By: Jake Bartlett, Business Fellow 2017
Big things are happening this week as we begin our site visits! The weeks following Pitch Day entailed a great deal of communication within our groups and with other groups along with many hard decisions but also a great deal of rewarding aspects. The decision to move forward with a site visit for a given organization was determined, in its simplest form, on a percentage scale. Looking at each organization individually, we had to ask ourselves, “Is the chance of us giving to this organization 50% or higher?” If the answer was yes then we moved forward and scheduled a site visit; however, if we felt that there was a smaller chance we would give to an organization then we decided to not move forward. At this point, you might be asking yourself, “well, how did you decide if your chances were greater or less then 50%?” and this was the exact same question we as a group had to ask ourselves on a frequent basis.
Our decisions were made after we outlined our goals and mission in giving to an organization as well as looking at the future goals of the individual organizations. My group came to the consensus that we wanted to give to something that would generate growth in an organization and take them to the next level. Deciding which organizations we would move forward with and which ones we would send letters of decline to was extremely difficult. Throughout this process, I felt a sense of frustration but also excitement, a feeling of sadness when sending letters of decline but then an overwhelming feeling of warmth and joy when sending a letter to schedule a site visit. In many cases, we were torn between groups and wished we could visit everyone we had previously met with; however, looking back at our goals and the growth we wanted to spur in an organization we were able to refine our number from eight organizations to four.
Tuesday, March 28th was our first day of site visits! My group met with one out of four organizations at a local coffee shop, Common Grounds, as the organization is run out of one of its leader’s homes. This organization is focused on helping women in homelessness to access feminine hygiene products, establishing relationships between these women and local churches. They distribute Love Totes, which are bags that include one month’s supply of various products. Their proposal was for a trailer measuring around 7ft by 12ft to assist in the transport of the totes to various places of distribution. During the visit, we asked further questions such as the cost of the trailers they were looking at, their means of transporting totes now without a trailer, and how a trailer would take them to the next level in reaching out to women in the community. We also proposed the possibility of having the trailer wrapped with their logo as another means of reaching people and advertising their work.
Although our visit was an informational meeting, I didn’t feel as if it was business or solely informational; I got the sense of partners working together, exchanging ideas, collaborating and all working towards a common goal to enrich the lives of others and promote growth.
I look forward to meeting with the remaining organizations in the next few days as well as getting closer to making some very difficult but fulfilling decisions with my team members and possibly collaborating with other groups!