Hello World of blogging, or as we say it in Hawaii, Aloooooooooha!

My name is Cassidy Ventura and I am currently a Junior at the University of Oregon majoring in Environmental Studies and working towards a minor in Planning, Public Policy and Management. The United States and other countries of comparable measure have four sectors: the household sector, the government sector, the business sector, and the nonprofit sector. I created this blog as part of a requirement for a class that I am taking, PPPM280: Intro to the Nonprofit Sector, which is pretty obviously focused around the fourth sector of the U.S. I will be sharing my thoughts and reactions to the readings assigned in class as well as the material we cover in lecture, along with my general thoughts on the nonprofit sector in America and worldwide. I started a blog about five months ago but never got back to it, so this is my chance to test the waters in the world of blogging, but ill have more like a foot or leg in the water instead of just a toe.

Personally I have been involved in nonprofit organizations since the beginning of my high school career, in which it was a requirement for graduation to complete the minimum of 60 hours of community service. I went far beyond this requirement once I realized where my heart truly was grounded; in the environment. I started volunteering for Maui Dryland Restoration Group doing conservation work reforesting Auwahi, a native Hawaiian dryland forest on the leeward side of Haleakala. From there I received a paid internship through AmeriCorps where I continued my field work in Auwahi and was blessed with the opportunity to be apart of Hawaii's annual conservation conference where I confirmed the direction I wanted my life to lead in. Other nonprofit organizations I have been a part of include American Cancer Society where I have participated in Relay for Life, OSPIRG's chapter on the University of Oregon campus, OMAS' Student Leadership Team (SLT), and the ASUO Women's Center where I have volunteered and this school year work as an office assistant and on the Diversity Coordinators Team. Now I should point out however that I had no idea that I was in fact participating the nonprofit sector of America while partaking in these activities. To me, I was simply following my heart and interests.

This realization that I do in fact have quite a bit of experience in nonprofit organizations has not come to me until a few nights ago while reading through the first two chapters of Michael O'Neill's book Nonprofit Nation. To be honest I was quite shocked to learn about just how broad of a category nonprofits are and what a vast range of associations can be grouped into such. I had no idea what a large portion of our societies members work for nonprofits, and how much of our money actually comes from them. Once I started reading about the historical background of the creation of nonprofits in America this all made much more sense to me. With the birth of democratization, privatization, a developing economy, and religious activism came the birth of nonprofit associations. O'Neill states that one can trace human history as far back as when hunter and gathers first started to settle down and there were different social roles not being met that could be filled by associations of people grouping together and working toward a common goal for the benefit of the society. Any rapid social change throughout our history also called for the birth of new nonprofit organizations, and still do. Some of these include environmental and women's movements, anti-war and anti-racism movements, and equal rights for the LGBTQQI community. Once I had this piece of information, I realized just how large the nonprofit sector really is in America and other similar countries: realllly BIG! In O'Neills words this means "1.8 million registered and probably million of unregistered organizations, with annual revenue greater than the GDP of all but six nations, with more civilian employees than the federal government and fifty state governments combined, and with a place in virtually every American's life" (O'Neill, 33). The rest of the book was informative yet interesting at the same time as it is a topic I am obviously intrigued by. I am looking forward to the rest of the readings and lectures to go along with them, and can't wait to continue blogging :)