Meeting #3 w/ Alameda

We met with the staff of Alameda last week to see where they were in their Mural project. They have primed and preped the 3 walls that they are going to use for the mural, but are still in the design stage. They have put together some sketches for the mural but are now trying to piece it together the walls.
We discussed which artwork to use for the calendar and decided to take a different approach. Instead of solely being art from the mural project we decided to get as many students and their different pieces of art as we could put in the calendar. The students have already had several different projects so this way would give us plenty of artwork to work with. We will be going by the school over the next few weeks to check out the progress on the wall as well as decide on what pieces to use for the calendar. Stay tuned!!
4G S.A.K.E. out!

T-Shirt Sale

This past Thursday we posted up at the UTSA College of Business Building and sold t-shirts on behalf of Graffiti Foundation. We were trying to promote the newly designed Susan G. Komen t-shirt that Graffiti Foundation put together. We were selling those shirts for $25, in which 20 percent will go into the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Aside from those shirts we also cross-sold other Graffiti Foundation t-shirts that have been done in years past for $15 and shot glasses for $5. We only accepted cash and checks. While one may think that students don't walk around carrying cash nowadays, we made $300 over a four hour span (11am-3pm). We will be setting up again this coming Thursday and hope to sell even more merchandise....

Susan G. Komen

Flyer created for UTSA promotion

Alameda School or Art and Design update

We recently met with Alameda School of Art and Design, on behalf of Graffiti Foundation, and went over specifics. Mr. DeLuna is the teacher we are in contact with and his overall goal is to have his kids create individual pieces of art that will cover three walls of the school, creating a mural. We have offered to assist him in anyway possible. Moreover, Mr. DeLuna is in the process of introducing his pupils to what it takes to create a mural. He hopes that the students will pick a theme that will tie into the community. He estimates that the mural will not be done until the beginning of May. With that said, it has become apparent that this venture will continue on way past our final group presentation that is coming up, which is fine with all of us ( Kim, Erik, Stephen, Armando). We hope to solidify a strong relationship between the Alameda School of Art and Design and Graffiti Foundation. Aside from creating a calendar with the students artwork that will be used for the mural, it has been proposed to create a possible Graffiti Foundation chapter, which will be the first of it's kind. This will engage the teenage artists attending this school to start thinking about the future and art as a profession/business. Davin would love to see this chapter established and is very willing to oversee it once it gets started. We will be following up with Alameda school of Art and Design on April 15th. ....Good quote that was found; "If you care at all, you'll get some results. If you care enough, you'll get incredible results."-Jim Rohn

Spring Break - Friend or Foe

Well, Armando and I are sitting in the cafeteria before Entrepreneurship class and we started talking about what we did over the week of spring break. It turns out that neither of us did much other than work. Although it was nice to not have class, we feel like it's too much time to forget about the agenda and what tasks lie ahead. It has taken almost this whole week to get the "productivity ball" rolling again. Getting a wake up call from Dr. Leffel on Monday night was definetely what we needed. I really enjoyed the 2 videos that she played for the class. They really define the class. It's Entrepreneurship!! That means staying ahead of the curve! Try things that have never been done before! Who knows, maybe we stumble across something that could change who we are, how we live, how San Antonio lives, or maybe even how the WORLD lives. It took a couple of days for everything on Monday night to sink in, but the ball is rolling again and we WILL accomplish what our group set out to do. We've never seen such freedom to create WHAT we will be graded on. Sounds like a great challenge to really open some eyes and impress some folks. For Goodness S.A.K.E. out!

The Blue Sweater

Good afternoon,

Well we were all finally able to read are assigned book for the semester, The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz. As a group we enjoyed this book very well. It was a heart-felt story to say the least. Ms. Novogratz speaks of her experiences in Africa and how they shaped her into the person she is today. Her main goal was to find a way to fight through global poverty and encourage those to better themselves in order to better the communities they lived in. In this book, she tells the stories of two single women who attempt to start a bakery, survivors of the Rwandan genocide, and as entrepreneurs try to build some services for the needy against insurmountable odds.

What we loved about this story is that it is a true testament for those who chose to put up all faith, hope, and energy to a very significant part of their lives where others may have thought or said they would fail. Fact was, she did fail at times, but that did not hinder the preserverence and heart needed to achieve this challenging goal which stood before her. Basically, this is a book every entrepreneur or better yet, every person should read. This is a book that will and should hit close to home with any reader. This book is for those people who were told that it was too difficult to reach or put off that dream because they did not have the time to go after it.

Jacqueline Novogratz is truly an inspiration solely based on her trials and tribulations which resulted in the success she is today. She is now the CEO of Acumen fund which is a nonprofit organization which helps fund entrepreneurs in South Asia and East Africa who develop ways to provide affordable healthcare, energy, and even housing to those people in need. We all recommend this book to everyone who enjoys a great motivating and captivating story.

This story really puts things into perspective to all future endeavors from this point on. We hope that we will be able to keep things rolling in regard to Davin and the Grafitti Foundation. Our goal is to have things kicked into overdrive by the third week of March and get Davin that much closer to achieving his ultimate goal.

Till next week, we are 4 G S.A.K.E......

Meeting #3

Our team met with Davin this past Wednesday to solidify our game plan and approach on a group level. It was a great brain storming session of possible ideas for raising funds for the calendar instead reaching into our own pocket.

We want this calendar to be MORE than a calendar. We want to put dates of all the events that happen on a yearly basis in San Antonio to keep our community aware of what's going on. It will have up to 15 different artwork images submitted by students of the Alameda School. We are also looking into gaining funds by having advertising space on each page or a page of coupons and advertisement. We are trying to narrow down which way we want to go to get all the necessary funds.

Gettin the ball rolling

Today we met with Davin from Graffiti Foundation and the Henry Ford Academy Alameda School of Art and Design. Our meeting covered a new project the school wants to start and have done by the end of May. The project involves creating a student made mural on the school to bring the community together around art. We are trying to come up with a product to offset the costs of the mural as well as bring about funding and an annual project. The idea that we are leaning towards is creating a calender to sell. It will be made up of art submitted by the students of the academy. It will be sold at the school, art shows, UTSA, and through our own networking. Next step is putting together the logistics of the calender. Internet here we come!!

New Developments

Today we developed our team contract. Established specific guidelines that will help us move forward on this project's progress. Our team is a very experienced group, so this allows us to be very reassured in delegating responsibilities throughout this semester.

In more recent developments, we have spoken with the founder and CEO of Graffiti Foundation, Davin Gutierrez, who has proposed a new idea on developing a calendar. We plan to meet with him on Wednesday to go over the specifics on going forward with this product.

Tune in next week for further developments......

Graffiti Foudation

Today we met with CEO and founder Davin Guitierrez to discuss what can take Graffiti Foundation to the next level. We came up with a few ideas with events and tshirts. We narrowed down to about 3 ideas. One idea is to partner up with Susan B. Koman for breast cancer awareness. Another idea is to have an event at the Blue Star where we will showcase the artists. The third idea is to help fund and start a post juvenile program where we help artists use their talent in better ways. We should be coming to a decision by next week.

What is Social Enterprise

Wikipedia says:

Social enterprises are social mission driven organizations which apply market-based strategies to achieve a social purpose. The movement includes both non-profits that use business models to pursue their mission and for-profits whose primary purposes are social. Their aim – to accomplish targets that are social and or environmental as well as financial – is often referred to as the triple bottom line. Many commercial businesses would consider themselves to have social objectives, but social enterprises are distinctive because their social or environmental purpose remains central to their operation.

Rather than maximizing shareholder value, the main aim of social enterprises is to generate profit to further their social and or environmental goals. This can be accomplished through a variety of ways and depends on the structure of the social enterprise. The profit from a business could be used to support a social aim, such as funding the programming of a non-profit organization. Moreover, a business could accomplish its social aim through its operation by employing individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds or lending to micro-businesses that have difficulty in securing investment from mainstream lenders. ... ...