By Tim Cogley

     Homelessness, poverty, starvation, disease, genocide, mental health, cancer foundations, local community development, environmental protection and sustainability, and the list goes on…. And that’s just organizations that were represented at the Civic Engagement Fair. So, here I am trying to decide which one of these crucial issues I should advocate for and I could only draw one conclusion: 

The world is a mess, now more than ever.

     Nations are struggling to survive, being crushed by enormous debts, natural disasters, and political reforms. We as American’s feel the pinch but will never be able to comprehend the true meaning of the word “struggle.” In a world of such chaos, it’s hard to put all of one’s focus on one, specific topic. After all, for the one cause you fight for there’s a myriad of others being ignored. So the question is: How can we, as individuals make the most impact on our local society? Well, I’ve looked into several programs that spread their focus and one in particular caught my attention.        

     The Collins Center for Public Policy is a very unique non-profit organization that focuses on a wide variety of critical issues facing the state of Florida. They seem to be proudly, self-defined as a “Think Tank with Muddy Boots.” Empowerment through education and experimentation seems to be the theme of the organization. Tackling a wide range of issues ranging from political turmoil (think 2000 elections, yeah), boycotts, systematic civil engineering, reforms in government, disaster relief funds, renewable energy and sustainability, and overall education for the masses.

            Their effectiveness has been proven by the outcomes of their work.

(Examples of their accomplishments are on their website)

     The thing I like most about this organization is that it actively pushes for reform in local governments and, frankly, just takes care of business. They educate politicians, CEOs, and local leaders through hard evidence of the effectiveness of programs that they have piloted. Pretty much saying, “Hey, if we do this it will make things better. See, here’s community A before the program and here’s community A after the program was implemented,” thus proving the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of proposed solutions to critical issues.

     I believe that education is the most important aspect of any non-profit organization. If the organization fails to educate the population about their issue, how can they hope to gain any funding? With that being said, I believe that The Collins Center is the best medium for obtaining that education because of the way they approach such critical issues within our community.

     We have all been brainstorming the past week or so about what organization we think could make the most impact, or even new ways of improving our society. Isn’t it important to further evaluate the effectiveness of such programs? Sure, we can gather information about organizations through staff interviews and such but they automatically will have a bias. Efficiency through evaluation is a very critical concept, especially in today’s economy when resources are a scarcer than ever.

     That’s why I propose that the five thousand dollar grant be given to The Collins Center to assist in their evaluations and pilot programs. With these funds, the center can develop experimental programs to help alleviate the homeless’ struggle, inspire greener innovations, assist with the mentally ill, and the performance/effectiveness of NPOs already established in the community.

     This will give us, as a community, the facts and allow us to re-evaluate the way we try and tackle some of the critical issues in our community. Donating money and man-hours to an organization that is essentially failing is just as bad, if not worse, than doing nothing at all. Motivated individuals wasting time at a certain organization could be volunteering with organizations that have proven results.

     Information is our best tool in philanthropy. The experiments and data that The Collins Center is obtaining through its pilot programs is essential. The best way to attract volunteers or political action is to lay all the facts in front of them and show how a certain program can solve problems, getting the job done. I’ve noticed that a popular way for non-profit organizations to gain members is by playing on the heartstrings of potential volunteers. That works, to an extent, but a lot of people need facts and numbers before dedicating themselves to something.

     Choosing a charity/organization to dedicate time or money to is a big decision, and no one likes to make big decisions when they are ill-informed. This leads to inaction, which is the biggest problem facing all non-profits (either through the failure to gain manpower or monetary funds). The Collins Center establishes facts, proof of the worth of organizations and action plans. Therefore helping to eliminate inaction, whether it be from politicians, community leaders, or students like you and me.

Lack of information/

“proof” of effectiveness --->  Inaction by citizens/ ---> Struggling NPOs--->No resolution to --->  Repeat                                                                 politicians                                             Social problems

How Collins Center can help:

Provide information/  ---> Calls for action by --->Beefed up NPOs ---> Resolves problems effectively ---> Repeat

Proof of effectiveness      citizens/ politicians    ($$ and volunteers)          and the most efficiently

     It makes sense to me that if we help The Collins Center to test the effectiveness of philanthropical programs; we are essentially assisting in a variety of organizations, indirectly though it may be. So how can we possibly make the most impact? Simple, educate ourselves and the community, push for political action, and inspire action through information by assisting The Collins Center.

Hey Tim-

Your Empowerment through Education WTE has taught me a lot about the effectiveness of one organization (The Collins Center). I think that by learning about what this particular non-profit organization does, it can help us to better define what areas we want to target. If I could offer any advice for this piece it would be to elaborate on the issues pinellas & or tampa is facing considering homelessness, politics, reforms, etc. so that your audience understands why it is so important that organizations like the Collins Center exist. You do a great job in describing the work that the collins center does and why it is so effective. -ALY B :D

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Hi Tim, I read your piece and re-read it with the WTE rubric in mind.  Overall, I like the ideas you present of advancing an organization that works on tried and true problems with innovative strategies (we ain't solving these problems with the failed ideas we keep trying)  You even stirred up some ideas to help improve my essay - thanks!    With the WTE rubric in mind, you're there with the audience, focus, and sense of purpose.  However, there are gaps you missed in the rubric.  You may want to pay attention to the range of your subject and the various perspectives you present.  Look at the issue from more than one angle.  Perhaps you can explore the tactics of government agencies, typical NPOs, and then orgs like the Collins Center when dealing with the harder problems we face.  How does eacg fare when trying to solve problems.  Compare and contrast the pros and cons of each group.  That would strength the rubric requirements of being inquisitive, expansive coverage of the subject, and representing a diversity of views.  Adding this research will also strengthen some of your statements which make sense and seem true but are ultimately unsubstantiated.

Once you flesh out those ideas, work on transitions between your ideas so it flows smoother.  Perhaps add headings like Prof Conners suggested in Thursday class to better demonstrate your points (props if you can make the Table of Content link to your headings :-)  Perhaps add annotations or abstracts to your portfolio links to, again, help your reader follow your train of thought and elicit more exploration of your reader.

Overall, I like where you're headed.  I'm not the prof but, I think you have a bit of work to hit all marks on the rubric.  Good news is you have a good starting point.  Feel free to email me when you revise and want some more feedback or just a sentence-level edit and pass: jay.boda@gmail.com .  Cheers, buddy.  ~ Jay

Tim, I read/skimmed your final draft, and I LOVED the diction in the first couple paragraphs. “Struggling”, “Crushing” – they paint solid images of tough times in my head and engage the reader, and prompts them to continue reading. The problem I noticed in your essay is you tend to repeat “The Collins Center deserves this….” “The Collins Center helps this…”, and after a bit it gets annoying and the reader may detach.  Try to mix it up. I would be interested in knowing some statistics of how the Collins Center has helped solve some issues in Florida.

One of the first responses I had was to your statement, “Sure, we can gather information about organizations through staff interviews and such but they automatically will have a bias” – Well duh they are going to have a bias view! They believe in their cause and want to change what they set out to do. A good interview would make obvious if a nonprofit is helping the community as they say they are. You ask “what is your goal?”, “how have you achieved your goal thus far?”, and “what plans do you have to further achieve your goals?”, “do you have records of what you have improved?”, “Why do YOU believe in this?” etc. You ask these questions to multiple employees, and you will get a feel of what the organization is really about. -Andrea Inman

Tim, reading what you wrote especially at the beginning how you specify the problem really caught my attention. The way you let us know exactly what the Collins Center does actually makes your whole draft. You have a really good thing going here, especially the part about the funding. The audience wants to know exactly where this money is going to and what this non-profit does. The fact that you also have a breakdown of the processes that will take in this organization is truly great. I think that using specific quotes from this non-profit, from either people who they have helped or who help there might give this essay a little more of an edge!-Estefi