Intermission- a Time to Stretch our Legs and Think about What We've Seen

       There are a few things people forgot to mention to me about what my senior year would be like. I came in expecting it to be like any other year I've had at Trinity but I was wrong. It has been an incredibly challenging time for not only my academics, but also for my looming future that seems to be pressing closer with each day. This semester, I have found that taking the time to look back and reflect on what I have done has been a valuable activity. And so at this time, I will reflect on the past six weeks in my Grant Writing and Fundraising course.

      This whole semester has felt like a whirlwind of activity and non-stop running from one place to the next. The same feeling can be applied to the wide variety of activities and discussions we have had in my Grant Writing and Fundraising class. We have had the wonderful opportunity of having multiple guest speakers ranging from University/Community members to recent Trinity Graduates come and talk about how their roles are connected to the nonprofit sector. These informal interviews of sorts, paired with the readings (some focusing on the theories of donors and how nonprofits work in terms of the IRS) and the activities we have completed in groups have given me one of the most unique and enjoyable experiences I have had at Trinity to-date. 

      The internet is an amazing thing and I never knew how useful it would be as a tool when researching a nonprofit organization. Through an exercise exploring the web database GuideStar, I was able to research nonprofits I am familiar with or related to the sector I am interested in joining upon graduation to gain a better understanding of IRS forms required of nonprofits. Specifically, I looked at

Image found at www.guidestar.org

the 990 Form and learned that it is there to provide the public with valuable information about a nonprofit's financial activities (including items like the total assets and how much employees of the organization are paid). The website also provides great resources to compare multiple organizations at once and download up to 5,000 990 Forms of organizations a month so that your research is never limited! I feel as though this activity was a valuable lesson on the foundations of what make organizations nonprofits and was a wonderful way to lay the framework of my learning in the course.

Image found at
www.amazon.com

      Another valuable take away from the past six weeks came about when we read a selection from the The Seven Faces of Philanthropy. The portions I read provided me with a brief history and the importance of donor segmentation and presented the concept of the Seven Faces Framework. Utilized as a way to group donors into giving personalities, the Seven Faces Framework is very interesting and applicable to my personal life as well as the donors I have worked with in the past. It was a great opportunity to reflect upon my own habits of giving and realize why I do what I do. I feel as though the results of this assignment will be what I utilize in my post graduate life regardless of the field I go into. It provided a clear and approachable breakdown of donor habits and really emphasized the overarching theme of the importance of building relationships with other people in order to achieve our end goals-especially in the world of fundraising for nonprofits.

Image found at www.habitat.org

      I learn best when given the opportunity to work hands on with a topic. I love to organize, highlight and really get into the grit of a project. I had the opportunity to do just that with an assignment focusing on Habitat for Humanity. I was given a stack of donor appeal letters from the organization and sorted through the items, identifying commonalities and strategies that were implemented to essentially "ask" donors for monetary donations or the giving of time. Using what I had learned about storytelling in fundraising, I was able to recognize consistent patterns concerning families, emotional pulls and the "ask" portion of the letter for the organization. From this activity, I learned that Habitat for Humanity knows how to reach out to their donors and effectively communicate a need for donor's gifts. From now on, I will forever look at direct mailing pleas from organizations in a more analytical light when they come to my mailbox.

      After looking back on the first half of the semester, I realize I have learned more about nonprofits and how to work within them than I knew before. I hope to continue gaining more knowledge about nonprofits as well as getting into the process of grant writing for these organizations as the semester continues. Ultimately, for the remainder our time together, I want to be more proactive and prompt with my blog posts as well as gaining experience with writing for a grandiose grant proposal like that of the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation.