OK, here goes! :)

For my first assignment, I searched through The Chronicle of Philanthropy's website, looking for an article that caught my attention. It was kind of overwhelming. I looked at several articles and wondered if each was too old or too short. The longer articles, which looked the most relevant, were all only available through a subscription. I might have to look into a subscription, if it's free, but for the mean time, I chose this article by Holly Hall on how the MDA's Labor Day telethon might be an indicator for other nonprofits on how much they can expect to raise this fall.

Here's the link:
http://philanthropy.com/blogPost/Labor-Day-Telethon-Offers/26753/

I'm hoping that it's not too short!

The title of the article is what jumped out at me. "Labor Day Telethon" immediately brought to mind Jerry Lewis and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. I've always loved the MDA ever since I saw Mattie Stepanek on TV for the first time. In years past, I've actually sat down and watched the telethon, hours at a time.

The author says that some fundraisers use the event to forecast the "crucial fund-raising season" which is about to start. I didn't know that there wa a crucial period for fund-raising. I guess it is logical, though, that nonprofits would want to focus on fund-raising in the months before the winter holidays, when people have less money to give away.

Seeing the overall amount of donations to the MDA decrease from last year's amount is a little disheartening, but after all, there is a recession going on. I know that the organization had trouble in the past, particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The telethon took place shortly after the hurricane, and donations to the MDA sort of took a backseat to relief efforts that year.

I hope that this doesn't affect contributions to some of my favorite charities too negatively. I am a big fan of many different charities, and, even when I can't contribute financially myself, I always try to encourage others to. Hopefully the economy will pick up soon so that charities will not miss out on important donations.



(I'll update the layout and colors of this old blog and make it prettier soon!)