Salut

Hello all. These last 3 weeks have been crazy. Two papers and one final project down. Three finals and ten pages to go. In my last blog I left you hanging because I had to go rock climbing with some friends and we were talking about NGOs in China. So the Chinese government has a lot of control over the NGOs and I don't think that is right. But maybe in time this will change. China is slowly changing each day into a more democratic nation. Just today on KLCC news I heard that Chinese bus and taxi drivers don't have to address their occupants as "comrade" and they now address them as Sir, Mrs, or Ms.. So maybe one day they will loosen the regulations on NGOs.

The last two weeks in class we have been talking about foundations. Foundations are the nonprofits that have a large amount of money and give grants to individuals and other nonprofits. I was really excited about the foundation section because I work at Annual Giving and we work very closely with the UO Foundations. However the guest speaker that came to class made me less excited. He worked for the UO Foundation and now works for the Oregon Community Foundation. I expected him to tell us how foundations operate and what it is like to have worked for two of the largest foundations in the state. BUT instead he spent the majority of time bashing the UO Foundation and speaking way out of line. I do know that the UO Foundation does have its problems but any foundation or company does. He only added to the classes obvious dislike of the UO Foundation. If he was going to point out all of the flaws of the UO he should have done the same for Oregon Community Credit Union.

An issue that came up during his lecture was that of transparency. I am all for knowing where the money goes and how much the expenses are but to disclose who the donors are is wrong. The UO Foundation is a registered 501(c)3. They file taxes every year. If you want info on them look up their 990. As for the donors of the University of Oregon Foundation their identity and information should be kept private. One reason people give to Foundations is to have a certain amount of anonymity. The donors trust us with a lot of personal information and disclosing who they are breaks that trust. At OSU some donor information was stolen and their donors freaked out. As a result giving went down and now the donors will always question the security of their information. The UO Foundation prides themselves in how secure donor information. If you want a sense of how has given to the UO look at building and center names, honor rolls which are located in almost every building, and public art that is on campus. The only thing good about the guest lecturer was that he told us about some of the interesting projects that the Oregon Community Foundation.

Its week 10 now and the class has come to an end. Throughout this term I have shared a part of my life and I would like to wrap up the loose ends. I am done volunteering at Nearby Nature but plan to return in the fall for school visits. I am leaving for New York in 16 days for a camp councilor position at a nonprofit called Fresh Air Fund. I am so excited about New York. Its getting harder and harder to focus which is making it impossible to study for finals. Next year I will be entering my senior year, kind of. I am taking a fifth year which I am OK with. Next year I will be taking History of Rhetoric, Public Speaking as a Liberal Art, Nonprofit, French and bouldering. I look forward to all of my classes and will resume blogging for my Nonprofit class in the fall. Thank you Bob and Sarah for being the spark that ignited many long class debates and providing us with your infinite wisdom about the nonprofit sector. I hope you all have an amazing summer!