Post 10

For the final week of readings, I learned a lot about funding and grant makers that I didn't previously have very much of an idea about. Budget Plan Brings Big Changes to Tax Incentives for Donors was brief and went back to estate taxes which I never really had a solid understanding of. What I do think I could gather from the article was that the rich aren't going to get away with benefitting largely from donating which has been negatively affecting the middle class, so it's good that Obama is making some changes in the budget. The Donors and Nonprofits Face a Defining Moment in Responding to a Crisis article reassured me that American philanthropy has remained strong throughout the recession our economy has fallen into. However, I am not entirely surprised. I feel like if you look at just the numbers and not at who was making the donations, a lot of the wealthy who were unaffected by the recession were probably continuing to donate so the numbers probably stayed relatively the same. I hope that philanthropy remains strong and continues to prove it's resilience despite economic disaster over the course of the next decade. A Newly Powerful Grantmaking Force: Artist- Endowed Foundations was surprising to me. I learned in this article how much grant makers and funders do for artists, nonprofit arts groups and scholars. Artist endowed foundations will have a huge impact on the successes of arts related nonprofits during the course of the current economic crisis we are currently in. I really enjoyed the article on integrating social impact in your nonprofit DNA. This model for measuring whether a nonprofit is worthy or not of Mulago's funds is pretty solid. I feel like it's a way to know precisely how every dollar is being spent and making sure it's on something important. More funders should use this as a model and that way everyone could be sure that the funds are being used efficiently as possible. Assessing social impact could make people and other funders feel more inclined to donate because of the assurance that positive changes and progress is being made due their donations. Along with that they will know exactly how much of an impact they are making. While doing my scavenger hunt assignment I researched some of the biggest and most relied on funders for environmental nonprofits in my town and found out at many of the most heavily relied on funders help support nonprofits I have had experience working with. One of these funders is Banbury Fund, Inc. By looking over their profile you can find out more information. The chapter in Nonprofit Nation, like the other chapters, gave me the basis of funding the nonprofit sector and it's importance. Great blogging with you all!

Post 9

This weeks readings and videos were really helpful in understanding foreign aid as a nonprofit. I never really considered foreign aid as a nonprofit category or sub-sector and I guess always thought that it was business entirely of the government. I had heard of Mercy Corps but never knew very much about them at all. I was glad to come across a particular article on the Mercy Corps website though about Kalabeid primary school in Somalia. I was always thought about how awesome it would be to work on a team of people and volunteers who work on projects aimed at getting more reliable water sources to people who have limited access to drinking water. I watched a documentary last year called Tapped on the privatization of water and the world being in a current water crisis. It really got me thinking about how many people in developing countries don't have the access they should or any adequate water system. In the article it says that 495 students at Kalabeid relied only on three barrels of water per day for hand washing stations and school latrines. I'm honestly not sure exactly how much water is in a barrel, but these barrels were costing the school a large expense for the Somalians (7000 Somaliland schillings) which is the equivalence of just $1.30 U.S dollars. It just immediately made me think of how easy and convenient it is for us to put about that ($1.30) in a vending machine, press a button and have water instantly. It's wonderful that Mercy Corps is doing their thing and taking on projects such as this one which directly and indirectly affects so many people.
The information William Easterly provided in "Why Does Foreign Aid Fail?" was overwhelming, but on the other hand I think it's good that there are people like him who tell it just how it is who don't sugar coat the situation. I was surprised to hear him mention that he benefitted from this "gravy train." You can tell that when he talks about this situation and the money never even reaching the poorest people as heart breaking he means it. I think the press needs to get on their game and people just need to be more aware of the places this aid money is being spent.
Aid vs. Trade provided a good summary of the issue in Africa in general. I got a really positive vibe from Ngozi Okonjo Iweala when she talked about remittances and about Africans finally having the confidence to represent their nations. She seemed very hopeful for Africa when mentioning the platform they have created for themselves in the "new chapter" in the last 6 to 7 years. I think she makes a great point when she talks about Spain and Ireland receiving aid and reinforcing their infrastructures with it, what about Africa? I agree that the most successes can come from collaboration between private, international, multilateral money and the African people. Infrastructure and discipline are two things that Africa needs to put together to make the aid catalytic. I enjoyed the video and thought her personal stories were quite inspiring.
Looking at the targets and goals of the MGD in the Millennium Development Goals article to me just struck me as an organized layout of all the issues surrounding poverty in the world. OK- it's a start to have this layout and to have benchmarks set. It's great to hear of the progress being made in Belize, Colombia, Ghana, Jordan, Uganda and the other countries mentioned, but after learning what I did about foreign aid from William Easterly, I am definitely skeptical about how influential this program will have been by 2015. I guess I just maybe expected to hear bigger and more significant changes being made and goals being reached based on the extensive list of goals and targets the program outlines to meet. I know these changes happen over time, and Im wondering how much of their goals will have been met by their target ending year of 2015. Another thought was whether things could potentially go back to how they were before the program began in 2000 after it ends in 4 years. All in all, interesting website to explore, very thought provoking.
Nonprofit  Nation ch.9 was helpful as usual in providing a brief but solid overview of nonprofit foreign aid. It doesn't seem like a lot, but 5 million American adult volunteers is a lot... if this 5 million only represent 3% of the adult population in the U.S then it seems like we could have more people volunteering, but I also kind of have a weak perception of numbers and stats. Nonprofits like CARE have a huge impact on our relations with other nations which I feel is really important. I was psyched to run into the part at the end of the chapter about the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh because I've done tons of research on microcredit and micro-financing in past courses. This weeks collection of readings and media gave me a really good foundation for the topic of foreign aid.
Here's an interesting bit from Nonprofit Blogs: and then search "US Foreign Aid Benefits Recipients..."

Post 8

This weeks readings on advocacy and the arts from a nonprofit standpoint were really helpful. Before reading the collection of articles posted I had no idea the scope and impact both presently and historically that both categories have played. The first reading on The Power of Nonprofits was a good place for me to start. The example of the Emancipation Proclamation really put to scale for me the importance and power brought forth by groups of all sizes. When you think about it, some other cases such as the farmers who started the National Grange, the people who fought for women's suffrage and the millions of Americans who fought for a pension plan after the Great Depression, have accomplished massive goals that essentially make society in general what it is today. Along with strides all of these groups have taken in demand of social justice and racial equality have emerged some of the most influential icons in history like Martine Luther King Jr. This reading was successful in helping measure the impact of these advocacy groups. An example in recent news of similar groups making history are the many groups in Libya doing what they can to support the nations people. here is a link  to more information. The Nonprofit Association of Oregon Supports Attorney Generals Efforts to Publicize Questionable Charities reading was interesting. I think senate bill 40 is a good way to weed out, as the Nonprofit Association of Oregon's Executive Director Carrie Hoops says, "the few bad apples." If there are only a few being unethical and spending their donation money in the wrong places then why not do away with them? It will only give the state of Oregon a better name than it already has in terms of charitable giving. Senate Bill 40, similar to the previous article leads me to believe that it would be nothing but beneficial to expose the unethical charities. There aren't many and it would help the donors in deciding where their donation dollars will go for benefitting the community and given cause.  I think it's really awesome that funding for the arts has risen and that the number of nonprofits supporting the arts has gone up in recent years. They provide so many jobs for people and what's good about the category of the arts is that it's been around forever, and it will remain around forever because people are passionate.  I think it's really important that we still have people who understand the significance of nonprofits for the arts who will continue to defend it and support it. With nonprofits like the Wallace Foundation, the arts will remain an important source of income supported by our culture and traditions. My favorite of the readings was Poetry gives Teens a Voice. I love that there are groups and organizations like YouthSpeaks out there to support self expression through poetry in young people. I have seen poetry slams before and the intensity and creativity make for such an experience. YouthSpeaks Nashville sounds like a wonderful organization that's extremely beneficial to the youth of Nashville in empowering them and letting them inspire other young people by sharing thoughts and experiences. I think the article really displays how powerful poetry and other forms of the arts can be and how important it is for there to be nonprofits dedicated to supporting that. The idea of poetry slams or the arts in general is such a positive movement among people of all ages which is why I see so much importance in the continuation of adequate funding for these arts groups. Non Profit Nation chapters 7 and 8 gave a ton of statistical information about these two sub sectors. The book made me realize how far advocacy groups have gotten us in the last two centuries. I think the idea of the "Golden Age" has proven to be recently influential with the emergence of environmentalism and the broadening of gay and lesbian rights as two of many examples. The chapter gave a solid overview of  the accomplishments made with the help of numerous advocacy groups over the course of history up until today. Chapter 8 supported the previous articles on the importance of sustaining funds for the arts. All in all I feel that both advocacy and the arts are two very important sub sectors that we must continue supporting and donating to.

Post 7

This weeks readings about the education sub-sector of nonprofits was pretty enjoyable actually. I've never really known much about the differences between for profit and nonprofit education so it was a good introduction. Chapter 6 in Nonprofit Nation gave a really good overview of all the different aspects in nonprofit and for profit education. I realized when reading that whenever I've thought of education as a sub-sector of nonprofits, I've only ever thought about higher education and never really thought about elementary or secondary schools as being one or the other. I wasn't surprised to learn that private and independent schools enroll students of various ethnicities. My sister who is a third grade teacher at an independent school in Andover, Mass. has just thirteen students in her classroom, only four of them being white, and the others of asian and middle-eastern influence. The chapter showed me that there is a massive societal impact from nonprofit education, especially the information provided about research institutes. The chapter didn't get into serious detail about this, but I was really interested in the concept of vouchers. I think it's a really complex topic with all of the controversy it stirs up in private religious schools, although combining educational and religious rights in one area is almost inevitably going to be controversial.
The Subprime Opportunity reading gave a great overview of the inefficiency and disadvantages of for profit forms of higher education. After reading it, it was crazy for me to think about the advertisements and all of the hardcore relentless recruitment efforts these for profits have made and then think about their goals as a business rather than an educational resource. In the last twenty years, the for profit universities have grown tremendously, so big that according to the article, some of the biggest for profit universities today enroll more students than the for profit sector as a whole enrolled in 1991. I completely agree that these institutions are only making the poor, poorer, and it's such a shame.
Fed Up at the University of Phoenix made me wonder what an awful trade they are offering- spending tons of money on paying back loans for an education that can't even prepare them for a career they will rely on to pull themselves out of that debt. It's scary how many students enrolled in for profit universities like the University of Phoenix are and will be left at the "what do I do now?" point. The entire concept of for profit universities looking to "put asses in the classes" whether or not both teachers and students are qualified worries me. It makes the idea of higher education nothing but a waste of money for everyone attending for profits.
The "Will the for profit bubble burst in 2011?" article gave the same unfortunate details of for profit universities that the Fed Up article provided. It's good to know these universities are being investigated and that people who know first hand of the situation are opening their mouths about the issue. It seems like some people are cracking down on these schools and are trying to send out the warning signals. The Brief of Benefits of for profit schools made me realize that it's hard for me to defend a for profit school when all of the possible advantages are based on business successes rather than educational successes, or at least that's what it sounds like to me. There are advantages to the for profit schools as a business operation but at some point these operations should ask themselves what the goals of providing higher education really are..
Here's a link to the trailer of a really good documentary called The Lottery which focusses on charter schools. It's about one specific charter school in Harlem, New York and the opposition of unionized public school teachers to the idea of a lottery set up to randomly select children to attend this charter, of which many parents believe can change their children's lives.  I saw the documentary with my (elementary school teacher) sister. I recommend it to anyone interested in the heated controversy of charter schools vs. poorly supported, under-funded, rapidly emptying inner city public elementary schools. THE LOTTERY

Post 6

I am most drawn to environmental based nonprofits as far as a career in the future. Pretty much all of the experience I have ever had with nonprofit organizations were through volunteer opportunities working on projects in both environmental outreach in urban areas and massive restoration projects mostly dependent on volunteer work. Since week 1 of this class, I have come in contact with many more environmental nonprofits than I knew were here and have worked on some local projects too. I’m glad we are covering the environmental sub-sector of  nonprofits. I was surprised to learn from the MWC annual report that the oldest community-based watershed council in the pacific northwest is only eighteen years old. I thought it would be older, I guess since I know how much the land has served the people of Oregon since the first settlers came here a pretty long time ago.  I was excited to already know a lot of the information that the article provided about what kind of services the watershed council provided, due to the environmental science class I'm taking this term. It's really nice to know that watershed councils exist to take action by creating projects, especially projects working on the culverts that are detrimental to salmon and trout populations. The Longtom Watershed Council, similar to the MWC, has made massive efforts to sustain salmon populations in the area also. According to the website, The MWC has accomplished a lot in their eighteen years, contributing to fish and wildlife habitats, water quality, and promotion of community understanding through outreach and education.

Paul Hawkins commencement address was so awesome. Two quotes really stuck out to me. "You can print money to bail out a bank, but you can't print life to bail out the planet" and, "Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it's a way to be rich." I think his speech was very influential and gave so much support behind the importance of volunteering and stopping to think about the serious implications our lifestyles have on the condition of the environment and earth. 

Saving the environment for a profit was short and I was confused at what the message of the article was in the end, but it was nice to see that funding for environmental nonprofits has tripled in twenty years and surprising to read that it only represents 2% of all philanthropic giving. 

A guide to environmental nonprofits is valuable when thinking about donating to any nonprofit or charity, no matter the cause. What I got out of this reading was that there's a difference between organizations having undeceiving names and organizations being open about how they spend their donations. I think it's important to donate to nonprofit organizations that have legitimate mission statements if you want to make sure your donation is going directly to a specific cause. But donations to environmental causes are always needed no matter what the issue, so I feel like people will continue donating to nonprofits either way, some just wish to donate to a specific issues more or less than others. 

The biggest environmental volunteer project I have worked on was with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, a really awesome nonprofit who focusses on restoring and conserving different parks that the conservancy owns within the city of San Francisco and its surrounding areas.When I was volunteering with the GGNPS, I worked on restoration and construction projects in four of the parks. If you’re interested in knowing more about the various parks and the amount of ground the GGNPC covers, explore this link Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. While volunteering with GGNPC, I worked on restoration and conservation projects at Lands End, Crissy Field, Sweeny Ridge, Muir Beach and Ocean Beach. I enjoyed my experience so much with this nonprofit that I am hoping to land a position for the summer after I graduate, living in the Bay area and leading groups of volunteers who come from all over the country to help on restoration projects.

 

Post 5

The 5th chapter in Nonprofit Nation was helpful for me in determining what services fall under the Health Care sub-sector. I was surprised to learn that nursing homes and all of the disease charities were apart of Health Care, because I guess I never really thought about which category those services belonged to. As a whole I feel like a have a better understanding of the central role nonprofit health care plays, both directly and indirectly.
The first article of the four additional readings that I read was ADD study. The first thing that struck me was the quote "If you want to stir up worry in the public, and you've got the advertising dollars to do it you can turn almost anything into a disease." I pretty much agree with Dr. Arthur Caplan. Another comment I was intrigued by was about going to Germany, Japan or Britain and not finding adults with ADD. I agree with the article that many people rely on medication to help them lead a more normal life, but I feel like due to advertising and all of the exposure to it, it's become a mental thing where people are simply just believing they have these disorders like ADD. I think its safe to say that many people benefit from the pills used to focus and dull the effects of ADD, but I also think it's pretty messed up that these drugs companies just market these drugs as pills to make you do better in maintaing relationships, jobs, etc. to people who simply have normal habits like procrastination and personality traits like shyness. I feel that it's two sided, but there is definite danger making medical care a for-profit operation. I personally would feel like I would trust doctors better if medical care became a solely nonprofit operation.
The packers article was really interesting. I'm not a huge football fan or follower of the NFL, but the article displayed a good point about what football used to be that isn't now, but how the Packers have held onto the tradition in sport and not the billions of dollars that make all the other NFL teams more of a business than a sport. The Packers are a wonderful and successful business and the statistics in the article show that they are quite charitable as well. I think its cool that so many people look forward to volunteering in any event that the Packers are looking for volunteers.
Although "The value of nonprofit healthcare" didn't exactly provide a second opinion and was mostly one sided, I was able to gather a lot of information I didn't already know about nonprofit medical operations. I agree that the nonprofit sector is "society's safety net". I was not aware that Blue Cross was the first insurance plan either. I think this article provided a lot of good points as to why and how nonprofit health care systems operate more successfully than for profit, although the article like I previously mentioned was pretty much one sided. What I got out of the article though was that I think the popularity of nonprofit health care systems will rise if people became more aware of how to distinguish for-profit from nonprofit, and are informed of its successes and benefits. The merging in Michigan article was helpful in understanding the differences from medical employees points of view. According to the people who know DMC the best, it's longtime employees, the merge will bring in money to make DMC better than what it is, and expand on it's previous successes, while continuing to support every economic class. There are obvious differences between for-profit and nonprofit medical hospitals, but I don't think a hospital being for-profit or nonprofit can ultimately determine whether a hospital or medical center is a really good medical facility or not.

Post 4

This weeks readings made me think most about how many specific goals fall under the social service subgroup of nonprofits. Chapter 4 of Nonprofit Nation really taught me that the social service subgroup is one of the most important. It's reassuring to know that 1.3 million people are employed by social service based nonprofits. I feel as though this particular subgroup has the largest societal impact because of how much ground they cover, how many jobs they provide, and how significantly they better the lives of the needy through their services. I was not surprised to learn that after WWII more money was donated to social services agencies because the economy was more stable than it is currently and people had more to give. I was very interested to learn that women who took positions in factories while men were at war didn't just give up their factory positions to returning soldiers to make babies and become the stereotypical domesticated house wives during the baby boom, but that many had joined the newly created female volunteer labor pool for nonprofit social service organizations.
The article about St. Vincent's was actually really inspiring for me to read. I had no idea the amount of services they covered, and then to learn that basically everything that they did (if not recycling itself) was done in such an environmentally-friendly way was very interesting. I was amazed at how much they were able to salvage from dumps and how much they were able to use for different purposes, like collecting as many books as they could, cleaning the ones that could be saved to be donated and fill bookshelves, and recycling the rest that they couldn't salvage to pulp. I really had never heard of any other business empire like St. Vincent's. I think the two biggest contributions to St. Vincent's successes as a business empire are the amount of jobs they create for people, and the environmentally-conscious operation they run. We need more of these..
From the Louisiana Housing Assistance article, I was glad to learn that changes are being made and that people are being given the help they need to get themselves back on their feet. The article about the construction of the light rail in DC was short but I definitely agree that raising minimum wage could account for some of the issues facing the working class population. It also seems like the DC area has a lot of methods like inclusionary zoning and the section 8 vouchers as to how it will take care of its lower income population as it further develops its light rail. I guess we will see what method is most effective as that happens. The "plagued" Auburn Family Residence is faced with many issues that I feel should be taken care of regardless of who it is to blame for them. I think a lot of these issues are just worsening as DHS and OTDA point fingers at one another. The comments below this article were pretty interesting to read though. If you guys didn't read them , it provides a lot of good opinions and insights as well as a pretty lengthy discussion among people more local to the Auburn Family Residence. The Q&A with the CEO of MAAC was cool, I like him. I found it interesting that Antonio Pizano was once a "product" of a similar nonprofit ("Unity Council") and now runs MAAC which helps so many people in the San Diego area to upgrade their living conditions and lives. I think because Antonio Pizano was once assisted by an organization similar to MAAC, he hopes to spread the knowledge and purposes of giving back for the future.

Post 3

This weeks collection of readings from Non Profit Nation and the articles posted on blackboard really directed my thoughts on the effectiveness and purposes of nonprofits and donating to them. In chapter 3 in the book, I was not surprised to learn that more people volunteer through religious organizations than any others because of the number of religious groups there are and how many members are involved with each. I did not realize how much of a societal impact religion has on our population and that we are considered in beliefs and practices one of the most religious of the developed nations. It's important to recognize religion for its assistance in respect to charitable giving and donating to other nonprofit sub sectors like social service, health and education.
After reading the Charitable Deduction under Scrutiny, I feel as though limiting the tax break for charitable gifts will have a definite affect on the amount people will be giving, and that a lot of the charitable organizations that people are turning to due to the current status of our economy will be impacted negatively. Its hard to be optimistic about the particular situation given that similar plans have been carried out and failed in the past. I do still think that those who have the money that regularly donate to charities and nonprofits don't do it for the tax deduction, and will continue to donate if they have sufficient funds to do so. The PhilanTopic blog post was confusing for me as I am still learning how to connect the concept of donating and paying taxes but I do understand that the height in taxes recipients of estates will have to pay could significantly change the amount they choose to donate based on what they have to give. I thought the blog post by Dan Pallotta was personally the most thought provoking of the readings. I feel as though creating a platform to measure charity effectiveness could make or break the success and income of a charity or nonprofit, but could be too beneficial to major nonprofits and to people who use the donation dollars to give up on this way to measure effectiveness. I think it could be most useful in directing people where to donate most and give them a sense of where their donation dollar is going. Although it's benefits would be great, is it worth all the money and spending on a universal method? I feel like there has to be a simpler and cheaper way. I guess it's a work in progress. As for the blog by Tim Harford, I understand that there are differences in reasons why people donate, but when it comes down to it, we can't forget that despite their intentions, people are still putting money toward whatever causes they feel inclined to donate to, whether there are outside influences there or not. Over all I think this weeks readings supplied me with a lot of different topics regarding nonprofits to think deeper about.

Post 2

Readings:
The article readings assigned for week 2 were helpful and I enjoyed the Carnegie article because it was different than the factual and statistical information we had been discussing during lecture in week 1 and 2. Reading the Gospel of Wealth made me realize that the distribution of wealth currently and historically has made it hard to maintain a middle or working class and has created a large gap between the rich and the poor. I think that after reading though, about Pratt and the library he opened for Baltimore, there are definite ways to share and spread wealth among the poor in intangible ways. These methods of giving may not necessarily create a more stable economy or close the gap between the rich and poor in which Carnegie believes is inevitable, but will still help better educate and share common luxuries with the less fortunate. The comparison article between nonprofit and for profit businesses was helpful as the book was in clarifying the structure, goals, and logistics between the two. I am still surprised by my previous perception of the nonprofit sector and am enjoying the information I can gather through lectures and readings about how official and legitimate the sector is.
Lecture:
I was not surprised to learn in lecture how many requirements there are to be tax-exempt but some of the requirements were some that I would never have come up with on my own, such as the requirement that no substantial part of its activity may be attempting to influence legislation. I guess I never realized that unless that was a requirement, some organizations probably would try. There are still so many complex separate areas of the sector as far as legal definitions.  I feel really lucky to be a part of a class with over a hundred students with a professor who allows as much time as it takes up to have class discussions. The in class discussion regarding churches and where they stand within the sector shows just how interesting things can get when you have a classroom full of students with different backgrounds beliefs and ideas. As far as churches being automatically tax-exempt, I feel as though I don't know enough about how well monitored it is since the IRS can keep limited tabs on them, which could understand would cause people to be skeptical. Personally, coming from a pretty non-religious background, I even still feel as though a lot of nonprofits stem from church groups, large and small, and while looking at the big picture, its hard not to give churches the benefit of the doubt knowing that they have been largely beneficial to a lot of different causes in the area where I grew up.  All in all, I felt like week two has set the tone for the rest of the term and I'm psyched for more heated discussions, it keeps things super interesting!

Post 1 pt.II

The readings assigned for week one were helpful in supplying me with the general information about nonprofit organizations and their dynamics. I was slightly overwhelmed by all of the statistics because prior to opening the book I had very little knowledge about the nonprofit sector. After completing the reading I felt as though I had a basis of understanding although in order to obtain all of the useful information the first two chapters supplied, I will be frequently referencing the book to answer any questions I may have. Some of the things that I was instantly surprised to learn were the numbers and  sheer size of the nonprofit sector, and how many people are employed by nonprofit organizations. I was also surprised by how many nonprofit organizations I thought were for profit. After just completing the first chapter in the book, I was surprised by how much my own perception of what a nonprofit is had changed. I no longer had the image in my head of a group of dedicated individuals working together in a struggle to make any significant change with very little resources and funds. Learning how many nonprofits there are in the U.S showed me just how much interaction i've had with nonprofits that I never even realized I had.
The reading for this week in Nonprofit Nation (ch.1 and 2), defined what a nonprofit organization is for me in a literal sense but also supplied me with enough information to begin forming my own opinions on the sector. I was shocked to learn how influential nonprofit organizations are to our economy based on my previous perception and very little knowledge of the logistics and economical aspects of the sector, and then learn that the Catholic church is one of the largest nonprofits. There are still areas of confusion for me that I will eventually come to clear up about the nonprofit sectors relationship with the government and the for profit sectors. Considering what a nonprofit is based on the complex system of qualifications, guidelines and rules it must follow to be included in the sector, it is refreshing to think about some of the simple reasons in which people form nonprofit organizations: they are compassionate and are acting for a cause.
Week 1 lecture was a good start and introduction to the course for me. A brief history of the sector was interesting and helpful in differentiating the three sectors from one another. I look forward to diving deeper into the nonprofit sector through readings, lectures and group discussion.

Post 1

I'm Jeralyn, a sophomore brand new to UO and brand new to the west coast. This blogs purpose is to allow me to post my reactions to readings and class lectures/ discussions and to interact with the four other members of my group. I am looking forward to reading the blogs of my group members and I am hoping to gain new perspectives and experience throughout the term in PPPM280.

I decided to take Introduction to the Nonprofit Sector this term in preparation for a career in my future with a nonprofit organization. I knew that the University of Oregon had a lot to offer for me when I transferred here as far as environmentally-based work and volunteer opportunities. When I arrived here and learned that I had more options than I knew what to do with I was overwhelmed and not exactly sure what to dive into first. I was relieved to find after Tuesday's first lecture in PPPM280 that I would be surrounded by students eager and willing to devote much of their free time outside of school and classes to volunteering for the next 10 weeks. After hearing over one hundred of my peers introduce themselves and share their experiences with non-profits in the Eugene area, I knew that PPPM280 would be beneficial to me in getting started on projects in the area.  That said, I am hoping to take away a lot of information on the Nonprofit Sector after these ten weeks are over, as well as experience and connections to further my own first hand experience with non-profits in Oregon.

As far my current and past experiences working with non-profits, I have donated many hours to a few non-profits on the east coast closer to where I am from. As a freshman environmental studies major last year attending school in Boston, I had a ton of opportunities working with inner-city students on urban sustainability projects in and around Boston. One particular project that got me started and sparked my interest in the Nonprofit Sector was my 10-month experience with EarthWorks Boston. Through EarthWorks, I frequently visited three different schools in less affluent city neighborhoods building urban orchards with students in kindergarden to third grade. Along with the volunteer opportunities living in a major city brought me, I was also given the chance to travel to the west coast (for my first time) last march for an alternative spring break trip where I worked for a week with another nonprofit, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, restoring hiking trails, building a manmade floodplain, and weeding invasive plant species all around the bay area. I am looking forward to getting to know my classmates and doing some further exploration of the west coast through volunteer opportunities and nonprofit work.

Now let's win a National Championship !!!