Monthly Archives: October 2015

Qualitative > Quantitative

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By: Jon Bonem, BBA 2016

As several of the previous posts have indicated, our class is now in phase two of our process. We have spent the last two weeks visiting our phase two candidates for on-site tours and visits. My team (Hunger & Homelessness) has spent our time meeting with four incredible organizations: The Cove, Compassion Ministries, Caritas, and Texas Hunger Initiative. The first organization we met with, The Cove, was vastly different from every other group we met with in that it is essentially a start-up. I am an analyst for the Baylor Angel Network, one of the most active Angel Networks in the nation, and have spent a significant amount of time analyzing and researching start-ups in the for-profit environment. So, needless to say, The Cove was a very intriguing opportunity for me to research and discuss further with the team.

The Cove has been in the works for several years and has just recently undergone the process of becoming a 501c(3). It is a prime example of why the qualitative aspect of this sort of research is so important. Our meeting with the Cove reiterated that past the mission of the organization, the most important thing to consider in looking at grants may very well be the leadership and team behind the organization. Cheryl Pooler had an undeniable passion for the mission of the Cove and it was clear that she would not stop until her dream for the organization had been fulfilled.

So, what is it that the Cove does? The Cove is striving to be a safe environment for homeless minors in the Waco area. The goal is to give high school-age kids a safe place to go after school from 4pm-8pm. This location would have volunteers to offer tutoring services, warm showers, laundry machines, mentoring, and counseling. Eventually, once these students have grown to trust the volunteers and mentors at the Cove, the organization could help begin the process of developing host-home models for the children to stay at. However, since these children are minors, there are an endless list of legal hurdles that must be navigated in order to progress to that stage. Thus, an environment like the Cove is necessary to build the foundation and framework to eventually progress to a host-home model. Through all of these resources, the Cove hopes to provide a safe environment for homeless high-school students in the Waco area to succeed and ultimately cross the stage for graduation. This past year, 100% of Waco ISD’s homeless students graduated from high-school thanks to the work of Cheryl Pooler and her co-workers. The Cove is the next step in sustaining these sorts of results in the Waco community.

So, where does the opportunity for our class come in? The Cove still doesn’t have a running operation, because, like I alluded to earlier, they are very much still a start-up organization. Cheryl has spent several years building this idea, talking to people in the community, and working on the organizational logistics. Now, there are several partners and potential funders in the community that are excited about the possibility of this idea coming to life. However, it seems to our team that these partners and potential funders are hesitant to be the first people to invest in the idea. So, our team’s idea is to fund a pilot program for the Cove so that they can generate results and that can support their concept. This is very different than are other funding proposals, but at the end of the day we trust in the qualitative data we gathered when meeting this team.

So, what have I been learning these past two weeks? The qualitative can often be just as important if not more important than the quantitative data we gather.

About the Author: Jon Bonem is a senior from Bellaire, Texas. He is studying Finance and Economics with a minor in Mathematics. He is a Senior Analyst in the Baylor Angel Network and active in his fraternity Kappa Omega Tau. This past summer, Jon interned with Main Street Capital Corporation in Houston, Texas and will be returning to Main Street after his graduation this coming May. Jon hopes to be pushed and challenged on his fundamental views of giving and philanthropy through his time in this course.

The Importance of our Work

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By: Sarah Underwood, BBA 2016

Much of the focus of our class has been philanthropy from a bird’s eye view – what it means, why is it important, how do we do it well. These themes have permeated our thinking and decision-making processes as we have moved from step to step. Over the past week, we had the opportunity to take that bird’s-eye view and zoom in to see all the details and intricacies of the goals, challenges, and daily work of various non-profit organizations in the Waco area through our site visits. These sight visits were definitely the most impactful thing so far in this course.

A few Fridays ago, my two program area partners, Luke and Oliver, and I drove out to Waco High School to visit with James Parsons, CEO of Communities in Schools of the Heart of Texas. If you are unfamiliar with the organization, it is a national organization with a local affiliate that serves 30 schools in 12 school districts. Their mission is to bring community resources into schools to help young people successfully learn, stay in school, and prepare for life. As we were guided to a small office space, we chatted with a few students in passing and looked at the myriad of brightly colored college flags hanging from the ceiling.

We entered the CIS office crowded with representatives from almost all of CIS’s key program areas; people stood up as we entered, warmly shook our hands, and offered us seats. Then we got to spend the next hour and a half hearing about the day-to-day tasks of the case managers – the challenging and rewarding situations they traverse with their at-risk students. As I was sitting there listening to them speak so passionately about their work, I began to understand philanthropy in a whole new way. In this class, we have the ability to give away money. And while funding is a necessary factor in implementing the programs and services that many non-profits offer, the version of philanthropy that the case managers, site coordinators, program officers, and volunteers get to carry out is the giving of their time, their attention, and their passion.

This version of philanthropy is truly to be admired. In this course and in this process, we are the ones who hold the resources that these organizations need to carry out the amazing work they are doing. And while some might be tempted to feel a sense of arrogance thinking they are the solution to someone else’s need, I instead feel a greater weight of conviction about the importance of my role. I am not merely a Baylor student studying philanthropy and nonprofits; I am a participant in the greater good. Not by my own generosity or effort, but by the generosity of donors other than myself and by the effort of the staff of these organizations. Sitting in that meeting made me truly understand the great responsibility I have to be a good steward of this incredible opportunity.

About the Author: Sarah Underwood is a 22-year-old Baylor senior from Brownwood, Texas. She is studying Accounting, with a minor in Spanish. In her three years at Baylor, she has devoted time to serving and leading through her sorority, studying abroad in Spain, and serving as a leader in various New Student Programs. In the spring, she will take on a public accounting audit internship with KPMG in Houston. She hopes this philanthropy course will cause her to think deeper about what it truly means to give, and to become a lifelong philanthropist.

Purpose in Philanthropy

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By: Luke Ungarino, BA 2017

“Now… what is the purpose of philanthropy?” Dr. Hogue posed this question to our class and waited for a brave response. I was hardly surprised that the age-old question of purpose resounded even in the closest thing to a business class I will ever take.

That was in the first week of the semester. We’ve now moved from the textbooks, research, and planning to the up-close and personal, visiting organizations’ sites and sizing up their potential for a grant from the class. The last organization that the Children, Youth, and Education program officers (my team) visited was the Talitha Koum Institute, an innovative therapeutic nursery that delivers its own profound answer to this question of purpose by working with small children and babies who come from distressed home environments.

As Oliver, Sarah, and I drove through the Kate Ross neighborhood to Talitha Koum, I should not have been so surprised by the neighborhood’s desperate condition. There were no neighborhood association awards for best garden or similar hallmarks of Waco’s best neighborhoods. Instead there was rotting paneling, men walking idly on the pavement, shot out streetlights, and the other usual indicators of a crumbling neighborhood– all within a mile of Baylor. Talitha Koum’s building was not in tip-top shape either, but the men repainting the outside walls offered us a smile as we walked into an eye-opening world.

Susan, the dynamic CEO of Talitha Koum, welcomed us upon entering the building. Susan enjoyed a successful career as owner of a marketing firm when she responded to the call to be Executive Director at Talitha Koum. As she walked us through the various rooms of the building, I was reminded of a proud mother beaming in the light of her child’s success. And indeed the organization had plenty to be proud of.

In the first room, designated for the under one-year-olds, a few babies scattered the floor, sleeping peacefully, while their teacher rocked another in his rocking chair. Moving to the two-year-olds’ room, several children played under the careful eye of their smiling teacher. The tour continued this pattern of happily playing or sleeping babies in secure, comfortable rooms.

While the fancy sensory therapeutic play equipment and the stock-full shelves of play toys and diapers were memorable indicators of the great work that Talitha Koum is doing, what made its greatest impression on me was the people. Every staffer and volunteer we encountered seemed to know their profound purpose. I got a small taste of their passion just watching them interact with the kids.

After our tour concluded we got a chance to sit down with Bruce, one of the inspiring teachers in the two-year-old group. Bruce told us a story of RJ (name changed for confidentiality), a boy who came to the institute several years ago. RJ suffered from severe anxiety. He cried literally nonstop, and none of the staff’s cutting-edge therapeutic interventions seemed to work. Bruce took a particular interest in RJ and made it his mission to help him overcome his anxiety. He spent entire hours holding RJ just to keep him from crying, and gradually, RJ’s temperament improved. Eventually RJ became one of the happiest kids at Talitha Koum and is now thriving in his education.

Bruce helped RJ on an individual level. As grantmakers this semester, we are not in a position to serve individuals hands-on like Bruce. However, we can be a part of the mission of men and women like Bruce by providing them the means to fulfill their mission through the philanthropy course. Bruce’s story illustrated his purpose as a source of comfort and development to RJ and the other children at Talitha Koum.

We too must ask ourselves, what is our purpose? Behind the logistics and paperwork and site visits and conference calls, this is a fundamental question in our work this semester. My visit at Talitha Koum helped me understand my purpose as a servant in the philanthropy course. When I first visited with the folks at Talitha Koum several weeks ago, I thought to myself that I needed to be in the trenches with these men and women, rather than sitting at a desk reading, writing, conference calling, etc. However, that is not my purpose at this moment. We can share with those who are in the trenches by viewing ourselves as part of the same, larger configuration.  On the grantmaking side of things, I can enable those who do inspiring work throughout our community with the resources they need to continue their mission.

A proud New Orleanian, Luke Ungarino concentrates his studies in political philosophy and ethics in the University Scholars program. He is discerning a vocation in ministry, though entrepreneurship and education are also possibilities. He lives with seven other Baylor students who host “Convivium,” a monthly lecture series in their apartment featuring academics speaking on all things relating to modern culture, religion, and sexuality.

The Passion of Philanthropy

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By: Grace Berry, BBA 2016

Towards the beginning of the semester, our board brainstormed ideas to come up with our foundation’s mission & guiding principles. We chose traits such collaboration and humility. We all also agreed that passion was essential. People are passionate about many things. I have seen passion for the mission field, passion for music, passion for business, passion for children, and passion for life. It is passion that drives people to do things. In the philanthropic world, passion is what fosters new, innovative ideas that have the potential to make a difference in the community.

Our class is currently in phase two: site visits. In our last board meeting we narrowed down our organizations from 70 to 24. We are now are visiting each of these, seeing firsthand who runs them, and what they do for the Waco community. This past week, my group (Health & Wellness) visited three of our organizations. I did not realize how much these visits would impact the way we view these places and what they do. A little over a month ago we were scouring the internet for any relevant information (by looking at their websites, news articles, and any other sources). Not too far after the initial research, we were conducting conference calls, which allowed us to gather even more information.

Coming into the site visits, we felt like we had a good idea what the organizations did for the Waco community. Stepping foot on the grounds and walking through the building, we were surprised. It was shaking hands with the workers and seeing their faces that has given us more information than all of the other resources put together. Watching their faces light up with excitement while telling us about how they came to the organization, what they do, the people they serve and have relationships with, and the impact they have on the community shed light on the programs at an entirely different angle. The directors’ enthusiasm and drive is astounding. Many of them gave up successful careers in other fields to pursue their nonprofit work. They are determined, not letting small roadblocks keep them from reaching their goals. They are visionaries, ideas constantly flowing that will impact the community in new ways. After leaving one of our site visits, I, along with the students in my group, walked to our car in silence. We were honestly amazed and speechless at the passion these people have for what they do. Most people will tell you they enjoy what they do, and that interest is what led them to their careers. But the directors, CEOs, and founders of these non-profits have genuine gratification. They truly love making a difference in their community, and willingly do this, often times their own expense.

As we move toward our second board meeting, the decisions will only become harder as we continue to narrow down our organizations and grant ideas. So many of our non-profits have directors and leaders who are passionate about their work. If our decisions merely came down to passion, it would be nearly impossible to choose.

Grace is a senior pre-med Business Fellow, with minors in German and Biochemistry. She grew up in San Antonio, but calls Vail, CO her second home, where her family loves biking, hiking, skiing and snowboarding. In her free time she enjoys playing piano, hitting tennis balls, and meeting friends for coffee.

 

Beginning Site Visits

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By: Elayne Allen, BA 2017

A couple of weeks ago, the Philanthropy class had to make the difficult decision of choosing four groups within each program area (mine is Community Development) to move forward in consideration of a grant. It was difficult for my group to narrow down our decision to just four organizations. We began with ten groups and spoke with a representative from each. My teammates and I quickly learned how passionate and hardworking people were from every organization with whom we spoke.

We also learned how much need there is among the nonprofits in Waco. Almost every group with whom we spoke on the phone was prepared with very specific grant funding ideas for their group. Additionally, most of the grant ideas our groups had were for very pressing needs of the organization. After thinking strategically with my teammates, we decided to move forward with four organizations where we saw potential for the most long term benefit.

Now that the Community Development team is focusing on four organizations, we started conducting site visits this week. Yesterday, we completed our first site visit at a project called Good Neighbor House Waco. The visionary behind this project is Dr. Laine Scales, a graduate professor at Baylor. Good Neighbor House Waco is modeled after the settlement house movement in the early 20th century in which young middle to upper income people moved into low income neighborhoods to provide services in the neighborhood.

For our site visit, my teammates and I toured the Good Neighbor house. There is also a property in the backyard of the Good Neighbor house where the “settlers” live. The actual Good Neighbor house is not operational yet, but there are already settlers living in the cottage behind the Good Neighbor house. Dr. Scales explained that she bought both properties a couple of years ago, and both the Good Neighbor House and the settlers’ cottage were in ruinous shape. She was able to turn the cottage into a livable, quaint home for three settlers. She plans to do the same to the Good Neighbor house once she obtains all the finances.

During our tour of the Good Neighbor House, Dr. Scales took us to each room and explained what it would be used for. I learned from the tour that Dr. Scales had a very well thought out plan for the Good Neighbor House. Her goal for the home is to provide a space for the neighborhood to have functions at no cost or a very low cost. One use of the home she mentioned will be for homeless youth to have a place to go after school.

For the Community Development team, conducting an actual site visit gave us a deeper understanding of Dr. Scales’ project. As we walked into each room listening to its future function, we began to see how the house would benefit the neighborhood. We also learned about the benefits of having settlers living in the cottage. She told us about one settler who met a neighbor in high school and began to help him with college applications. Having settlers in the cottage behind the Good Neighbor house presents opportunity for the settlers to build community with the neighbors.

The Community Development team agreed that the site visit was successful. We got to see with our own eyes how Good Neighbor house would benefit the neighborhood and we got a clearer picture of Dr. Scales’ vision.

Elayne is a University Scholar with a focus in Political Philosophy. She moved around the United States when she was younger, living California, Florida, Virginia, Texas, Alabama, and Washington State. She aspires to work in political communications in Washington DC, perhaps for a member of Congress.

If This Class Were a Semester-Long Skydive*

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By: Anna Clark, BA 2016

If this class were a semester-long skydive, the first few weeks of reading would be the equivalent of suiting up for the plunge: shedding our valuables (pride and preconceived notions about Waco and philanthropy) and donning a philanthropist’s green and gold jumpsuit (humility and curiosity). After these essential steps, and a somewhat overwhelming perusal of the sixty organizations and their missions, we were placed on a team, within a sector and prepared to jump, none of us being experts. The research we did on each of our organizations, scouring the Internet, served as our ascent in the plane toward our jump, our stomachs churning with an unidentifiable mixture of fear and excitement. More recently, our conference calls with Executive Directors and experts of the public service trade forced our teams to put our legs outside of the plane, stare down at the cold, hard ground of an impending decision, and use the skills we learned in theory at the beginning of our skydiving (ahem, philanthropy) training. Then, in a moment that seemed to simultaneously last a second and two weeks, we jumped (or were gently nudged) into the free fall: the first board meeting. Yes, we feared the 20 pairs of critically thinking eyes on us during the presentation and squirmed in our professional attire, but after the first bit, our fear shifted into excitement and we could all feel the stillness and restlessness of innovation surrounding the reality of impacting our beloved Waco and its people.

This week, we pulled our parachute, slowing our 120 mph free fall and cruising into the scenic third floor room in Carroll Library, catching our collective breaths, and preparing for site visits. After drafting general agendas for the visits, we welcomed a guest speaker to our class. As Pratik Patel, a distinguished Baylor alumnus, told his story involving philanthropy and professionalism and collaboration, drawing us into belief in his words through his charismatically relaxed demeanor. He spoke with expertise in many aspects surrounding philanthropy, leaving us encouraged, with practical means of achieving a life of service like his, and a charge to experience. To use our knowledge and apply what we know about philanthropy to everything around us. To take off the blinders of our preconceived notions, and experience life and philanthropy for ourselves, without fear of failure. This stage allows us to do the tricks with the parachute, pulling one arm down to enact a circular, holistic experience  of the side of philanthropy that “secures the floor,” and successively pulling the other arm down to circle and observe the side of philanthropy that “raises the ceiling” for the public good.

Our instructor doubles as our metaphorical tandem diving instructor and has slipped our hands in the ropes that direct the parachute, trusting that we are capable program officers. Next week, as we pull down with both arms, we’ll enter into a stall, briefly close our parachute and return to free fall for the weeks leading up to our next board meeting. We’ll take Mr. Patel’s advice to experience everything, making our next decisions, and anticipating further use of our skills and the ultimate landing on solid ground, having been changed by our experiences in this class.

*This post inspired by a recent skydiving adventure.

 

Anna is a senior English major, Poverty Studies and Social Justice minor from Wise, Virginia. She loves coffee, books, and long discussions involving both of the former.

“I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.” (The Book Thief)

 

 

 

What’s Next

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By: Tim Campbell, BA 2017

We are just beginning a new and exciting phase of the course. After weeks of deliberation and research – in addition to lots of emails and phone calls – each of our six teams has selected four organizations with which to move forward over the next several weeks. Given how difficult it was to select four organizations from the ten or so we had at the beginning of this process, it’s tough to reflect on some of the further decisions that will have to be made in the next few weeks. But the next stage of our course will help us determine how we should allocate our resources this semester.

Next week we will conduct our first site visits. These visits will provide us with an invaluable opportunity to see firsthand the important work these organizations are doing in Waco and the surrounding community. Although phone interviews and independent research have been useful methods for learning about these organizations thus far, we can only learn so much from conference calls. We’ll be able to learn so much more about the organizations and the people behind them when we visit them in person.

In particular, it will be useful to see with our own eyes the particular needs that every organization has. It’s one thing to hear an organization’s director talk about the need for a new hot water heater or convection oven, or about funding for internships or a new curriculum for adults looking to enter the workforce. But these needs will take on a whole new degree of urgency in our minds when we’re able to see what these organizations are doing on a day-to-day basis.

In class yesterday, Dr. Hogue instructed us to develop an agenda for each site visit. These agendas will consist of things we want to see and any lingering questions we have about the organization, its methods, or its effectiveness. They will also help to keep us on track during our visits, ensuring that we clear up any areas of confusion we still have.

But we don’t need to feel constrained by our agendas. As we talk with the leaders of these organizations, we may come up with new questions or become aware of needs that we did not previously know about. These developments, in turn, may lead to slight modifications in our grant proposals or different grant ideas than we had before.

So I’m excited to see how our site visits go during the next two weeks. We will prepare thoroughly so that we can make the most of our time when we visit these organizations, but we can (and should) be open to encountering things we may not have expected to find. We will learn lots of new things about our organizations and will be able to see their most pressing needs more clearly. And hopefully these discoveries will make our next difficult decision just a little bit easier.

How to best positively impact our surrounding community?

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By: Sarah Byers, BA 2016

Something that has been the grandest of struggles is to decipher what actions we collectively, as a team of college students, can do to best positively impact our surrounding Waco community. The base problem lies within the subjectivity of the words “best,” and “impact.” When everyone has different ideas of what things and people and ideas and art and subjects are best, how is this word able to be defined? And when everyone has different sets of life experiences, passions, and skills, how can “positively impact” be defined homogenously by our entire “Board of Directors”?

One experience stands out in particular as I think of times when I have had abrupt introductions to the “adult world” with all of its elephantine realities and heavy truths. In 2013, I was working in Washington D.C. and had the opportunity to sit in on a Department of Homeland Security meeting. Our nation’s foreign aid falls under the jurisdiction of this Committee, and accordingly its Committee members in the United States House of Representatives. These individuals are charged with the mammoth task deciding how to best appropriate the gargantuan budget that Homeland Security has, in the name of furthering the nation’s “homeland security.” Flash back to my original question: “How to best positively impact our surrounding community?” As I listened to the Members debate how to best positively impact their colossal surrounding community of the United States and its Homeland Security, my eyes were opened by what I heard.

Results were being heard of a study that was conducted investigating the effect of bags of food, like wheat, corn, flour etc. being distributed to a few impoverished African communities. These bags were financed by taxpayer money to be shipped across the Atlantic in the form of foreign aid, in little brown sacks that were emblazoned with the emblem of the American flag. These products were bought with taxpayer money from American agriculture industries, and in the name of Homeland Security, distributed to these impoverished communities, with the goal of ostensibly improving our nation’s security. The study had found suggestions of trends showing that our efforts of foreign aid were, in the specific case, harming the community long term. When the bags ceased coming or there were delays, the communities suffered because they had no systemic system set in place of supporting themselves through good agriculture/irrigation practices.

Furthermore, evidence was presented that it would be more beneficial to help those impoverished communities set up their own industries, because it would improve their economies and create jobs, revenue, income. America would save on extravagant shipping costs and detrimental environmental consequences of physically sailing large boats with bags of crop to these African communities. Some suggested it was costly to print our American flag symbols on all these bags. But one Congressman said something I can still hear clearly in my mind… “The aims of our foreign aid are not philanthropic in nature.” He went on to contest the main aims of our nation’s foreign aid is positive PR for the United States, and when the public sees the bags shipped over in action, it creates a good image and photo for the U.S.

“How to best positively impact our surrounding community?”

This scenario sticks in my mind as I sit in Philanthropy lab and ponder how we all have different ideas of how we can best positively impact our surrounding community. Will we create positive PR for ourselves? For our school? Can we do both?

Will we work to remove root problems within our community rather than offering barley bags with the American flag symbol emblazoned on the front? As we all in Philanthropy lab hold varying ideologies on how to best tackle the root causes in our community, I am deeply encouraged. I am encouraged that I feel a good deal of respect for everyone in Philanthropy lab. I am encouraged because as Andy Hogue says, “Thank goodness everyone is different.” It is a very thin pancake that does not have two sides. The systemic problems that promulgate cycles of poverty and similar issues are multi-faceted and complicated in nature. To pretend to fully understand the issues at 21 years of age would be, perhaps, foolish.

How to best positively impact our surrounding community?”

Everyone has his or her own response, and no one’s opinion is more or less valuable. “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided on Politics and Religion” by Jonathan Haidt gives good insight to why everyone’s ideas about positively impacting their communities are different. For now, I am encouraged at the mutual respect and fluidity of our “Board” conversations, proposals, and interactions. Comprehensively, we are learning how to best positively impact our surrounding community, and learning what it means to be team players.

Phase One Complete

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By: Jennifer Janicki, BBA, 2017

It’s hard to believe we’ve already had our first board meeting. I feel like I just had “Syllabus Day” last week. As a class, we’ve learned so much about our surrounding community and fallen in love with the spirit of philanthropy found in Waco.

It has been such a privilege to see a different side of the city I love. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed speaking with each organization and learning about how they are making an impact on our growing community.

That’s what made this part tough.

Every team that presented has worthy and deserving organizations that were doing valuable things. Every team had a dozen innovative, sustainable and truly visionary grant ideas that would have a lasting impact on those affected. Several had benefits that weren’t immediately recognized when the grant idea was presented, but impressed us all when further explained. Every team had examples of compassionate, dedicated leadership that gave their all to their organizations.

We had the difficult task of narrowing our focus to a few key organizations that matched our mission for the class this semester. Ultimately, we had to decide which organizations, at the present time, had goals similar to our own that would also have long-term effects in Waco – something we really value as a class.

Somehow we were able to do it. And, we did it collectively with respect for each team. We all understood the time and effort each team put into researching and speaking with the organizations in their program area. When it came time to make votes, we honored groups’ suggestions.

Allow me to better explain the procedural side of the board meeting. Each team was assigned 9 – 12 different organizations related to their area of interest. For example, my area was health and wellness. Others included youth and education, hunger and homelessness, human and civil rights, etc. We researched these organizations as a team using their website or connected sites as resources. We attempted to know as much about the non-profits as possible before contacting a representative on the phone. After hosting conference calls with each organization, we compiled all of our research into two documents: a one-page summary to share with the class and a multi-page compilation of all of our information gathered.

During the meeting, the teams presented their summary of each organization and their grant idea. We also made suggestions as to which non-profits we felt it would be best to move forward with. Then, the class was able to ask questions to the group presenting. We were able to gather more information about those suggested organizations or hear about the organizations that weren’t proposed. It allowed us all to gain a deeper understanding of the team’s decision process and the basic components of their organizations.

The next class day was our final day of the board meeting. We were able to submit any objections to our professor, Dr. Hogue, in the interim time between. As a class, we elected to not change any of the suggested organizations and voted to keep the list as presented.

Now, we proceed with site visits to learn even more about these organizations from an academic and emotional perspective. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

About the author: Jennifer is a Business Fellow studying marketing and public relations. She is a member of Delta Delta Delta and serves as the Assistant Membership Chairman. Jennifer is also involved in Campus Kitchens and serves as the Event Coordinator.

The Pool Narrows

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By: Oliver Ha, BA 2016

[Editor’s Note: This post was authored on Wednesday, leading into our Thursday board meeting, but a system glitch prevented this post from publishing until today.]

       We began with sixty names, sixty non-profits, sixty ways of doing good and sixty means of giving well. Mysterious as they were to us then, the organizations we have researched and the narratives we have heard from CEOs and Directors alike are now woven into our own stories; I’m sure many of us would be able to recite nine different mission statements from memory, with various names, dates and financial figures to go along with them.  After our first board meeting yesterday, the pool of possible grantees will narrow to a mere two dozen. Tomorrow, we will collectively vote on the twenty-four organizations that have inspired us with their causes and who we have grown—myself included—perhaps more than a little emotionally attached to.

       My group presented first, the sector of Children Youth and Education, and we spoke to a common thread that ran throughout each of our organizations: early childhood development and the importance of long-term mentoring relationships. We were followed by Hunger and Homelessness, which gave a wide-ranging account of the many ways in which food pantries, transitional homes, and collective research initiatives are all working to address a pressing Waco need. It came to light as a shock, at least to my ears, that 1 in 4 children in Waco are food insecure. The team in charge of Culture, Arts and the Environment spoke next, and pointed to an often overlooked reality. Though we often view beatification projects or arts districts as nice add-ons for cities, they are more often than not one of the greatest drivers of economic growth and do much of the work of attracting prospective Wacoans to pick up their roots (wherever they may be) and plant them in our city.

       After a short break, which consisted of hushed excited whispering as to possible future projects from the three sectors that had already presented, we heard from the cohort overseeing the Human Services and Civil Rights organizations. As with many of the institutions represented by other sector areas, a wide variety of services were rendered by these nonprofits, from legal advocacy to job training to provision of immediate needs. Though we may have assumed our different organizations to be varied and distinct, the Health and Wellness group dispelled such a notion as the missions of their organizations sought to remedy the symptoms (i.e. addiction, illness, malnourishment) that have their roots in poverty, food insecurity, and inequality in allocation of resources. So interconnected were our organizations, that as the Community Development group spoke on their research, they realized that a partnership opportunity between one of their nonprofits and another from a different sector was possible—that our class might be able to give to two different organizations to achieve a common end. All of which to say, as Dr. Hogue concluded the meeting, that this entire class is a project—a lesson—in cooperation rather than competition. Good is done not by means of an isolated transaction, but rather through communal transformation.   

       In short, as our first major decision looms along the horizon, I am given comfort by the fact that though we are limited in our scope and in our resources, we are not limited by our vision or by our pride. It will doubtless be, however, a bittersweet meeting.