I know this is going to sound really weak, but I don’t really have any unanswered questions about civil society or the non-profit sector.  I would be interesting in learning more about non-profits and fundraising so maybe one day I could start my own fundraiser like Susan B. Komen and the MS Society.  When I have time to sit down and breathe, I would like to have literature on how to set up or negotiate the fundraising obstacle.  I think it would be very rewarding any any outcome where you made more that 1 cent for a cause is good.

A few people already mentioned the most important thing they have learned in class on tuesday and I also stated a few things in my previous blog that are pretty much along the same lines.  To reiterate what I have learned and have valued during my first New Century College course is the working knowledge of how many non-profits there are in the District of Columbia and the National Capitol Region.  Also, I did not know what was involved in the non-profit sector.  I thought non-profits were just charitable organizations that helped people in different ways.  Now I know some of the organizations, their history, what they do and why.  I also know what non-profits have a direct impact on my life and family.  I have learned what Sesame Street, the NRA, Mozilla Firefox, and Wikipedia do as non-profits, how they obtain donations to keep their organization running and also have the understanding of where to go if I want to look up how much a organization profits and how much an organizations senior leadership make.  I also learned how the non-profit differs from the private sector.  My bank is even a non-profit.

I think another thing I took away from class was learning about civil society while reading the civil society reader and performing research on foreign countries, namely Serbia .  Having groups and reading one anothers blogs on foreign countries was interesting.  Mainly how their non-profits works against ours and what obstacles the foreign country took to overcome obstacles.  I did not know anything about civil society, NGO’s, and the non-profit sector.  I am glad that I took this class instead of another government class.  Learning about the non-profit sector was an “eye opening” experience that I will definitely cherish for a long time coming.

I think, again, overall the class was very interesting.  How the information was presented and having to write a blog on pretty much every bit of research we conducted and express our thoughts, which was good.  Another good aspect of the class was its historical views.  Everything started from something and didn’t appear from nowhere.  So having the history behind an organization, how it started from the ground up was great to learn.

For the next class I would definitely encourage for an EL project, having groups start their own non-profit organization.  I thought that idea was a pretty good one, even though it would be very time consuming working out all the logistics.

As this class is coming to an end, I want to make a few comments about it.  I thought that this was going to be a tough class in the beginning with a lot of reading, writing and nonsense theories that I really didn’t care about.  This is my final semester as an undergraduate (hopefully) and have taken more from this class and a few others than I have from all the boring government classes I have taken.  Some of the reading was a little dry, but well worth the effort in the end.

Just learning about non-profit organizations has been very rewarding to me.  As stated in many previous posts, my parents always donated money and clothes to many organizations.  I have come to realize what those organizations do, their history, and for some- where they are based.  Most non-profits are right in our backyard.  I can see foresee a state non-profit course coming up in the very near future.

As I was reading Hkoren88’s blog about Ronald McDonald, I thought to myself- this too is an organization my parents donated money and clothes to at least a few times a year.  My parents have donated so many things it ridiculous.  Reading about all the organizations, their history, background, how much revenue and donations they acquire is fascinating.  Too bad we don’t have a charitable fund to get the United States out of debt.  If we did have such an organization, I am wondering how much money would in fact be donated?

Reading on, the Ronald McDonald Charity has three programs that range from helping families of seriously injured children to bringing medical care to under served children all over the world.

Again, so many organizations help so many unfortunate people and children across the globe.   What a difference so many people make by giving charitable contributions and their time to help others in need.

As I am conducting my final internet researches on non-profits, I came across one that my parents always donated to, the United Way of America.  How reluctant was I to find an organization that my parents donated to and based in Alexandria, Virginia.  If I would have known all the different non-profit organizations, I would have totally went in a different direction with my EL project with interviewing, etc.

The United Way is a non-profit organization that has over 1,300 offices throughout the country.  The United Way has offices throughout the country.  The United Way’s focus is to resolve and help identify community issues at hand and ultimately make changes in the community by partnering up with government agencies, businesses, schools, community development corporations, and others.

The United Way has roots dating back in Denver Colorado in 1887 where church leaders started the Charity Organization Society which fundraised for 22 agencies.  Today, the United Way leads the way being number one as the the largest charity in the United States, reporting over 4.2 billion dollars in contributions.  That is a lot of money and having the communities support in fundraising is amazing.  I think every citizen and person that lives in the United States should have some type of community service each year to help fundraise in support of the United Way.  I think a lot of people would find satisfaction in doing so.

As I was making my way back home during a wonderful six hour drive through North Carolina and most of Virginia I noticed and thought about a lot of things.  One of which was what would be the first non-profit would I see driving home.  Easy, no- I don’t think so.  I had to think hard of what non-profits I know of and had to keep my eyes peeled.  A few hours passed and nothing!  Keep in mind I am on the highway too so there isn’t much to see from the road.  Let’s just say it took me until I returned home to notice one.  Any wild guesses?  Goodwill!  I saw the Salvation Army too, but Goodwill came into my view first.

Goodwill is not only a clothing store where you can take your old, yet in good shape, clothing and obtain a receipt for your taxes.  Goodwill is actually an industry that is actually one of the worlds largest non-profit organizations that provides training, education, and career services to people that are physically, mentally, or emotionally impaired, people on welfare, or even people who are not educationally qualified.  There are 184 organizations in the U.S., Canada, and an additional 14 other countries.  Goodwill earned more than 3.1 billion dollars and used 84 percent of the revenue to provide training and employment services to more than 1 million individuals (wikipedia.com).

Edgar J. Helms founded Goodwill in 1902, which then was names Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries in Boston.  He founded Goodwill to employ people who were poor to fix and repair the used goods.  The repaired goods were then sold as product and the monies were given to the poor who fixed them.  Helms described Goodwill as an “industrial program as well as a social service enterprise…a provider of employment, training and rehabilitation for people of limited employability, and a source of temporary assistance for individuals whose resources were depleted.” (wikipedia.com)

I am sure that Goodwill has touched the hearts of many and have helped people through the toughest times in their lives.  When you shop for Christmas presents this year, don’t forget about the homeless and donate to Goodwill.

I was not in class when the groups were presenting on their different countries so I will talk about the country that was assigned to me and my group.  My group was Serbia and they have several strengths that are worth mentioning (Please keep in mind that this is more informational than research- I am going to throw information out freely) like state-civil society relations where they exercise cooperation and support.  Also democracy is evident in Serbia with civil society actions that are promoting democracy.

A small bit of history would outline the land that is now Serbia was colonized by the Greeks in the mid 4th century B.C. and has been a battleground ever since.  Some first states in Serbia date back to the early 7th century but during the course of time has changed it’s borders and government.  Within the past couple hundred years, the Serbians have been under authoritarian rule during the 19th and 20th century.  Not until recently have they been recognized as a democratic state.

NGO’s were also recently founded in initiatives to establish legislative framework for financial and institutional support.  The current political environment is not favorable to the NGO’s due to the lack the government’s interest.  Some priorities are pushed away in the afterthought someone will take the initiative and do it.

I have been searching for a few minutes trying to find a philanthropy blog and am having no luck.  I did run across something interesting, even though I myself have a blog on this website.  But blog.google.org has millions of blogs that can be searched and commented on.  This is actually my second class where we had to start a blog and keep writing in it sort of like a journal for things that relate to the class.  I actually have a friend that likes to comment on his political blog every once and a while when he has a free moment.  The google blog seems to have an array of searchable titles and subject matters throughout their website.  I would encourage all to look through it, find, and comment on something you find appealing.

I went to the National Democratic Institute (NDI) website and found I knew nothing about the organization.  I had to start from scratch and read about the organization.  I thought I heard the name before but wasn’t too sure what exactly the institute did.  Being a public administration/ political science major, you would think I would know a little something about it, right?  Anyway, I started doing a little reading and found out the NDI is non-profit organization that works to strengthen democracy worldwide.  This would include traveling to different countries to provide assistance in advancing democratic values.  What does this do for other nations?  Providing assistance and advancing democratic values on other countries and/or nations helps economic growth providing peace and stability to that country/nation.

I found it interesting that there is actually a non-profit that provides this type of service.  I though our government provided democratic consultation to other nations.  Another interesting fact that non-profits do so much more than we know.

I started researching around the web, I know- none of us are searching hopelessly to find a non-profit that we are actually interested in writing about, right?  So, I stumbled upon Sesame Workshop since I was looking more for a child friendly non-profit having a 2 year old and all.  On with my research:

The Sesame Workshop is a non-profit educational organization that addresses critical developmental needs to the lives of children.  They were founded 38 years ago as a Children’s Television Workshop to help identify the needs to help prepare low-income family children for school.  The founders of the Sesame Workshop shared a common goal: “to use the medium of television as a tool to help children learn.”  The founders employed a variety of developmental experts, musicians, and writers that came together to engineer the concept of enriching entertainment for children.  From the Sesame Workshop engineering came Sesame Street, a youth television show that is now one of the greatest educator in the world.

How does Sesame Workshop work?  Well, they have organizations that make tremendously contributions as well as corporations, foundations, individuals, governments, and many more proud sponsors.  I remember growing up watching Sesame Street and now I find myself turning it on for my son as a learning experience and tool.  This brings me to the conclusion that I will be making a charitable contribution very soon to this pioneer of an organization.