Camera shy?

AJ David, a student most courageous, shows no fear as he volunteers to be the first person in our class to be interviewed by us..... on video! However, this should come as a surprise to no one - he has aspirations of becoming a TV show host! Go AJ! Way to make a great "first impression!"

Lights... Camera... Action! We student ambassadors now get a taste of our own medicine as we put ourselves in the spotlight and discuss our learning goals.

Last week, we were lucky enough to get to talk to the President of The Foraker Group Laurie Wolf! The Foraker Group is a 501(c)3 non-profit that basically supports all other non-profits. They provide consulting, classes, backroom services, fundraising expertise, sustainability, grant writing help, you name it. The previous CEO, Dennis McMillian, taught a community service class here at the university with his book, "Focus on Sustainability" which is well worth a read!

Laurie brought materials with her, including a pie chart showing total U.S. dollars given in 2015, to the tune of $373.25 billion. Individuals gave 71% of that amount, while corporations gave 5% (mostly in-kind donations of drugs, technology, samples, and plain ole stuff.) It was insightful!

Her emphasis of a healthy donor culture was invaluable. We discussed how the ideal division of labor should be 30% research of your donor base, 30% relationship building, 10% making requests, and 30% recognition/reporting. In Laurie's experience, Alaskan non-profits are spending WAY too much of their time making requests!

We will get around to introducing the class better, but in the photo below, left to right: Dr. Judy, Caitlin, Laurie Wolf, Mark, and AJ.

Hello from Alaska, AKA the coolest state (pun intended!) My name is Caitlin, and I am one of two student ambassadors for our Learning By Giving class. I am happy to pictorially introduce Mark Phang, student ambassador extraordinaire. We are happy to share what goes down in UAA town!

We are a small class of 5 students with a wonderful teacher, Dr. Judith Owens-Manley. We will be sure to introduce her in another post, as well as the other students and our activites!