Sue Chu

Capstone 7
Greene
31 October, 2017
Track Reflection
The first source is a book called Building Powerful Community Organizations and it is a
step-by-step guide about building and organizing groups for a cause. I picked this source because
I thought I would be able to gain more understanding about the technical side of how nonprofit
community organizations work. Instead, this book is more action oriented and not as informative
as I thought it would be. This book was a great help though as a guide on beginning the
organization of my Spring Actions so I read deeper into it. I read 11 chapters from the book
which is about 300 pages for four hours. It took this long because the book is a lot of pages and I
took detailed notes while reading the book.
Source C
MLA/APA/AMA Citation:
Brown, M. J. (2006). Building Powerful Community Organizations. Arlington,

MA: Long Haul.

Source Validation: This source is by Michael Jacoby Brown who has more than thirty
years of experience as a community organizer and trainer.
How did you find this source?: I found this source on Google Scholar and in the library.
Intended audience: The intended audience could be for anyone hoping to start and unite
together a cause and for people who want to build up an organization to be more
impactful or improve that organization. They can be community leaders, organization
leaders, government officials or anyone that wants to make change.
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: The book begins with defining a
community organization and its purpose which is to one, develop a sense of community
for its members and two, unite people to do something they cant change alone. A good
community project needs good organization, intuition, timing, strategy, and relationships
etc. all of which are discussed in individual chapters in the book. These characteristics are

not easily obtainable and has to be gained through experience and mistakes. The author
stresses that it is ok to make mistakes while transforming from an organizer to a builder.
Chapter two is the step by step building of an organization. First, an idea arises, then you
develop a vision, find your motivation, listen for advice, put your idea into writing,
develop a sponsoring community, then, bring together a leading group, and finally, draft
goals/ objectives and put them into action. An organizer must ask his/her partners to get
feedback on their project ideas and a core group should involve only about 10 to 15
people to be able to make decisions and manage effectively. Organizations must have
clear mission statements that are clear and concise. Goals are the prioritized long term
accomplishments and objectives are the set of specialized goals and measures to achieve
the long term goals. For donors, it is important to note that such goals and objectives for
an organization can change, so periodical reviews are necessary. The structure of an
organization can help enforce rules and accountabilities of members. The legal status of
an organization can be important for both organizers and donors. An evaluation of the
legal status should be number one on the list. It is also important to ensure the equality of
people in the membership, to make everyone feel heard, and to hold everyone
accountable. Another important aspect of this book is mobilizing resources through
raising money. Do not be embarrassed or feel guilty to ask for investments from private
parties. Grants for funding can also come from existing foundations and government
founding. However government funding can be unreliable and should not last more than
3-5 years.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to be
helpful in future writing:
You will make mistakes along the way that is to be expected. You can learn from
them.
Those closest to any change must be involved in the change in order for the
change to be effective.

 From 100 years of experience repeating the same patterns over and over again,
we can predict social consequences of any improvement project the less
involvement of those affected the less likely will be the implementable solution.
Microeconomics theory states that people maximize their economic self
interest.
501(c)(3) status to specific IRS code that guides nonprofit tax law exemption
from taxes also use other nonprofit as fiscal agent takes 5-15% for administrative
work.

My second source is a book called Giving is Not Just for the Very Rich and it is about
how an individual donor can make the biggest impact with their money and other donations. I
think this is helpful for my research because it talk about the ways an individual can make
donations without wasting. I finished this book which is 140 pages using three hours. It took this
long because I took detailed notes while reading. I also reviewed the sources cited in the
bibliography and the vocabulary terms in the glossary.
Source D
MLA/APA/AMA Citation:
Brown, M. J. (2006). Building Powerful Community Organizations. Arlington,
MA: Long Haul.
Source Validation: This book is written by Dr. Susan Aurelia Gitelson who has been the
President of International Consultants, Inc and the Co-Chair of the Deans Council of the
Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.
How did you find this source?: I found this source on Google Scholar and the library.
Intended audience: This book is mainly directed to large individual donors who want to
make a difference with their investments or donations.
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: The book first talks about the
benefits of philanthropy and describes the features and current state of American
philanthropy. There are many different ways a person can donate. First is wealthy donors

setting the stage for other donors. Such as Eli Broad and Bill Gates. With Bill Gates Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation works for global development (from agriculture, financial
service, water, sanitation to reducing poverty) and global health ( like fighting HIV/AIDs,
malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases). Other ways to donate either money or time is
through innovation, entrepreneurship, celebrity promotion, government partnership,
volunteering, and social media. To make sure you follow through with your donation, a
donor should choose a cause that he or she is passionate about. A donor can choose from
one out of these category to donate to: religious philanthropy, improving primary and
secondary education, higher education, finding cures, culture and humanities, sports,
umbrella organizations, and international aid. All of which are explained in detail with
specific examples in the book. Finally, choosing the right organization to donate to is also
an important process for the donor. The donor must first compare the quality of the
different organizations, then, search for scams and transparency, be sure that it is a
nonprofit eligible of tax exemptions. Donors should also keep written records of their
donations and keep their donations concentrated. Luckily there are many agencies around
to help with this process. In the end, the greatest impact can be made through passion and
commitment for a cause.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to be
helpful in future writing:
$300 billions per year goes to charitable causes which is about 2% of the GDP.
Individual giving came to 75% of the total philanthropy in 2009.
Watchdog agencies include: Charity Navigator, Better Business Bureau, Guide
Star, Great Nonprofit, The Independent Sector.
Multipurpose umbrella organizations or public society benefit organizations are
organizations with professionals in their fields that collect funds and redistribute
to many kinds of charity.

My last source is a scholarly article about the empirical analysis on the motives for
philanthropy. This is helpful for me to understand the incentives behind private donations and
how it make sense with social and economic theories. I spent an hour on a fifteen page article. It
took this long because I took notes during my reading. Also because this source was hard to
understand and the formulas it presented about altruism is largely theoretical. I spent a long time
trying to figure it out and still cant explain it in words.
Source E
MLA/APA/AMA Citation:
Andreoni, J. (1990). Impure altruism and donations to public goods: A theory of
warm-glow giving. The economic journal, 100(401), 464-477.
Source Validation: This source is by James Andreoni who is an economics professor at
the University of California published in the Economic Journal.
How did you find this source?: I found this source on Google Scholar.
Intended audience: The intended audience is for other economic scholars to review and
study the topic of the paper.
What arguments/topics does this source discuss?: The main topic of discussion is that
when a person donates there are several factors that influence their decision for a
donations other than true altruism. As it turns out, in theory, in a perfect world, a
government should crowd out voluntary gift dollars. As people always want to serve to
their own economic self interest, private social service organizations should be a logical
impossibility. Even though the motivation for donations can not be measured, the article,
however, analyzed the altruism of different income levels throughout society. Find that
altruism decreases with rising income until $100,000 after which it rises. The conclusions
made by this study is that people do not donate for altruistic purpose but rather they
donate for their own good. Another discovery is that altruism is defined with income for
all but the highest class.
Minimum 3 quotes, paraphrases, summaries of source text that seem likely to be
helpful in future writing:

 People are sometimes motivated by a desire to win prestige, respect, friendship,

and other social and psychological objectives.
Clear social pressure, guilt, sympathy, or simply a desire for a warm glow may
play important role in the decision of agents.
Degrees of altruism determine the effects of tax and subsidy policies, but the
absolute magnitude of altruism coefficient cannot be measure d with empirical
model.
Altruism level falls as income rises until income reached approximately
$100,000 or more and them altruism level rises. People with the income rates of
$50,000 - $100,000 are the least altruistic.