Maggie

This week we really focused on how we make informed decisions about how we will give away our money. The readings, practice interviews and the guest speakers helped us focus on our priorities and how we determine potential organizations.

The practice interviews compelled me to reevaluate what I thought the class as a whole was looking for in an organization and specifically what we wanted to learn from them. How could we ask questions that allow us to establish a connection with the interviewee and obtain sufficient information about their work to ensure we are able to find a proper fit? I believe it was apparent that as a class we wanted the interview to transpire more like a conversation than an interrogation. Watching the three groups interview “Jane Addams” really helped to expose some of the flaws in different techniques, as well as, some great questions that can potentially reveal a lot about the organizations.

The guest speakers provided us with a lot of input on the process of determining the right organization to receive the grant. One important point that was made, emphasized the fact that we don’t know everything, and we can potentially learn a lot from the different organizations we consider as long as we keep an open mind. Another point broached the idea that giving a grant is establishing a partnership, which consequently means that we are not greater or more important than those applying for the grant. There are a lot of worthy organizations doing good work, we are simply trying to find one that coincides with our goals and will partner successfully with us. One approach to finding the right partnership that was discussed asserted that determining the right organization required a combination of gut instincts and hard data. I think this is an important point to remember when doing the interviews and site visits, that there are crucial aspects beyond the facts we are given that need to be taken into consideration.

I am excited about moving forward to interacting with the different organizations. To discover how exactly we will determine the best fit for us, as well as how we will manage to overcome differences in opinion.