Dr. Wade's Presentation

I really enjoyed Dr. Amy Wade’s presentation and personal insight into the world of non-profits. Her PowerPoint broke down statistics of non-profits and made me understand them in a new light. I was most surprise by the amount of non-profit organizations in the U.S. I had actually never thought of a university or a government-run organization such as the U.S. postal service (as of right now), as a non-profit organization. Usually when someone mentions a non-profit I think of an organization that works to alleviate oppression, financial obligations, or provides some kind of service to people in need. This is not always the case however. I found it very interesting that the largest form of income to a non-profit is not donations, but instead fees, such as tuition or dues. Dr. Wade’s Powerpoint, along with the readings, presented a lot of new information about non-profits.

I found it interesting that Dr. Wade’s main responsibility is to write grants. Obviously this is crucial for non-profit organizations because they need funding to help their clients. I had not previously known that there is full time positions for grant writers. It makes sense though. Just as Emily said I was also surprised how much interaction Dr. Wade had with the organization’s clients. Especially as the primary grant writer I did not expect her to be actually working hands on with the children and their families. I guess this is probably one of the benefits of working with a smaller staffed organization. I think Dr. Wade said there were thirteen staff members at I Know I Can, which to me sounds pretty small. I was surprised that the organization can be so successful with such a small staff. I was also surprised that Dr. Wade said there were twenty board members, which is crazy because they actually out number the staff. A board of twenty members for a small organization sounds overwhelming and with all those differing opinions I think it would be hard to come to a consensus.

Just as Molly said I also enjoyed Dr. Wade’s presentation so much because I am interested in the issue of education. Before college I thought a lot about becoming a teacher and for a while now I have thought about going into school social work, but just as Dr. Wade said she was more interest in access to education and the macro/policy work than actual classroom work and I think I have more interest in that area as well. I had never heard of I Know I Can before the presentation but I was very impressed by its mission and accomplishments. I could definitely see myself working for an organization similar to I Know I Can, so I was glad to hear more about it’s inner workings. Dr. Amy Wade was a very good presenter and I learned a lot from her I hope we have more interesting presentations in the future (I’m sure we will!).