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.

MSP: Week 3

As a team, my group began to look up many different organizations to see which ones could fit our cause better. I feel like each week begins to get tougher as it goes. This week we're looking to narrow down on some organizations to donate to but sometimes it gets hard because they have a lot to offer.

We got to learn a little more today in class to narrow down our choices. We learned that by figuring out the income tax of each organization it becomes a lot easier to decide on helping out the organization or not.

Looking at the tax returns is important because then you could tell much easier if these organizations are worth investing in and if they use their money wisely.

MSP: Week 2

This week for MSP we were instructed to bring in a paper bag with three things that represented something valuable in our lives. I thought it was a great idea so that way we could get to learn a little more about the people in our groups. One of my group members Ai Ping brought a rosary, it meant a lot to her because one of her good friends had gave it to her. Another group member Jesus brought in his headphones because he loves music. And my last group member Karina brought in a charm bracelet, each one represented something she liked. I on the other hand decided to bring in a picture of my family because they are very important to me. Over all I liked getting to share what many of us brought to class and getting to share about it.

It was interesting having to come up with our Purpose, Vision, and Mission Statement. We all had our own opinions on our topic, but we still came up with something all together. We want to focus on the wellness of children who are in foster care programs with no other fit family members to care for them. Also one of our team members is more focused on wanting children to be fed properly or for them to have what they need to maintain a healthy life style.

I think we'll get to learn a lot about different non-profit organizations as we research them. We might find it difficult at first but hopefully my group and I can handle it. I hope we find some great organizations to help our cause.

MSP: Week 1

My experience using the make a difference(MAD) cards made me realize some things that I truly care about. I went deep into thought thinking about how to narrow down my choices. Eventually I tried to find reasons why I cared about some of the topics and chose the one's with greater meaning.

My first choice was Child and Youth Services. There's many reasons why I chose this, mainly because I love kids and I would like all children to have equal opportunities in life. I wish all children from the world could have the opportunity to attend school and be educated. I also wish more children would live in better living conditions. These are some reasons why I'm interested with Child and Youth Services.
My second choice was Emergency and Disaster Relief. I chose it because I enjoy helping others in many ways and this seemed to fit something I would like to do. Natural disasters are something that could happen to anyone unexpectedly so it's a good gesture to go out and help them get back on their feet. Plus I like seeing people happy and satisfied by the help of others.

My last choice was Cultural Preservation. I feel like as we grow up and move from place to place we forget our origins and culture. I think we should have some way to remind us about our culture daily so we don't forget where we have come from. I feel that this topic is important to me because I have also started to forget about my culture and my traditions as I grow up and I feel like I should know these types of things so I could also share them with others.

Overall I enjoyed using the MAD cards to figure out some of my interests and others people's interests as well. I'd like to gain a better perspective on how I could help others in big ways. I hope to learn more about this program as we continue to participate in it.