St. Jude

I have been working on my major case study for the past few weeks, and never thought there was as much going on with St. Jude as there actually was. I know they need millions to keep the hospital open for a week, but it is so incredible to think that they successfully fund raise millions and then some in order to not only keep the hospital open, but to be able to do additions, treat more patients and treat more and more diseases as the years pass. It really is overwhelming to try to understand everything that involves St. Jude. I feel like they set an example for every nonprofit organization because of the immense success they had beginning with ALSAC, along with the success they continuously have.

st. jude

I have my appointment set to discuss specifics on philanthropy with an employee from St. Jude tomorrow, and in the mean time I have been doing lots of research.  It is amazing at how many events and fund raisers are going on across the country every week for this one organization.  St. Jude has so many ways to give, that a donor can so easily personalize their gift to make it feel more than average.  I am really interested to get behind where all of these ideas come from, and how St. Jude has found a happy medium with what works well and what doesn’t work.  I think many nonprofits could learn a thing or two based on the success that St. Jude seems to have had. 

waste of paper

I loved the new twist put on our current event issue presentations on Wednesday.  Being Earth Day, it was appropriate to say the least.  The ironic thing is that in class we have talked quite a bit about how direct mailers get used the most by companies, nonprofits, etc., yet they are the least effective.  If these companies, etc. sending out these mailers so frequently just saved themselves time and manpower, they would also be saving a lot more.  They would be saving my time because I throw them out before looking at them anyway.  I was blown away by how many trees are gone each year because of these ineffective mailers.  Quitting the mailer send-off would save the environment more than anything.  It seems like now the priorities of American citizens have shifted a bit from using to trying to find ways to reuse or just not use at all.  It’s good to see “green” awareness blowing up, and even better to see it spread into philanthropy and fundraising.

Robert Egger

It was cool to see Mark so excited about Robert Egger.  Everyone has something that triggers personal interest, and Robert Egger is proof that his edge is attracting people like Mark to consider being involved in nonprofit in the future.  (I have known Mark for years, so hearing this out of his mouth made me realize how big of an impact philanthropists can make).  We’re always waiting for the next eye-opening thing to happen, and it’s cool to see these new ideas surface in our current event topics.  I think that as long as these new innovative philanthropists come along at a steady pace, the future of philanthropy will continue to look sunny, even through a recession.  A recession may even make people more likely to volunteer because we’ll all (us poor students) will be suffering.  Anyway, I’m getting off topic, but I just think it’s really inspirational to see how each niche can be tapped into when it comes to philanthropy and fundraising.

Product (Red)

I think the idea of product red sounds great, however I think it is difficult to know with each product how much the company is actually gaining.  For example, with the apple products, if the price is raised, and then the percentage that is higher ends up going to donations, it is hard to see how ipod is actually losing anything.  With a raised price, they really aren’t giving away any money, the customers are just paying a higher price for a red product.  Some of the companies participating in Product (red) might be giving sufficient amounts, it is just difficult to tell which business are giving legitimate amounts and which ones are using Product (red) as a marketing strategy.  I think this gray area makes it difficult to tell what is right and what is pushing the limit a little bit too much.

Oprah’s Big Give … a little update

I have been trying to keep up with Oprah’s Big Give every Sunday to see which directions the show is taking.  The closer each week gets to the end, the more intense of challenges are given to the contestants.  I still don’t know how I feel about the overall money-making aspect of the show, and I wonder whose pockets this money profited is going to.  The great thing I have to say about the show is the vast amount of people they are reaching as they travel from place to place.  It is great to see the outcomes and the people affected.  I’m anxious to see how it ends.

Internet volunteering vs. group volunteering

In the class discussion, the gap between those who say they want to volunteer and those who actually do is pretty large.  After talking about the different ways to draw people in to volunteer, two main solutions were addressed: 1)Internet volunteering to save time 2) Group volunteering to raise accountability.  Which one is more effective?  I would like to think that group volunteering would be a lot more satisfying and uplifting.  I just feel like Internet volunteering gives you no real connection from person to person, and more of just a connection with your mouse and the screen.  I don’t feel like this is such a lasting solution to help percentage of the people who actually volunteer to go up.  It may be time efficient and rather easy, but I don’t see how it could really give a volunteer the full experience.  In face-to-face volunteering you can physically see what you are doing and have a team or even just a friend to make you feel better about it than you would have alone sitting in a dark room with your computer.

Oprah’s big GIVE?

I think Oprah’s new show, Oprah’s Big Give definitely sends a strong message to anyone who watches it.  It shows the amazing impact you can have on somebody’s life if you just help a little.  However, I am very curious to see just how much Oprah is profiting off of this show, that may end up being very popular.  The real question here is, what will Oprah do with all the money she’s rolling in once this show gets off the ground? (if it does)

Big Bucks going to the who?

After reading Harvey’s post about executives of nonprofits making big money, I was a little bit shocked.  I agree that really successful nonprofits who have executives that drive the business deserve to be paid better than the ho hum private business owner.  However, when I saw how much Michael Miller, the president of the Goodwill of Columbia-Willamette is making ($644,587), I had to take a second to catch my breath.  WOW, there is a difference between compensating someone for a job well done and taking that extra, oh lets see here, $500,000 that could be going to the cause?  Ridiculous.

Homeless Scam Artists

 It is quite obvious that giving every homeless person resources and knowledge to help themselves out of poverty is a great concept, but I wonder how many of the so-called homeless would really want to help themselves?  How many of the homeless begging for money on the street are really just scam artists making money without paying taxes?  I stumbled upon this article and I found it quite interesting.  “…it just seemed to fit with suspicions that someone is making a business out of this spot or location.. .I could be way off and there could be some great explanation for this, but with all of the pieces of fine clothing on some of the hoboes, and taking into consideration the other points brought up, how do you know who to trust when feeling charitable? Scam artists are helping hurt those who are unfortunate, which is nothing new I guess.”  – Wes Laurie

This article was really quite interesting and makes me wonder how many people are making a business out of “faking it.”