Week 8

     This blog is making me realize that I watch far too much TV, but Senate Bill 40 just reminded me of an American Greed episode I watched about, “The Baptist Foundation of Arizona.”  The Organization had to pay 159 million dollars in restitution after it offered its church members options to invest. The money invested by church members was totally miss managed as a result the organization used money from new investors to pay old investors and found itself pulling off one of the largest ponzie schemes in the history of Arizona. This is a great example of why it is so important to closely monitor and expose fraudulent charities like senate bill 90 claims, not everyone donates to get a tax ride off a lot of people invest their retirement in nonprofit investment groups and it is important to closely monitor the use of that money. Here is the, “case file,” that was on the CNBC website so you can watch videos all about these scammers. http://www.cnbc.com/id/19638084/?photo=2

I am an art minor so I am obviously all for funding of the arts; I love the emphasis on art in the Eugene community. Oh how I miss seeing the beautiful Chihuly sculpture lit up in the health center window and I feel so lucky to live so close to the Jordan Schnitzer, it is an amazing museum for a college campus and every time I go in there I always find something new I am impressed with. Speaking of which, if you have not seen the Chris Jordan exhibit you have to go, in my opinion it is one of the best exhibits they have had. The work comments on consumer culture especially trash, Chris Jordan came to speak on campus and he showed this moving video of dead Albatross bodies after their stomachs had exploded from eating so much trash out of the ocean. I probably should have shared this on the environmental week but I thought it was relevant because the video displays the importance of art and how it can make very meaningful comments about our culture. I know that it sounds really morbid but the photos are not that gory they are just really sad and it makes you realize what an awful effect trash has on wildlife. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbqJ6FLfaJc. Art education is very important to me, it hurts me to see that is often the first thing cut from schools when they are low on money and I think that it is really important for art related nonprofits to exist.  Art education is like a head fake, it allows us to learn things that we don’t necessarily know we are learning, and I think it essential to a well-rounded education. Youth speaks poetry slam is an example of the kind of head fake I am talking about. It allows students to express themselves and share their feelings with their peers. This kind of self expression gives children confidence, public speaking, and communication skills. It makes me happy to read that nonprofit art groups are generating lots of money, although this is not really what art is meant to do, in its essence, I think that this commoditization of art is sometimes essential to art staying relevant in a culture that often doesn’t emphasize its importance.

            Nonprofit organizations play such an important role in policy creation and advocacy for issues that are not addressed by policy. There are a lot of entities that are involved in policy creation but I think that nonprofit organizations are a unique resource in policy creation because many nonprofit organizations focus on specific issues that policy has already failed to address so they can provide a lot of information about how to improve policy to better incorporate these issues into policy. I thought that Sarah’s lecture in class today on how nonprofits contribute to the educational agenda was very relevant and a great example of why nonprofits play such an important role in policy creation. One example she gave was, The Common Core standards, which raise the standards for literacy and numeracy. She explained that The National Governors Association played a big role in the creation of these content standards and that they play a large role in creating a better curriculum nationwide. The standards aim to create a wider system of assessment for students and holds teachers accountable. The chapter in the book provided a lot of statistics that support the argument that nonprofits play a large role in issue advocacy and arts education as well.