in this class, I really hope that I can learn more about myself, and help with my public speaking abilities, its not bad but it could use some work, nobody is perfect. I also want to be able to help others and work hard doing so. I am excited to see what this class has in store for me this trimester at KHS.