I know I can speak for just about everyone that the end of each semester is chaotic and stressful. Between final exams and papers, it is difficult to see the good things that have come out of the hard work. I’m talking about finally making a decision on which organization(s) will receive grants from our class. Reflecting back on this beginning of class, I remember thinking that I don’t love the idea of spending money that isn’t mine; I didn’t feel like I had any claim over where the money was going because we didn’t earn it or raise it like the graduate class. Now, I feel better about putting money towards an organization that we've vetted, discussed and voted on.
In my other blog post, I wrote about what happens when the class’ decision and top choice doesn’t line up with my own. I feel pretty confident in the organizations I’ve narrowed my vote to (for the record, the American Civic Association and Truth Pharm). I think the handful of group projects we’ve had have let us discuss our true feelings about donating a programing and operating grant. Visiting the sites of the non-profit organizations was super beneficial in recognizing the traits that we couldn’t find in the grant applications. I’m looking forward to further discussion once everyone has completed their decision-making assignment paper and gone through their own criteria that is most important when choosing between five very credible, very worthy organization.
As the class is ending, I’m thinking about what’s going to happen if we have more money to spend? The Learning by Giving Foundation very generously gives each of the philanthropy classes across the nation money to distribute to nonprofit organizations in their neighborhoods. They also will will reward the classes with the most engaging blogs up to $3,000 extra. How will this extra grant be awarded and what extra (if any) considerations need to be made? Does this means the decision making process starts again?
Should we give the money to the organization(s) that the class has already voted on or should we support a second or third organization? Or maybe an organization from a charity pitch?
Would you feel that you have more claim to this money because it was earned by our efforts on this blog? Does that factor into your decision making process?
I hope we’ll be able to start this conversation here on the course blog and then eventually in class.
This blog post acknowledges something that I feel is very important for the class to consider as a whole. As we close in on the end of the semester, everyone is likely to be more stressed than they were at the start of our philanthropic process. I can understand how you feel in regard to the difficulty in seeing the good of the process. In the middle of the semester my excitement for the process definitely plateaued. I think that this was because of the length of our decision-making process, but the fact that we did not earn the money we are giving probably added to the uncertainty I was feeling.
ReplyDeleteWhile the class visited each of the finalist organizations, my excitement picked back up. Even though I am absolutely stressed with the end of the semester very near, it is easy for me to look forward to the awarding of the money to any of the five organizations that we have narrowed our decisions down to. My excitement was further boosted this past Thursday when the class got to discuss in groups how we felt about the remaining organizations. The discussions on Thursday were great in that they demonstrated to me how the class is ready to make a decision. We have a lot of information on each organization left and I appreciate how we are amicable in communicating our opinions. This recent class experience increased my confidence in the class as a collective donator and revived much of my enthusiasm for the upcoming decisions. This all being said, your blog post brings up a good point. As I mentioned previously, I did feel uncomfortable having a stake in decisions concerning money that was not truly mine to give.
After reflecting on the topics emphasized in this blog post, I believe that it is entirely valid to feel strange about donating a total of $10,000 to organizations when we did not have any part in earning that money. I understand that the money given to us comes with the intention of enabling us to give, but it is still difficult for me to feel entirely involved in the current philanthropic process because I did nothing but sign up for the class to receive it. If our class was awarded the additional $3,000, I am not sure if my stance on the money would change. I feel that for me to feel more involved in the process I would have to have taken part in earning the money through fundraising. I think I would feel a little more comfortable with the $3,000 than I do the $10,000 because the class has put a lot of work into the blog, however I still have a hard time thinking about the fact that we are donating someone else’s money.
Personally, should we win any additional grants because of our blogs etc., it should go towards our runner up for the operating grant, no questions asked. While this might sound simplistic, it is also the most elegant solution.
ReplyDeleteFrom my understanding of the classroom dynamic, there are three organizations that have some kind of either majority or strong plurality support while the remaining two there is a comparative flicker of support. Because of this dynamic, there is presumably going to be a big debate over which two of the three organizations with mass support will get grants. Through this long discussion there are going to be people who are upset by the outcome, and by granting the extra money we receive to the organization from the "top" three that was initially left out would not only make sure everyone was happy, but be the most democratic decision without the need for us to vote all over again and add complications.
This is interesting that you mention the extra $3,000 Isabel, because I think that kind’ve may change things. Now that we could know as a class that there is a possible change to give out another $3,000 does that mean that it affects our decision on who we choose as our finalists, because now we know there is more money for the other?
ReplyDeleteI think we should not actually focus on that $3,000 at all, and focus on the money that we already have to distribute. Only because I know it is an already overwhelming idea, still for some us, me particularly, to be giving out this much money to organizations in our community and all this weight put on us. I do agree that the finalists should be ACA and TruthPharm, with more of my decision leaning towards ACA. I see a lot of the class leaning towards these last few organizations like Eli mentioned above and there may be some difficulty with who we actually end up with. Some of us may be unhappy, but we shouldn't put in our mind that we may have this opportunity that this money will be there, unless it's really there. To me it kind’ve seems like planning and making ideas for money, that is not tangible.
On the other hand, IF we really did win the money because of our blog posts/comments then I would feel more attached to that $3k over the rest of the money. Because in some way shape or form we are winning it for our hard work. Unlike, the main pot of money that is being given to us just for signing up for this class.
Hi Isabel,
ReplyDeleteI found your post to be very interesting, and I think that it brings up an important point for our class to discuss. Hopefully, our class will win extra money and have the chance to donate it. Personally, I think that the money should go to a different organization that the class did not decide on for either of the two grants. I think that each of the finalist organizations does important work, and it is unfortunate that we do not have enough money to give each organization. I think that if we are given the extra money we should have a modified decision making process and consider the other organizations that did not win. I think it would be an interesting idea to open up the donation to any organization that we have learned about, however, we do not have enough time to go through all of them. To make it more simple, I think that we should just consider the three other organizations that were finalists. I do not think that the money should just automatically go to the runner up, however, I think that the other organizations should be given considerations. I think it should be this way because this money is separate from our other grants, and our feelings on some organizations may change accordingly. I do not think that this money should be given to either of the organizations we donated too, because I think it is important to spread the money around to make an even bigger impact.
In regards to your second question, I think that in some respects I may feel that we have a little more claim to the extra money. It does seem like we would have earned in a little more than the other grants that were given to us. However, It is also hard for me to answer this, because I have not felt the same way you have about the money not really being ours and not having much of a claim to it. It is interesting to me to hear you perspective and that you feel that way, because it broadens my understanding of how others in the class may feel. I have felt that even though it is not directly our money and that we did not raise it, it was still given to us and we should make the most of it. I also found it interesting how your view on the money has changed after going through the decision making process, and look forward to hearing how others in the class both feel about the potential for extra money, and also how they feel about giving away money that is not theirs. It would be interesting for me to hear if others in the class feel the same as you, or if they have any other feelings about the grant money.
Hello Isabel,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the way you laid out this post, giving a brief review of what we did as a class this semester before finishing with the topic of the extra grant money. I think that our blog is very active and has a lot of good discussions so there's a good chance that we will get some kind of extra award from the Learning By Giving foundation. The real question is, who will we give this extra grant to? Since we’ve already gone through the decision-making process once, I don’t think it’s necessary to do so again. I believe that we should take a vote on the five finalists we did so much research on and see if the class would like to support one of those organizations. The five that we narrowed it down to are all amazing organizations deserving of funding, however since we have already donated to TruthPharm and the ACA I think it would make a more widespread impact if we donate to one of the other three organizations. look forward to hearing from the Learning By Giving foundation and seeing what the rest of the class has to say about it!
Sara Baldwin
This is a very important topic, and I am surprised we have not spent time in class discussing it already. Even though it would only be a hypothetical decision because we will not know if we have received the money until the very end of the class, it is something that requires the class to be in agreement. Personally, I think that the money should go to one of the finalist organizations. The Learning by Giving Foundation is where we received the $10,000 to give to the two organizations of our choosing, and now they could possibly be giving us another $3,000. Since it is from the same source, I think it is only fitting for it to go to one of the same five organizations we have been dealing with all semester. Because we have to vote for both a programming and operating grant, there is not really going to be an organization in “third place” so to speak, so it would probably require an additional vote to determine where it should go. This vote should take place during our final vote, so we can just have the decision made then in case we do receive the money. This would mean that we would choose one organization to receive the operating grant, one organization to receive the programming grant, and then one organization that will receive the additional money if we win it. The class should discuss whether we think it should go to a different organization than the ones already receiving money, or if it doesn’t matter and we can just consider all five organizations again.
ReplyDeleteThe other point you made was also very interesting. You ask whether the additional money will feel more like ours, since we ultimately did the work to earn it, as compared to the original $10,000 that we got just by signing up for the class. I would definitely say that I would feel less guilty giving that money away, partly because it is a smaller sum, and partly because we did do some work to earn it. However, the money I feel the most claim to is the charity pitch fund. We all contributed about $14 in total, $1/week, which was then matched by our professor and a private donor. Even though it is being matched, some of our own money is part of that sum. Every week when we have the charity pitches and vote on who we think should win that week, I get so excited because I feel like it is really ours. I get even more excited when the organization I voted for wins because I feel like I personally am helping them. I wish that we raised the money like the graduate class did, that way I would feel less guilty about making the final decision. I don’t know how to fully explain how I feel, but since it is not really our money, I feel like we don’t have the right to choose where it goes. We chose five finalist organizations, now I think each one should get a fraction of the money. If we were to raise our own money, I would feel better about choosing just one or two, I wouldn’t feel as guilty for not giving to the other organizations.
Jillian
Hello Isabel!
ReplyDeleteWhile we presented our two larger grants today, our class is now faced with the challenge of determining where the extra $2,000 is going. Receiving the bonus for our blog is exciting, but it now means we need to re-enter the deliberation and debate process to make the ‘right' decision.
That brings me to the question, “what is the ‘right' decision?” Giving the grants to Truth Pharm and ACA felt ‘right,’ but how do we ensure that we feel the same way with this extra cash? For me, it goes back to using a balance of both head and heart.
I personally would like to split the $2,000 into 2 $1,000 grants to Helping Celebrate Abilities and Meals on Wheels Binghamton. This is because I know many members of the class were moved by what the two organizations do, and while some people disagree in the importance of spreading the wealth, I believe that spreading the wealth to benefit two different organizations one way where we can ‘do the most good.’
Like you said in your blog, this is just my opinion and the class’ choice may not line up with my own. While that may seem discouraging, it is important to remember that this will not be a rash/out-of-the blue decision. Rather, I know we will have a thought-provoking discussion to determine how to donate this extra $2,000. In addition, something that helps me is remembering that regardless if it is my first choice, the money is still going to a great cause and will greatly impact whoever receives it.
Overall, I am excited to hear our class' discussion and to see what the class ultimately decides on. Come this weekend, we will have already discussed how to allocate the extra money, and I hope that what the class collectively decides on personally feels ‘right.'
Sincerely,
Lexi Murman
Since we now know that our final recipients will be TruthPham and the ACA, exciting for both of us as they were my top choices as well, we can celebrate! We also now know that we will be receiving an additional $2,000. I'm impressed by the fact you already started to think ahead about what would be done with the money, as I for some reason did not consider it a possibility until it was announced we won the money.
ReplyDeleteI have faith in our class to make another informed decision, but you brought up an important consideration of whether or not we should give the money to an organization that already received a grant or if we should follow this notion of spreading the wealth and offer the money to another, third organization. I'd like to think that the money should go to the organization that meets our criteria the best and which the class believes would make the largest impact on the community, regardless of if they were just a recipient or not. It isn't TruthPharm or the ACA's fault that they already received a grant. If either organization would like to decline nomination in the way that VINES did, that is understandable, but until one of those organizations state that they do not want to be considered for any more grants, I believe they deserve to be looked at as a blank slate.