Our Next Chapter

We had the privilege of taking part in our philanthropy class’s Pitch Day on Tuesday February 27, 2018, right before we left for Spring Break. I have the opportunity to be on our class’s poverty team, and our team’s interviews with the potential grant recipients were held on the 2nd floor of the Bill Daniel Student Center in the Beckham Room. We had the pleasure of conversing with God Neighbor House, Habitat for Humanity, Take Heart Ministries, Skillpoint Alliance, and Pack of Hope in order to get to know their charities and hear them pitch how they would use the potential grant money to bring families out poverty.  Every pitch was good and we wish we had more time to spend with each non-profit. Pitch Day flew by!

Overall, it was a very educational experience that gave us many options to consider. At the end of Pitch Day, the needs of all the charities motivated our Compliance Committee, who helps make sure we do what we can to acquire more money to give away, to help raise as much money as possible! Our class is also attempting to work with the development office to start up more fundraising for this class so future classes would have the opportunity to give even more.

Pitch Day came and went so fast for my team! Now, we are beginning the next chapter of our briefing book (Chapter 2), while trying to decide which charities we have the most serious interest in. We established in the first chapter of our briefing book that we are primarily concerned with breaking the generational poverty cycle, and we were blessed to speak with so many people who are giving children and families opportunities to do so. We enjoyed meeting with everyone, and each non-profit is doing meaningful work. Our class discussed writing up profiles of pitches that overlap with our other teams (Health, Education, and Miscellaneous) so that every charity has opportunity to receive grant money from teams they did not even pitch to.

Currently, we are compiling profiles on each one of the charities for our next installment of the briefing book due next week. All five of the charities we met and interviewed presented pitches that would help improve lives and alleviate poverty in McClennan County, making our decision incredibly tough.

This is why our current part of the briefing book is so critical. We are currently in the process of analyzing individual charities to see where our efforts as a team can best be accomplished. Thorough research will help us make an informed decision about how to proceed. I am personally very excited for the site visits coming up where we get to see some the non-profits in action. Our team met before break and we will meet again this week to discuss our decisions and what causes are closest to our goals and to our hearts. Thanks to everyone who participated in pitch day and who helped contribute to our education.

 

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