In going over the applications I
felt that the most influential answers were to the question regarding what the
organizations would do with $10,000. This is the result that we will have on
the community if we choose to give to that organization. Many organizations had
great mission statements, but when they said what they would use the money for
I often moved on to the next application. One such organization that had this
effect on me was the Discovery Center. The Discovery Center is an organization that
has a mission of enhancing a child’s development through interacting learning,
which really appealed to me. However, when I found out that they would use the
money for an exhibit on the “pedagogy of honeybees” I decided to move on. Some
people may think that this is useful for developing a child’s culture, but for
me it does not. This was the main criterion that I used in deciding which
organizations to further investigate, but I also put an emphasis on their
mission and in some cases information on their website.
The first organization that caught
my eye was the Family Enrichment Network (FEN). FEN is centered on providing
support services for low-income families in an effort for them to grow to their
fullest potential. It primarily does this by empowering parents and providing
many services and programs for children of all ages that you can find on their
website at http://www.familyenrichment.cc/programs.aspx.
What I really enjoyed was that they said they would use the money for outdoor
equipment that would further classroom learning. I feel that this would be a
great use of the money and they even provided some research linking their
efforts to “improved information recall, increased creativity, improved
problem-solving skills, and increased self-esteem and confidence”. These
factors provide great justification for a site visit and making them a
potential recipient of our money. The only drawback that some people may have
is that their expense budget for the past 3 years has been around $9,000,000
each year. Even though our comparatively small amount may not make or break
this organization, they are still a seemingly great organization that will use
it effectively.
An organization that has an interesting
reason for needing our money is the Family and Children’s Society. The goal of
this organization is to provide care for people through all stages of life by
having family oriented programs such as marriage counseling, sexual abuse
treatment, domestic violence counseling and others. They wrote that the usage
of our money would go to ensuring office space. Maybe not the most glamorous
use of the money, but they need office space because a month ago their building
had smoke and water damage due to a fire in the apartment next door. The Family
and Children’s Society claims to need a lot of funds to reopen their doors, and
our money would definitely help them out. Due to these reasons, I feel that we
should further see how much help they actually need and if their programs are
effective.
The last organization that I may
like to see our money go to is the Campus Pre-School that is associated with
Binghamton University. An on campus non-profit would provide the added benefit
of improving our University’s focus on giving as well as providing the service
to the preschoolers. There is not a tremendous amount of information about the
Campus Pre-School from the application or the website, but a site visit would
allow us to see how their pre-school enriches student’s lives in comparison to
students elsewhere in the Binghamton community. The educational aspect of their
program is in line with the majority of our class’s issue areas so I feel it
would be worth our time to find our more information. Their operating budget is
around $900,000 so I would be interested to see how they would use any money we
would give. If it were for something that their program is in need of I would
be further inclined to give our money to the Campus Pre-School.
Many organizations that I have
looked through seem promising, but the best information will definitely come
through interactions with the programs through site visits and if they come to
our class as opposed to the applications. With this process, there are many
questions that we still need to ask. When two different organizations have
similar mission statements, how do we choose which one to give our money to? Is
it justifiable to rule a great organization out if they are using the money for
something we aren’t as passionate about? These are questions I have tried to
answer in picking my organizations, but there is a lot of grey area in
deciding. Feel free to question my
decisions and make cases for organizations you feel are better than the ones I
chose.
Hi Adam! I found your line of reasoning very interesting, especially as your analysis of the Discovery Center so clearly stood out against the grain. As with everyone, I appreciate your hard work in sifting through so many applications. One thing I would point out is that the Campus PreSchool was very vague in how it would use the money, something about "continuing its work." I think it is awesome that we have an opportunity so close to home, but compared with your other two recommendations, I felt that they were just asking for money and not thinking about how they would use it or why they really deserved it.
ReplyDeleteTalk to you soon!
I also chose the Family Enrichment Network and the Family and Children's Society as two of my top nonprofits. I think FEN aligns perfectly with our class's priority of improving education. Awarding them money to improve their outdoor education will not only enrich the children's learning experiences, but it can also help prevent obesity due to the education on exercise, and it can stir interest in kids about nature and teach them how it is important to conserve and protect the environment. Three birds with one stone! As far as looking at their large annual budget as a negative, I think it is a sign of a successful organization. They have been around for decades and have so many programs, so we know the money will be put to good use. I don't think we should look at our $10,000 as "making or breaking" this organization because clearly they think spending the time and effort filling out our application, coming in to see our class, and guiding us on a site visit is worth our grant.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Family and Children's Society, I think this is a great organization because their mission covers multiple issues that are interrelated. They, just like FEN, have been active in this community for decades. As we have talked about in class, although "overhead" type costs are not as "sexy" as saving a life directly, they are just as important. If we think the programs that the organization is running are important and effective, then we should absolutely contribute to this organization's rebuilding costs. They can't run these successful programs without a building to run them in! And since most people donate money to be used specifically for the emotionally-driven expenses, like donating to a survivor of domestic abuse or to a needy child, I think this expense is especially important since we have spent months learning about intelligent, not emotional, giving. We can really make a difference to them.
The Campus Preschool didn't impress me too much. I agree with Michelle about how they were too vague in stating how they would use the money, and it turned me off to considering them. I don't think they displayed convincing enough need on their application, and there are more compelling cases that we have read.