Group+2


 * Community Concern: **Mentoring for Orphans/Foster Children

Agency: Prokids

[] ** Rationale for Agency ** Foster care was a good choice for our group because we all come from loving homes with a stable family life. Not having parents to look up to is something none of us could truly fathom, but at the same time we understand this must create a void in any child’s life. Foster care is instrumental in any child’s life that doesn’t have parents because being in an orphanage for most of your life isn’t the most ideal situation. A good foster care home can be the foundation for a more successful life for many orphans. Although we understand there are statistics that show foster kids are more inclined to become criminals or stuck in poverty, it is this reason that we believe that they need our help and money the most. Prokids was a good selection for our group because we were looking for something smaller so that our money would count to the agency we gave it to. This is all in perspective though, because even though Prokids is a 1 million dollar organization, many other organizations we looked were up to 20 times bigger. We felt that if we gave our money to these much bigger organizations, the donation would not be as valuable to them as if we gave it to a smaller organization. A second thing we liked about Prokids is that one of its main goals in its mission statement is to find permanent homes for their kids. This was a very important fact in our decision making because we feel that it is crucial for a kid to stay in a permanent as well as a loving and caring home. Prokids also in the recovery process of the kids who were in a past situation of abuse or neglect. This is crucial in making sure that the kids are going to be okay in another home with other people. Prokids helps to make sure that these orphans find loving homes where they can grow and become young adults as well as making sure that these kids can overcome the past in order to pave the way for a better future. ProKids had a great distribution of money compared to many of the other organizations we had looked at. According to the BBB, ProKids spent 71% of its capital on programs and 21% on fundraising. Although this may not be ideal, it is very close to it because according to the American Institute of Philanthropy, this would yield an A- grade. We also understand that a little higher percentage of money going to fundraising isn't necessarily a bad thing because money spent on fundraising can also help raise awareness of the problem of child neglect and abuse. The BBB also told us that ProKids met all 20 standards to becoming a trusted charity. ProKids had a great website which intrigued us as a group. ProKids’ website was very useful because it contained many facts, stories, and ways to help. This website contained a whole sheet of facts that helped us better understand ProKids itself, and the overall problem of child neglect. One of the most important statistics we found was that approximately 98% of all cases where a CASA (court appointed special advocate) was used that the abuse of a child was stopped. The website showed actual stories of children that have been helped by ProKids. We thought this to be useful because it showed us specific examples of children being helped by our organization, thus making us more confident that our money raised will be put to helping kids just like the ones we saw on the website. Lastly, the website was helpful because it allowed for five different ways you could help out which is very useful so that the donor can have options in how they want to spend their money or time. ProKids has also been around for 28 years which shows that it is a stable organization that isn't going to wither away anytime soon. The BBB proved to be an important factor in our decision because it showed that ProKids has just recently updated their organizational information as of 2009 so we know that any information we use off of the BBB will be accurate. The combination of resources we used from our three main websites along with our group's passion to help vulnerable, young children find a permanent home really made this an obvious decision to go with ProKids. Also, with ProKids being around for so long and its recent update of capital information, as a group we are confident that what money we raise will not be wasted away. In our opinion, ProKids is a solid choice and we are looking forward to raising money for this organization so that we can feel like we were a part of the solution to helping put an end to the amount of kids that are without a home and the number of kids who have to go through neglect and abuse every day.