Today is the day

Today was our last day of class... for Tuesday/Thursday classes at least.

We began class with four organizations that we are still narrowing down. We have officially decided that we would like to fund one organization and provide them with full funding; but, we have three other organizations that we discussed in class today.

The community committee made calls to the organizations that are left to ask a few questions that our class created to learn a bit more about the organization before we made any final decisions today.

Class concluded today with a vote and we decided to give two $5,000 grants to two organizations and we will let readers know about the organizations soon!

We are so excited to have made our decisions. In the words of our Professor Lynn Blanchard: "Congratulations! You made a decision!"

Feature Student: Sean Kurz

Hi! My name is Sean Kurz and I am a sophomore from Raleigh, North Carolina. I am a double major in Journalism and Global Studies with a minor in Hispanic Studies!

Over the past two years here at UNC, I have many opportunities to be involved with really incredible organizations on our campus. In my first year, I was involved in First-Year Focus Council, which is a Student Government committee that focuses on welcoming first-year students to UNC and planning programs to help them become better acquainted with our campus. I am continuing my involvement on Student Government into next year as an executive assistant for the Student Body President. I have also tried to stay involved with social justice activities on our campus. I currently serve as the Co-Chair for Tar Heel TABLE, which is a Campus Y organization that partners with TABLE in Carrboro to help raise awareness for childhood hunger in the area around our campus. We volunteer at TABLE and have programs on campus to promote the organization. I am really excited to be working with the organization over the next few years! I am also really excited to be an orientation leader for new student orientation this summer!

I applied to this class because I saw the application in the Facebook group for Buckley Public Service Scholars, which is a program that I, along with many of my classmates, am involved in. I was really interested in learning more about philanthropy and it is incredible to have the opportunity to have an experiential education opportunity such as this. In class, I am on the Student Ambassador Committee and I have been the student running this blog! Being on this committee, I have the opportunity to share the story of our process with readers of our blog. The coolest part of my job is that I get to publish the biographies of my classmates; I have been able to read about many of the things they are involved with on campus and learn more about them, and I am proud to be in a class with such passionate students.

Nearing the Final Stretch

As of today, we have narrowed down 20+ grant applications down to 8.

The process has been challenging for all of us in the class because so many of these organizations that are applying are doing wonderful work in their communities. However, our class has the goal to fund organizations that best match with our mission so we have to keep our minds set on our goal.

In class, we are going through the 8 grants we have left, summarizing each of the applications for the class, and providing recommendations for whether or not we should fund these programs. Hopefully with these recommendations, we will be able to continue to narrow down our list.

Every week as I am writing for this blog, I always write about how impressive the thoughtfulness of students in our class is, and the intelligence of my classmates, but it is so true. The discussions are so incredible and each student has thought so carefully about each one of these grants. I am personally very proud to be a member of this class and be among such passionate students.

Just had to take a moment to say that....

But in the meanwhile, we are another step closer to selecting our organizations to fund.

Feature Student: Myra Waheed

Name: Myra
Hometown: Goldsboro, NC
Major: Political Science, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies minor

Waheed

Why'd I take HBEH 611?

I applied to take this class because I was interested in learning about the contemporary scale and strengths in the philanthropy sector in the United States. I wanted the opportunity to study sustainable service and learn about the returns and frameworks that foundations have used to grow their mission model. On top of the interesting curriculum and set-up, I found this course to be valuable in its tangible grant-making experience. It provided useful management insight about what it is like to support and evaluate grant requests made from nearby organizations.

What committee?
I joined our benefactor's student liasion ambassador program for the Learning By Giving Foundation. It has been personally rewarding to share and note the experiences of the participants in this course and for the Learning By Giving Foundation to see the utility of this course in our undergraduate program at UNC Chapel Hill.

Feature Student: Sanah Ahmed

Hi! My name is Sanah Ahmed and I am a sophomore majoring in Health Policy and Management, with a minor in Business Administration. I’m from Charlotte but most of my family lives in Georgia, so Atlanta is like my second home (after Chapel Hill, of course!). In my free time, I enjoy running, listening to all kinds of music, and spending time with family. My on campus involvement includes being a Bonner Leader through the Campus Y and an NC Fellow! Both programs are cohort-based, and I feel so lucky to have been able to find such wonderful community niches on campus.  Off campus, I volunteer with Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate to help promote academic mentorship and engagement amongst CHCCS students through tutorial and program support. Growing up with family has made me realize how much I love working with kids, and I feel this emboldened by my work with Blue Ribbon!

With Blue Ribbon as my community partner for Bonner, I’ve worked on the grantwriting side and pitched twice to receive grants towards various within Blue Ribbon’s Youth Leadership Institute. I applied to this class because I wanted to be on the other side of the grant-writing process: the gratifying and fulfilling experience of giving back to an organization that gives to its community. I’ve been able to glean so many things about philanthropy from a variety of guest speakers and readings, as well through current event topics we discuss in class about the functioning of nonprofits in various sectors of public service.  My role in class has been on the community outreach committee, where I emailed our RFP to various organizations that aligned with the mission of IMPACT NC, as well as made folders to share the received application materials with our class. Additionally, I will facilitate communicating our questions with organizations, as well as their questions for us, throughout the grant reviewing process. A lot of our grant-reviewing process has been done via Google Drive, and it is really cool to see how technology plays a fundamental role in our class in communicating with in the community and with one another!  I am excited to see how our reviewing process will unfold in the final weeks of class as we hone in on the applications we will fund. 

Feature Student: Olivia Jackson-Jordan

I am from Huntersville, North Carolina and am a junior here at UNC. I am double majoring in Political Science and Global Studies with a minor in Women and Gender Studies. I am involved in lots of really awesome groups here on campus. I am a Lead Organizer for a group called Students for Education Reform, an organization that fights for educational justice on the local, state, and national level. I am also involved in the Refugee Community Partnership Bridge Builders Program that pairs UNC students and local families that have come to the area as refugees. I serve as a resource for the family and try to make their transition a little bit easier. I was fortunate enough to have both my roommate and my sister take this class before me. They both encouraged me to apply and were able to tell me about the incredible opportunities that this class provides. I am interested in working in the non-profit sector after I graduate and so I applied in the hopes that I would be able to learn more about the philanthropy process. Although I will probably spend most of my life on the other end of grants, I think that it is really important to know where the money for grants comes from and the process of how boards decide where their money goes. I have really enjoyed learning more about what makes a good grant application. As we have started reading applications, it is really interesting to see which ones stand out and why. This class is a really great way to learn more about the philanthropy process while also having the opportunity to have a positive impact on our state. I am so glad that I have been able to participate!

Feature Student: Anne Marie Hagerty

I am a broadcast journalism major with a music and history minor from Raleigh, NC. I volunteer with Musical Empowerment, a nonprofit that provides free music lessons to kids on campus and works as their video production intern. I enjoy painting, singing, dancing, photography and running.
I grew up in small, rural North Carolina towns and witness immense need in my local schools and communities. Many of the childhood friends I knew as talented and curious children have gone on to careers in drugs and crime because those traits and talents were not fostered. An organization working to provide mentorship or teaching a skill set could have changed the narrative of some of my friend's lives, which is why I think philanthropy is important.

Update

Today we are continuing our discussions as we are reviewing grant applications. The students in our class viewed a certain number of grants while at home, and each student shares what they thought of the grant. Then we all have a discussion about the application for a certain period of time.

There are so many applications that are stirring great discussions in our class and everyone is thinking very carefully about each application.

We are almost done going through the first round of application reviews, and we have made decisions on a few of the applications that will move on to the next round of discussions. Many of us are very conscious of the fact that many of these organizations do amazing work in the areas in which they are located, which is making the decisions really tough.

“It was a marathon of considering grants,” said Agustin, the time-keeper for our class. “We went through 9 grants in 45 minutes. We got a lot of opinions and a good representation of different perspectives from the class, and it was very inclusive in my opinion. Especially given the very small amount of time we had.”

Class was very effective today and, although we still have a long way to go on our work, we are well on our way!

Keep following our blog for updates!

Feature Student: Austin Mueller

Hey all! My name is Austin Mueller and I am originally from Long Valley, New Jersey, though I now live in Vienna, West Virginia. I’m a senior here at UNC and have a double major in American History and Economics and a minor in Hispanic Studies. I enjoy hiking, reading creative non-fiction, and listening to a variety of genres of podcasts. Additionally, I’ll be continuing to live in the area for the year following graduation, as I’ve accepted a position to work with the university’s administration.

From playing in the marching and pep bands to being a teaching assistant for a Women’s Studies course, I’ve had a plethora of opportunities to get involved in different activities with the university. In addition to the two aforementioned opportunities, I’ve also helped to lead Carolina United as a counselor, served as a Mediator on the Executive Board of our campus’s chapter of Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity, and I’ve been involved with Carolina For The Kids as a Morale and Recruitment committee member over these past four years and as a sub-chair for the committee this past year. Service-wise, most have my work has been through the Carolina For The Kids Foundation, which raises money to support the UNC Children’s Hospital and holds a 24-hour long Dance Marathon in the spring. I also do service work with Phi Sigma Pi, which has included working with Special Olympics, hosting a Battle of the Bands to raise money for local nonprofits, and learning more about our local community and how to better serve its needs with the Jackson Center.

I took this course, because I’m interested in the intersection of philanthropy and social justice.  Through learning about the various inequalities inequities facing our nation from my history and women’s studies courses, as well as my experience with Carolina United, I’m interested in supporting radical solutions to addressing poverty, sexism, heterosexism, racism, income inequality, etc. This course has been wonderful in outlining ways to effect social change and in breaking the stereotypes surrounding what constitutes “philanthropy.” In the course, I’ve been a part of the writing committee, and thus helped to write our mission statement as well as our RFP.

Feature Student: Sophie Whelchel

My name is Sophie Whelchel and I am from Asheville, North Carolina. I am studying Women’s Studies, Global Studies and Social Entrepreneurship. During my first year at UNC I started an organization on campus called She’s the First, which fundraises to send girls in developing countries to school. We host fundraisers and educational events and have raised over $7000 in the past two years. Beyond that, I work at the Community Empowerment Fund (CEF) where I meet weekly with individuals who are at risk of experiencing homelessness and provide relationship-based support, workforce development, and financial education. I like to spend time at Open Eye and do yoga on my free time! 

In some classes at UNC I have felt that there is a disconnect between class discussion and actual action, yet this class creates the perfect balance between the two. I have really enjoyed the way that my classmates and I have been able to connect with communities outside of UNC and make a significant impact through our class work. More specifically, I am on the Data Committee and have helped create a rubric that will help our classmates decide which grants to fund. We will also compile scores after rounds of voting and eliminate grants that did not have majority approval. We hope that we can hear all opinions in the class while still being efficient with time.  

I decided to apply for this class because I am interested in the way that money can be used as a force for good. In the future, I hope to work in the field of impact investing – specifically focused on gender equality. This course has given me skills and experience that will help me pursue this career.

Feature Student: Hannah Gray

Hi! My name is Hannah Gray. I am a sophomore from Greensboro, NC studying public policy here at UNC. On campus I am a part of Alpha Phi Omega, the service fraternity, as well as Buckley Public Service Scholars. Through these two organizations I have done many different community service projects.  This semester I have also been involved with starting a new club on campus called Unsung People. Unsung People is a positive community journalism group that highlights people that constantly do kind things in their communities that often go unnoticed.

Hannah is pictured on the right

I chose to apply to this class because I’ve been interested in philanthropy for a few years now. I was first exposed to the philanthropic world when my dad began working for the Weaver Foundation in Greensboro. Then throughout my high school career I was participated in a unique opportunity known as the Teen Grantmaking Council. As a board comprised of high school students from around Guilford County, we were able to give out $10,000 to youth led projects across the county. After I joined Buckley Public Service Scholars last semester I was presented with the opportunity to be a part of this specific youth-led grant making board. Like my other experience with philanthropy, I’ve enjoyed every meeting and learning more about various non-profits and the administration side of community service. My favorite part of this class has probably been having guest speakers come and show us how you can turn this class experience into a life-long career. The four guests that have already come have all been informative and it’s been fun to hear their stories and the differences across foundations.

My involvement with the class has included being a part of the data committee. As a member of this group I’ve helped design a rubric that the entire class will use to score each grant application that we receive. We have also collaborated with the class committee and come up with a way to discuss each grant during class time. We didn’t do much in the earlier steps of the process, but now that we just received our grants we are beginning to review them with the rubrics we made. Overall this class had been an awesome experience that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. 

Current Event Post - Millennials and Philanthropy by Sean Kurz

The other week, Douglas Zinn, the executive director for the Kenan Charitable Trust, came to speak to our class about his career in philanthropy. At the beginning of his talk with our class, he said that our generation (the millennials) is very driven to make a difference in the world. He said that in generations past, people worked to make a living for themselves. However, Mr. Zinn sees the millennial generation truly is working to make the world a better place.

I really appreciated Mr. Zinn’s words during class, and I also enjoyed learning about his career in philanthropy and his advice to our class as we are going through our application-review process. Mr. Zinn’s thoughts about the millennial generation’s contributions to philanthropy appeared in an article while I was searching for a current event topic. In the article titled “Millennials and Philanthropy,” I was able to learn about how millennials have already made left their mark in the world of philanthropy and how nonprofits today can work with this generation to maximize their impact.

Students in our class have been looking up current events in philanthropy, and I used this article for my current event. According to the article, almost 85% of millennials have made charitable donations in 2014 and nearly 70% of millennials volunteered. Furthermore, 77% of millennials are eager to use their skills while volunteering, which indicates the desire to make a greater impact. The article continued to share suggestions for how nonprofits can work with millennials. One way is leaders in nonprofits can help millennials reach their goals by advising them on how to make a difference with their skill-set. Another suggestion from the article was for nonprofits to have a presence in the world technology - such as having online donation options.

I had the opportunity to lead a class discussion with one of my classmates about this article and we talked a wide variety of topics relating to millennials and philanthropy. For example, we discussed how organizations such as Amazon are using technology to make charitable contributions. Amazon uses the program Amazon Smile, which makes donations when people purchase products using Amazon. This is an example of a company that has been working with technology to increase the inclusion of millennials.

Additionally, our class talked about how almost everyone does community service while going through high school. For a lot of the students in our class, it was a requirement in high school for some of their clubs; other students did community service to fill their resume while applying to college. We had a hard time determining answering whether or not it is bad that students are motivated to do service for their resume.

Overall, the article was very interesting and relevant to our class, seeing that most of our class falls into the millennial generation. As I reflect on the class discussion regarding this article, I find myself curious about how future generations will continue to approach philanthropy and charitable giving. Technology is constantly improving and it will continue to have a drastic effect on philanthropy. Until then, I am proud that our generation is making such an amazing impact on the world of charitable giving.

If you would like to check out the article, the link is posted below!

https://www.nptrust.org/philanthropist/entries/news_for_donors/millennials-and-their-influence-on-philanthropy