Guest Speaker

The presenter that I am writing about is Karisa from the Providence Public Library (PPL) and she talked about fundraising for different nonprofit organizations. She shared her knowledge with us by a power point and talking about the different foundation and fundraisers that the library holds. She talked about the adult programs and youth programs that they provide at the PPL. I think after learning about fundraising in class it was helpful to me to see a real life example of a nonprofit funding there programs. She also made a point with the fish activity she did with us as well and how many people in a room know a little about something and when they put their knowledge together they can be a big success. She brought experiences to our class and how she made programs work and she also talked about how the library is also connected to many different organizations. It is just not one Organization that is helping the community it is many and they are working together to provide opportunities all across providence. Having people come in from nonprofits and talk to our class was beneficial to me because seeing real life examples helps me learn. I think her examples and different adult programs was something that stuck out to me and what she taught and how she presented the material was great. The PPL has a lot of programs that help the communities around providence and they can provide these programs because of the fundraising that they do.     

https://www.provlib.org/programs-exhibitions/

Against Philanthropy

The central argument of this article is philanthropy and the act of giving money to an organization. They talk about how these big corporations give donations to organizations and they receive tax write offs in return. The example they use is about big businesses and factories are putting pollutants into the environment and they support and donate to organizations that fight pollution. Then the organizations start to support the company that is polluting the environment. At the Boys and Girls Club they receive donations from different companies and donors. They use that money and they put it into things like programing and facility management. The BGC provides helpful and learning programs to the kids and a big part of that is because they receive these donations.The authors of this article think they should get rid of donating money and just stick to making money. I think there is a lot of nonprofit organizations out there that need the donations and run on donations. The work the organizations do are good work and should continue. 

Direct Mail

These letters have many thing in common and when it comes to these letters all of these letters contain pictures and stories to ask for donations. They usually focus on past donors who have supported the cause before and most likely would give again. when sending messages to individuals who have donated money before they would usually donate again. They used stories on how a donations or your donations have had made an impact on what they are supporting. All of these letters had different types of bolded sentences in the letter which made me look at that more and focus on that. The biggest differences are the programs that each letter supported and some gave links to donate right away or it gave set amounts to donate.

Playbox

My playbox was about activism and was fun learning about activism and the different activist groups. There are many curriculum based activties for classrooms and teen centered activities. This is very relevant topic now a days because the teens in parkland are showing youth leader qualities and showing the world what youth led activism could accomplish. My favorite part of the assignment was coming up with the activity and coming up with different ways to present the activity and topic. Working on the activity was great because it made me come up with a activity that was engaging and had a purpose. One of the comments that were made in class was to have an slide with how to form an activist March and the planing behind the movement to change a law or anything else. There was a picture of steps and the things to plan change that I wished I included on the slides and had while the groups were working. The activity was to have groups talk about the topics that meant something to the group and then what plan of action they can implement to make awareness. This activity used the groups members knowledge to come up with the plans or to just talk about what needs to be changed.

Not So Snowy Snow Day Project

HSLI is a six week summer program that is a learning experience for campers and it is serviced all over Rhode Island. During the summer students lose math and literacy skills and while they are in the HSLI program the continue to build and improve those skills. They seem to use a purposeful play activities and they are helping improve student communities in learning and improving their mathe and literacy skills. There are a lot of kids in the program from upper to lower class students and scholarships and financial aids are included for students. This program brings students and teachers together in a non classroom style of learning and teaching. This bond also helps the teachers bring in things they learned in the summer into the classroom during the school year. there are many requirements that have to be met to have the grant approved. There needs to be a show of data and curriculum in the program and professional development among many more requirements that are involved in this program. There are many pluses to this program, like helping lower class students maintain their math and literacy skills during the summer and being offered in many towns in RI. One thing I would change is make it an eight week program and give more time for learning experiences in the summer.

RI Foundation

The foundation was organized in 1916 by the Rhode Island Hospital Trust CO. The first donation was given by Jesse Metcalf who was an industrialist and a senator.Their mission is to meet the needs of the people in RI from a philanthropic level. To me it seems like they get donations from many different resources, like private donors and different funds. One of their donations was from the Frederick B. Wilcox Endowment Fund Gift and that was a gift from Wilcox's family and he gave to the Rhode Island Foundation before as well. They give to communities and nonprofits to promote educational success, healthy living, and many more. The gave over 270,000 dollars in grants to Newport County in 2017. One of the recipients is the Newport County YMCA and their program called Prescribe the Y. Prescribe the Y is a program to help reduce childhood obesity in their community. Prescribe the Y gives kids ages 6 to 16 a physical fitness and nutrition educational program. One question I have is what kind of nonprofit employees reach out to the foundation, like CEO or directors? Another question I have is what is the guideline of funding a community project? I did not find on the website what the qualifications for a community based grant are. 

      

PASA!!

One of the positions is the Executive Director position and in my own words they are responsible for overseeing the whole organizations and all of the sites. They also focus on fundraising for the organization and they also are the head face in the community. One question I would have for PASA's ED is how does she prepare for her meeting with donors and how does basically asks for donations.

New Urban Arts!!

New Urban Arts works with young people that are from low-income and are from communities of color. They want to provide high quality creative learning opportunities for kids. They use the arts to meet the learning experiences that the youth receive. Most of the youth that they serve are from the ZIP codes 02904, 09205, 02907, 02908, and 02909. The ZIP code I looked into was the area code of 02908. The Median income for this community is about 42,000 dollars and the United States average is about 50,000 dollars according to esri.com.  On one website I found that the two main races in the community is white and hispanic. This is a graph of the racial breakdown in this community:

( http://www.city-data.com/zips/02908.html)

Change

Boys and Girls Club Mission Statement

"To enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens."

The Boys and Girls Club of America is trying to help all youth that need help reach their full potential. The Programs that are put into place are all educational and helpful programs to enrich the youth that come to the clubs. The programs can be about science or cooking and many other subjects. They are changing the youth to becoming productive caring and responsible citizens. They are fulfilling their mission through the programs that they provide for their youth. They also staff youth workers who help the youth grow in these aspects and are always there to support the youth. I think that the organizations theory of change is giving the youth the tools to be the best that they can be. They give them programs that build up them up to become outstanding citizens in their community.

Black Lives Matter

If a child came up to me and asked me what Black Lives Matter is and they want to know more about it. I would tell them that Black Lives Matter is a movement to end police violence against Black lives. When explaining this to young kids, it is better to use simple words and make sure that I use words that would understand. The movement wants to hold police accountable for their actions and not get away with them. The movement was created to stand up for the injustices that have been happening in America. One question is what Nonprofit organizations around Rhode Island have helped support this movement? Another Question that I have is how can the involvement of Nonprofit organizations make this movement bigger and contribute to the movement? 

Mission Statement

Boys and Girls Club of America's Mission Statement

"To enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens."

Boys and Girls Club of America's Vision Statement

"Provide a world-class Club Experience that assures success is within reach of every young person who enters our doors, with all members on track to graduate from high school with a plan for the future, demonstrating good character and citizenship, and living a healthy lifestyle."

The two statements above are about helping youth become the best they can be. To go through school and graduate high school and become the best person. Youth workers working in the Boys and Girls club they should help every kid that comes into the club. The mission statement is short and to the point. It wants to help all the youth in the programs by being the best person they can be. The vision statement is a little longer then most vision statements, but the message is clear. It could be cut down or condensed to be a little shorter.

  

What is a Nonprofit

A nonprofit organization is an organization that is not run by the government and is not for profit. A nonprofit is described by its tax status or by the fact it has a board of directors that are volunteers. Nonprofits do not have to pay taxes that other organization have to pay, so the nonprofit organizations are tax exempt. Nonprofit have some different characteristics and one of those characteristics is independence. Most organizations have to answer to their owners but nonprofits do not and they are independent. Another characteristic is a focus on mission and mission statements are used to keep nonprofits on the same path as the mission statement. The public benefits from nonprofits because they serve the community and the people in the community. The leadership of a voluntary board is another characteristic. The board of directors make sure that the organization keeps its programs inline with the mission statement and helping the community. My question is more of a statement, i would like to learn more about the benefits of working for a nonprofit organization.