By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
A BGSU class project aims to put $1,000 into the bank account of a local nonprofit.
Earlier this month students in the sent out 450 letters seeking sponsors to help fund the project.
The letter stated: “We hope to fund an organization that seeks to make Bowling Green safer, more inclusive, and more equitable place for all those who call it home.”
The letter, like just about everything associated with the project, is the work of the 20 students – five graduate students and 15 undergraduates – in the class.
“I was really impressed with the enthusiasm of students, blown away,” Professor Abhishek Bhati said. “They are so motivated and went way ahead of what I expected.”
That included the time they spent crafting the letter and then setting up a website for the project. “They have gone well beyond what they needed just to be professional and do high quality work,” he said.
The deadline for organizations to apply for funds is March 28. Click for more information on applying or donating.
The course is the third and final required course in the university’s new Nonprofit Administration Minor in the Department of Political Science.
The minor was created because so many students are interested in working for nonprofit organizations, or understanding the nonprofit sector.
Kayla Strause, a communications major, is one of those students. The senior said when she first enrolled at BGSU Firelands she was “sad because there was neither a nonprofit major nor minor.”
She started the minor as soon as it was offered. Strause, who is now studying at the Bowling Green campus, is one of the program officers.
Her interest in community service work goes back to her childhood in Bellevue when she would tag along with her grandmother who was an active volunteer in nursing homes.
As one of the first students going through the program, she’s seen it take shape.
This is the first time the course, the final class in the three-course sequence, is being offered.
It was Bhati who suggested that the course focus on fundraising. “Everyone was support excited about it,” Strause said. “That’s one of the main skills you need to work in a nonprofit.”
That involved writing the letter seeking donations and sending out requests for proposals from nonprofits, and then evaluating the proposals and deciding who gets the money.
Bhati said one application has been received and the funds are already coming in. The project may actually have more money to give out. How that’s done, as with everything else, will be determined by the students.
They do everything very democratically, making decisions by a two-thirds vote, he said.
“He definitely listens to us and our ideas,” Strause said. And that’s helping how the course will be taught in the future.
Strause said the course is providing the students experience they’ll need after they graduate.
She wants to work with a community foundation.
Among the decisions students made was what to call the project. Bhati was impressed when they came up with the name From Students, for Community. “I found that very revealing.”
“I think students feel very much part of the community of Bowling Green,” he said, “and they really want help the community, to be part of the community. I feel students really care about BG.”
They want to help bring more ideas into the community, and help it foster diversity, Bhati said. “The students are really the heroes in this.”
