After going through a full semester in this class and researching the five finalist organizations, I just want to start my post by saying I am happy that the money went to MHAST and YWCA because I’d be happy wherever it went. All of the organizations do great work in the community and help Broome county residents in one way or another. With that said, I still stand strong in my belief that the Boys and Girls Club(BGC) is an amazing organization that is deserving of our money. I know this is a crazy thing to say, even after Professor Campbell said that he agreed with the class for not choosing them as a recipient of the grant, but I believe they are a great organization that should have won. With that said, rather than this be a post to garner support for the BGC to receive the extra money, I just want to point out a few things I believe people overlooked when it came to this amazing organization.
Looking back at the operating grant applications, they all wrote about a need for money, but some did this better than others. For example, the YWCA said they need the money to meet the gap in operating expenses due to the rise in minimum wage. However, the YWCA, like many other organizations, did not give a specific answer to, “how will our grant help you due to the rise in the minimum wage/funding cutbacks?” Rather than giving a general statement about relieving the “economic hardship” that the increase in minimum wage has caused, the BGC said by receiving the operating grant they could prevent closing early everyday, closing on school days, or eliminating paid positions. Another important question that only the BGC answered was, “how far could the money go?” For example, BGC said the money could be used to pay a part-time staff member for nearly two months or pay the monthly bills for lights and heat. No other organization was this clear when describing how they would use the money. All other organizations said what they would use it for, but no other organization gave the class solid numbers like the BGC. It is understandable to give more generalized answers for the operating grant because it is for general use. However, I believe the BGC’s specificity when answering these two question show they truly cared about being transparent with their use of our money. Also, it shows they put a lot of thought into our application, which tells me they cared and respected us as grant makers. Therefore, even though BGC does get a lot of support from the community, they created the most compelling argument for why they should receive the grant. Undoubtedly, they gave us the most clear and specific answers to our questions and I do not believe this should go unnoticed.
Furthermore, a lot of people chastised the BGC for having too nice of a facility, often referring to the amount of pool tables they have. Many people in the class believed the nice facilities they do have demonstrate that they do not need the money. However, I do not agree with this statement and believe it is not guided by sound logic. By having a nice facility this ensures that the kids are safe and they will have activities to do when they are there. If you think about, the BGC serves 100 kids on a daily basis but only has about four pool tables. So in reality, it is not like the Boys and Girls Club is wasting their money on unreasonable goods, they are just trying to supply their facilities with enough activities for the large amount of kids they see on a daily basis. In addition, when many of us entered the building we said, “I wouldn’t mind hanging out here.” Would you have said the same thing if the building was a dump with one dilapidated foosball table and a sofa? I highly doubt it. Therefore, the BGC needs to have good facilities if it wants to draw in kids and prevent them from staying on the streets. If the BGC did not have fun activities for teenagers, they would much rather find more fun, and most likely dangerous, things to do on their own. So I think people need to think about the importance of the BGC having nice facilities in order to effectively execute the goals of their mission statement. Rather than using this as an argument against their ability to efficiently allocate their funds, I believe they should be praised for creating an environment where kids actually WANT to spend their time.
I would love to think that the BGC could receive the extra money we were given; however, I know this is highly unlikely. The class did not agree on much, but after speaking with a lot of you, mostly everyone agreed that the BGC was not one of their choices. And that’s fine because that is how the democracy of our class works. However, I could not end this semester without showing my support to the BGC and all the amazing work they do for the youth in Broome county.
Lea,
ReplyDeleteI too would recommend giving to the Boys and Girls Club. But I have an alternative option for our giving. I would like to use the extra $2000 we were given as a scholarship. I spoke about this in a previous blog comment and would like to bring this to the table. By giving a scholarship we would be giving directly to the people as opposed to an organization. We were constrained by our program and operation grant requirements for our ten thousand dollars but for this extra $2000 we have free range with it. This scholarship would help the Boys and Girls Club as well because they will be receiving the money in the form of membership fees which they can use how they will. So we will not only be helping the children and families of Broome County but we will be supporting the club financially.
This donation would have repercussions in the future whereas a kid who was able to go to the Boys and Girls Club because of our scholarship would see Binghamton University as having an extremely positive influence in their life. The social and educational skills they would learn may even give them a boost so that they go to college. They will be inclined to attend the university that gave them the resources to get where they are and become the people that the Boys and Girls Club helped them be.
Out of the 3 child care organizations we have looked at I would give a scholarship to the Boys and Girls Club because they have the lowest fee of only $65 a year. This means we would be able to help more people longer for less money. I am not sure how we would choose to divide the money. With $2000 we could pay for 30 kids to attend for one year, or we could give a “lifetime” scholarship for 12 years (maximum time a child can stay at the club) to 2 kids with some money left over. I think that a scholarship would really have a significant impact on the children's lives. And we would give knowing it’s going to a good cause.
Thinking back to one of the first days of class, I remember doing a simulation. We had split up into groups; one of them being donors, and one of them being recipients. The recipients broke up into smaller groups representing different organizations. I was playing the role of the Red Cross and I remember that no one gave any money to us. I think one of the reasons for that was that there was some negative press about the Red Cross. But, I think one of the main reasons we didn't receive any money was because the Red Cross is such a big organization. Those playing the role of the donors saw their money go further in a family's GoFundMe fundraiser than in the Red Cross.
ReplyDeleteI think that that same thinking carried through to our final decision. As you said, our class decided that the Boys and Girls Club did not need our funding because they looked well off and because they are the 12th largest U.S. charity(according to Forbes). I think that if all private donors thought that way they would lose a lot of revenue. The Boys and Girls Club has very wealthy donors that give millions of dollars. But, they also have many donors that give a couple thousand dollars. If all of those donors thought that they are no longer going to donate to the Boys and Girls Club because they are well off, the Clubs revenue would decrease, and the way they operate would be impacted.
Lea,
ReplyDeleteI love this take away and I think you make a very valid point about how we may have downplayed a few key facts when making our decision. I stand by our decision as a class but also support the option of giving our spare money to the BGCoB.
My main comment to make it on your point about transparency. It was something we looked into heavily. As a class, we hoped to make sure that our money was going to an organization that allowed us to see and understand exactly where our money was headed. I believe the two organizations we chose did in fact do that, but I do side with you that BGC may have been overly scrutinized and not rewarded enough for their efforts.
I think the discussion of adding them to our list of recipients at the end of the term would be a great opportunity to do even more good than we had hoped.
Great post,
Dylan
Hi Lea,
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing well-deserved attention to the Boys and Girls Club as it was unfortunately overlooked in our class discussion.
I also went into our voting session being a major supporter for the BGC for two different reasons: the financial need that you introduced, and the sustainability of their program pitched for funding.
Firstly, if you looked at the financials for all of the organizations, you would see that only two received a funding cut from the previous year: the YWCA and the BGC. While this doesn’t tell the entire story, and financial need is not dependent solely on one year’s funding, this has unfortunately been the theme for the BGC. Andrea had mentioned to the class that they have reported a steady decrease in their funding for the past several years, and this takes a toll even on the largest organizations. As you’ve mentioned, this has lead the BGC to decrease its availability because they just can’t get the community support it once had. Their need was overlooked unfortunately because people judged the organization by its name and the quality of its facilities–even though facilities are necessary for a quality child care facility. This is the perfect instance where people missed an opportunity because they judged a book by its cover, or in this instance, the organization by its number of pool tables.
Another reason that I supported the BGC was for their Summer Teen Employment program. One of the pieces of criteria that I used to analyze the programs was sustainability of the services provided. As the BGC had the only program that provided employment training, I valued the opportunities provided as greater than those by any of the other four organizations. Thinking holistically, it is one thing to give a person living in poverty food or materials, but it is something completely different to offer them the means to get a job and make both their current and future living situations immensely better. Not only are you providing them a job now, but that experience will have a rippling effect in that they will be able to get better jobs in the future with their experience. In this way, even though many of you were skeptical about the program only helping six kids, those kids would be helped in a way that would make them better off for the rest of their lives. I believe this is the case where it is not about the number of people you help but in the way that you help people.
Overall, I cannot go back and change the decision we made in class. While I’m happy with the organizations that we chose to give our money to, I am saddened that such a great organization with a measurable need was overlooked in the giving process. I know many of you are set in your opinions about where you think the extra money should go, but I think you should take a step back and take into consideration the hardships that even large organizations can have no matter how nice their facilities look.
Thank you for advocating for an organization that I too felt passionate about giving our money to.