This week was focused on learning more about our group members from the team we formed last week. The exercise was to bring items the describe us in a brown paper bag, and we would go through them as a team to learn more. My friend, Michael, brought a Philadelphia 76s bus to show his love for basketball, and his iPod for his music. I brought in headphones, my license, and my car keys. I was already friends with Michael prior to this exercise, but i still learned new things about him. Unfortunately, our other group member George, was not in attendance. This activity was very helpful in learning new things about the team I’m working with.

During this week’s class, we played a game with several different cards. These cards helped us to narrow down which branch of charity we felt most strongly about. I ended up choosing the veterans as my number one option. I feel strongly about this because they risk their lives for us overseas at war, then often come back home to poverty. I think the veterans deserved to be taken care of when they return home from war. I see veterans on the streets, holding up signs explaining how they are hungry and need food. This is unacceptable to me. There were other kids in my class that felt the same way as i, so we formed a group to learn more.

This week was our class’s introduction to Main Street Philanthropy. We started off by watching a video, which pretty much showed different student’s experience with MSP. We then met Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Denison, they then explained their passion for philanthropy and how they first became involved in it. We then discussed as a class what we thought about philanthropy, the meaning of philanthropy, and if we’ve every been a part of philanthropy. I learned a lot during this week and look forward to the next class and learning more.

During this week’s class, we learned about different company’s 990s and fund raising ratios. This helped up to see how much money the organizations are actually being given to the cause. After class my group, Team OVO, researched our charities, the numbers we found were not what we expected, specifically Veteran Services of America. The percent of expenses that are allocated to management 4.7%. It costs the charity $3.46 to raise only one dollar. The approximate number of months that an organization will be able to survive if all donations and revenue ceases is 0.004 months. These numbers are not at all what we want, but fortunately we have a other charities that will we research and use.