MSP Week: 6

Main Street Philanthropy has turned out to be a great experience. My group had some difficulty debating who  we would donate our money to. In the end we picked Say San Diego and Just In Time because we felt like these organizations really fit our purpose, mission, and vision statements. Say San Diego was a big one for us because they have a variety of different programs that really interested us and we all agreed it was a great organization. Just In Time was the one I liked a lot because they focused on the youth that have come out of foster care systems. What they do is help these young kids to become college bound and help them financially on what they needed help with.

At first working with my group was pretty difficult because we all hadn't worked together before. We tried our best getting our work done in time but slacked off a bit. In the end I was glad we all put our heads together and got through any of our obstacles. I was surprised that we actually got an awesome score on our PowerPoint presentation so because of that I'm extremely proud of my group members.

I'm looking forward to delivering the checks because I feel like the effort and time we put into this is finally paying off. I hope that our field trip to these organizations is fun and that we all are proud of our accomplishments.

MSP: Week 4

I've learned so far that looking at organizations 990 forms is really important to figure out because they show you where they stand financially and if they are using their money wisely. Also to see if the company has been successful before. It's also important because you can get a good overview of how your money will be used and how much the money you donate will help out in the end result. I'm really glad I learned how to evaluate my investments in a company. I feel like I learned plenty from this experience and it is something I will use in the future.
                    
In a way it's easy to evaluate if a non-profit organization is good for a potential investment in our cause. I've had to ask my group members for a little help to understand some numbers. Overall I find it pretty simple as long as you know what you're working with and what you're looking for.