Week two

I am so glad to have Dr. Amy as our guest speaker and what she said in class in very insightful.

What I take away from last class is a general understanding for non profit organization which are common sense for one to know in order to serve as a board member. the lecture is like a mythbuster for non progfit organization. it cleared out many misunderstanding that I used to have for npo. for example I thought the funding for npo are mostly come from donation but actually it is mainly from endowment. and other misunderstanding on legal issues such as taxes and non profit are acutally allowed to make a profit.

Besides a rational understanding for npo, what impressed me more is Dr. Amy's personal experience. Dr. Amy talked about her experience at I KNOW I CAN. I got to know what a daily routine for a board member and was impacted by the passion she showed. and also I got to know as a board member there is much more details involved in it than I thought. like handle the relationship with employee, other board members and coporate people from sponsoring companies. there is only so much a single person can do or a single organization can contribute, but it is just this little effort we are making everyday is what changes the world into a better place.

The thing that surprised me the most is that the definition of non profit is a lot broader than I thought. university, hospitals, postal office, trade associations are actually all considered as non profit organizations! I used to think that only organizations like food pantry or other charitable organizations are NPOs. it shows you don't have to be social work major to work for npo and it need people from each different areas. and the number of the npo in the us and the number of people who are employed in the non profit sector also surprised me. it is indeed a giaint industry that related to the well being of the national economy.

Also I d like to say that next time I really need to write down some notes. because by the time I wrote this blog I have to try so hard to remind me of everything. but more impoartantlly I believe what our guest speakers bring to class will be very helpful when we really get into real world npo so it pays to write down the details.