Hi everybody,
As our class comes to a close, I’ve found it really interesting
to both reflect on my own feelings about the course, and also on what we as a group seem to find important. What I noticed during our evaluations
of our finalists was that we were pretty interested in how they went about
their fundraising. I thought that was particularly thought-provoking, especially
since we never really went into an in-depth discussion of fundraising in our
class, or participated in any fundraising ourselves (I know we touched on the
subject here or there, with minor questions about efficiency or ethics, but I
don’t think we ever devoted a full class block to it).
What I want to discuss is how fundraising could have
factored into our class model. Our grant was given to us, and while the $10,000
is an amazing gift, I wonder if our experience in the class would be different
if we were the ones who had been in charge of raising the money we would give
away. I’ve posted a link to this article in a comment a while ago, and I think
it’s important to mention here, too. In the class that the article focuses on,
the students are both responsible for giving away money to charities, as well
as raising the money for future classes to use. I think that this gives them important
insight into the kind of fundraising processes that many charitable
organizations must go through, but also gives them a deeper connection to the
money that they are giving away. Furthermore, they leave the class with the added
experience of fundraising that they can use in their future philanthropic
actions. I’m not saying we haven’t been passionate about our own decision thus
far, but I wonder if our feelings would be different if we had worked for the
money we were distributing, instead of just receiving it as a grant. Obviously,
raising such a substantial amount of money would take a lot of time, just like
it does in the class mentioned in the article, and is something we probably
couldn’t accomplish in the short semester that we’ve had together. Maybe we
could adopt a similar timeline as that class, and maybe make the course span two
semesters, with one focusing on fundraising and planning and the other zoning
in on a decision.
A lot of the recent blog posts have been discussing what our
class would have been like if it was carried out differently, so what do you
guys think? Is studying fundraising a truly crucial part of the decision making
process? If we were asked to raise our own donation money, do you think it
would be a good learning tool or group builder?
I’m looking forward to your responses, and I thank you all
for a really great semester. I’ll miss our class discussions and debates, and I
wish you all luck in any philanthropic experiences you have in the future!
Hi Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI think you raised a really interesting point in this blog post. Many of us did zero in on the fundraising efforts of each organization, and I think the reason this had such a huge effect on our decision-making was because we considered fundraising as a facet of sustainability. Whether many of us realized it or not, several of the things we pointed out about each non-profit had to do with their fundraising and this core value of sustainability we all highly regarded. In order for an organization to be sustainable, it needs a way to continue on and function similarly or better than it currently does. The fundraising aspect of each organization was their way of showing that they were efficient with raising and allocating their money. For example, we all agreed that Rescue Mission was very sustainable, because their method of fundraising, the Thrifty Shopper retail store, makes millions of dollars a year which in turn goes back into the shelters and the organization. We faced an almost-controversy when some mixed up math made us question the ability of Mom’s House to fundraise effectively, but when we recalculated, we realized that they actually have a pretty good fundraising efficiency. Some of the questioning towards STAT and Family Planning was about their failure to look into better ways to fundraise or to allocate their funds. We all pointed out that STAT should have looked into getting the iPads through a cheaper route, and that Family Planning should have planned ahead for the maintenance of their building or possibly used their recent fundraiser at another location as a double for Sidney. I think it’s really interesting that we spent so little class time discussing this important concept, but somehow we all managed to understand it well enough to make it a fairly big factor in our decision. I also think that looking through some of the sites, Charity Navigator especially, helped us understand more fully what the money meant for each organization and how fundraising specifically affects them.
If we had raised the money ourselves, ignoring the obvious time restraints we would have faced, I think it would have changed our perspective slightly, but not enormously. I feel like almost every single person in this class was very passionate about our philanthropic journey, and the process we had to take in order to decide which organizations we would be funding. Along with that goes how much we cared about this money. The only problem I think we faced by having the money given to us is possibly that we didn’t wind up thinking about just how much money we had. $10,000.00 is A LOT of money. It was so easy to look at the grants and say “This organization is asking for a small grant, so it might be easier to convince class members to give to them.” But when we really think about these passing comments, look what we were calling small! The least we were asked for from our finalists was $2,500.00. I do think that if we had to raise the money ourselves we would have had a lot more appreciation for how much it is. However, I don’t think a 2-semester class is really feasible in the college setting, so while it might be nice to have a class that focuses on the importance of fundraising in nonprofits, this specific class couldn’t really be expanded.
Thanks for an interesting post. I really liked thinking more deeply about how fundraising played a role in our class and our decision.
Hi Amanda!
DeleteThanks for your reply. I definitely agree with what you said about forgetting just how much money we were granted. Throughout our process I never did forget that we had been given such an incredible gift, but sometimes it never really does set in that we have thousands of dollars at our fingertips. I liked how you presented this point because I think it also articulates something that I was trying to get across in my post: that having $10,000 is a unique and amazing opportunity, but I worry that we may have lost just some of our appreciation for it. Doing some sort of fundraising activity was just one way I was thinking of solving this problem. I also agree that my vision of an extended class is unlikely, but I like that you mention at least focusing a bit more on the fundamentals and impact of fundraising on the organizations. I feel that if we first have an understanding of what it takes to raise such a substantial amount of money, even if we don't do the grunt work ourselves, we will still have a greater appreciation for the opportunity we have with our grant. Thanks!
Hannah, thank you for sharing your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the point you made that people have a deeper connection to money that they have raised themselves. After all, like most things in life, fundraising is more about the journey than the destination. When someone personally raises money themselves, they may feel more strongly about the money and care more about where the money goes. However, I would make the claim that the class really did care about where the money went even though we did not raise it ourselves. We became personally intertwined about the organizations that we researched, and many in our class have, are, or will volunteer at one or more of our finalist organizations.
I also like Amanda's idea of a class that investigates the fundamentals of fundraising, from a small level to a multimillion dollar level. While we did learn a lot from the process of researching charities and selecting our final recipients, fundraising is a completely separate topic that many in the class have expressed interest in. In the future, it may be a nice evolution from the current program. While I don't think that understanding the intricacies of fundraising was necessary for our decision making process, I think that it could be a useful tool for the future.
Though we did not actually raise the money ourselves, I am happy with the final impact that the class was able to have. Working systematically to whittle a huge list of applicants down to three final recipients is no easy task, and I am proud to have been a part of it.
Hi Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI think we didn't realize how important it is evaluate what organizations are doing to make sure that they are known in the community as well as sustaining themselves. We started this class with half the group saying they care more for the emotion and half the groups saying they care more for the numbers. Did we all know what that really meant? I think when understanding what functions fundraising serve, I think it is important to address it before we go on site visits. I think a lot of people in this class's future will want to have sustainability as own of their core values and fundraising is a big part of that. I think that learning more about fundraising also gives us an understanding of how an organization handles its resources and how it goes about interaction in the community. I think it will make the process much easier in this regard and help us to understand the information that the organizations give us when we do research them and do site visits as well.
I think that my entire outlook on this class is based on the fact that our money is not our own. It makes me feel as though making mistakes is okay and that if our money is not put to its absolute best potential, it is somewhat okay because the money is not my own. I didn't work hard to earn it, so as much as of course I want to put it to its best use, I won't be incredible upset if the money is not allocated. On the other hand, I think that the fact that the money is not our own was a very important part of our learning experience. It made us more willing to take risks and to be okay with not getting the exact results we expected. Which in turn means that we are able to make more mistakes and be able to learn from them so that in the future we make less when the money is actually our own.
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