April Extra Blog Post

April

One of Aprils main event was the Easter Eggcitment. This even was located in front of the Walmart in Chino Hills. The fundraiser was realyed to Easter as we had an easter egg basket with slips of paper on each one. One slip of paper said "basket" and the other said "toy". (NOTE: this event was mainly for little kids) each egg was $1 and depending on which egg they chose determined what prize they'd get. The baskets were homeade and were rather inexpensive as well as the toys

Blog 20: Exit Interview

• (1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

Eq: What is the best way to raise funds for a nonprofit animal rescue?

Answer 1. By having an up to date and eye-catching website to raise online donations

Answer 2. By having a variety of social media accounts to allow people to follow your organization.

Answer 3. By following up with your fundraising committee to discuss previous or future events to come in monthly meetings. 

BEST ANSWER?  By having a variety of social media accounts to allow people to follow your organization.

WHY? When interviewing my mentor Lisa Anderson,  whom is a Supervisor at Priceless Pets Rescue, is part of the Fundraising Committee, and volunteers at least twice a week at Priceless Pets Rescue with the dogs mentioned that the biggest factor contributing on how to get people to attend your events is through out their Social Media Account. Its the cheapest and quickest way to get the word out about the organization to people. She also stated that they use this method for everything. For example, Priceless Pets Rescue raised $1,600 through a restaurant fundraiser in one night by putting it all over there Facebook and Instagram.

• (2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

I first came across this answer through my foundational pieces. They would mention how a huge majority of nonprofit organizations that were successful had social networks. Apart from that, I noticed that all the "big" nonprofits such as Red Cross and YMCA have social media sites. 

• (3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

The one problem I faced was on how to complete my 2nd semester Independent Component 30 hours because I was not sure how or on what I could focus on. I resolved this by finding out that Priceless Pets Rescue had a Fundraising Committee and joining it. This extremely helped me because I was putting my EQ into action. This committee focused on raising funds for the organization which is what my EQ is trying to find. 

• (4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

My first significant source would have to be my mentor Lisa Anderson. As I mentioned above she is heavily involved within the organization and she has helped me discover answers to my EQ plus answer any questions I have about the organization or use her opinions to further research possible answers. My  second significant source was a book written by llona Bray J.D. titled "Effective Fundraising for Nonprofits: Real-World Strategies That Work". This was also an important source because not only was it written in 2013, the most recent possible but it breaks down every aspect of Fundraising for a nonprofit.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Literal

• A. I Daisy Zavala affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
• B. The biggest source that helped me complete my independent component would have to be my mentor Lisa Anderson and the fundraising committee at Priceless Pets Rescue. By joining the fundraising committee I was able to ask questions and listen to the meetings to see how Priceless Pets gains their funds.
• C. Above Mentorship Log
• D. In this Independent Component, I was able to be "behind the scenes" in the organization. I listened to problems facing the organization, future event preparation and ideas, and saw how Priceless Pets runs their meetings. Everyone talks in an order for what they have to say for the month and subcommittees are formed. They discuss how much profit they've made from the past month in either donations, events, or fundraisers. Along with attending these monthly meetings, I also worked on some events such as the Easter Eggcitment event and the Bruxie Restaurant Fundraiser.  

Interpretative

• For every meeting I attended, I have the printed sheet that gets passed out to everyone in the committee and Lisa could confirm that I have attended those meetings for the rest of the events I have pictures that I was actually there and are time stamped as well. 

Applied

• This component has helped me answer my EQ entirely. Without attending those meetings, I would not have came up with my third answer. In fact those monthly meetings are my third answer. It showed me the importance of getting together with your committee to discuss what has been going on within the organization. 

March Extra Blog Post

March

Wow, we are now at the end of March. 2 more months and we start presentations. Graduation is near. On another note, volunteering at Priceless Pets Rescue has been great. I am still part of the Fundraising Committee and I have to say it is really fun. This months major event was the Bruxie Fundraiser. A restaurant in Chino Hills, donated 20% of the profit to the organization. Plus, we had dogs available for adoption at the restaurant since it has a patio as well. Overall a very good event! In the month of March Priceless Pets Rescue had 94 adoptions! 

Blog 18: Third Answer

EQ: What is the best way to raise funds for a nonprofit animal rescue?

    Answer #3: By "following up" with your fundraising committee to discuss your previous event or future         events to come, in monthly meetings.

• Source: Interview #3- Lisa stated in Interview #3, that the fundraising committee will meet up after an event to discuss what went well and what didn't do so well for future reference. Example: After Priceless Pets Rescue put on the Pittie Event, the committee met up to discuss both the positive and negative side to the event. Such as, since the event was outside at a local park there were certain areas that were muddy making the area "unusable" 
• Source: Mentorship- The Fundraising Committee for Priceless Pets Rescue meet every month to discuss future events. This allows them to come up with new ideas and address some of the problems they have come across within the organization. Example: In the most recent meeting, the committee is planning a Easter Event for children. There will be an Easter egg hunt and dogs available for adoption. 
• Source: Colston, Kaitlin "Importance of  a Follow Up Meeting After Your Event"-"By holding an event-wrap up, your team can evaluate where to go for next year and how they can improve the event." Example: Again, the Pittie Fest event is a perfect example.

Blog 17: Fourth Interview

20 Questions:

• 1. How frequently does the Fundraising Committee meet?
• 2. Are there any other times in the month were you meet more frequently?
• 3.How long has the fundraising committee been for?
• 4. Who started the committee?
• 5. How useful are these meetings towards raising funds?
• 6. On average how long do events need to be planned for?
• 7. How important are sub-committees?
• 8. How much preparation do events usually need?
• 9. How do you come up with new fundraising ideas?
• 10. How important are connections? 
• 11.What events and/or fundraising ideas have had the least success?
• 12. Is there any event that you are most proud off?
• 13. How do you determine adoption fees?
• 14. What is the importance of having support of the community?
• 15. What are some events that have been good ideas, but have not been completed?
• 16. What determines whether an event will be proceeded?
• 17. How important are postmortem?
• 18. What has been one mistake from previous experience that you know not to repeat when it comes to events? or in general fundraising
• 19. Who runs the social media accounts for Priceless Pets Rescue?
• 20. Is there ever time where the community is more supportive?

Extra Blog Post- Febuary

Fundraising Committee 

Turns out Priceless Pets Rescue has a fundraising committee. I joined as they welcomed new members. The committee meets once a month at different restaurants to talk about future fundraising events for the organization. There is a $10 fee for every-time we meet, but that is manageable and it goes right back to the organization. I went in February and it was a great first hand experience. They are even letting me come up with ideas for next months (March) meeting.