CMST 340 Strategies of Persuasion

I am honored to be a part of the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project. While we were not able to experience the project in the same way we would if we were meeting face-to-face, I am proud to say that with the matching funds from the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, we still raised over $3,000 award to two deserving nonprofits.What better way to learn course content then to engage the material while at the same time giving back to those in need, especially in these unusual times?

Adapted from the Barracks Project website.

The Barracks Project’s mission is to serve and give back to current service members and newly reintegrating veterans.

Founded in 2016 to address veteran homelessness, the Barracks Project expanded with the help of volunteers and supporters to provide temporary housing, emergency financial assistance, food and clothing, care packages from home to deployed service members, and career assistance. With have no paid staff, 100 percent of the Barracks Project’s funds go to support those needs.

Adapted from A Kid Again’s website.

For twenty plus years, A Kid Again has helped to restore a sense of normal for families thrust into the situation of having to care for a child with a life-threatening illness. Often these families are unprepared and unequipped to deal with what follows.

A Kid Again hosts year-round events to support these families and provide them with memories that will last a lifetime. More than 200,000 people have been served since A Kid Again got started.

This class used the “matching model” of student philanthropy, which means students had to raise money to support their giving. Each dollar was matched up to a $1,000 by the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and anything above that was matched by a small donor pool maintained by NKU’s Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement. CMST 340 students raised $1,504. Matching funds doubled that.

Our funders often visit our classrooms to talk about the power of philanthropy. COVID-19 prevented physical visits late in the Spring 2020 semesters. What follows is a video clip from Greater Cincinnati Foundation’s Laura Menge on why philanthropy matter.

Professor Fox: When everything changed, we were ready for our nonprofits to come to campus to present. I switched the format to Zoom presentations, and instead of students presenting to each other afterward, I used discussion boards for arguments, and then students voted using Survey Monkey. If I had to do this again, I would make some tweaks. I still need to think through it. The personal touch was lost with Zoom.