Social Ignition

Beyond the Blog

2011-12-08T10:45:00.001-08:00

Blogging is all well and good. Perhaps I'll keep it up if there are people who find this space useful. More importantly though is what we DO with the information, the conversation. So beyond this blog...

I pledge to continue to help business owners and non-profit organizations to effectively further their social missions.

Sexy Causes

2011-12-07T12:52:00.001-08:00

I've made a personal observation recently that I would love to have proven wrong. It is that certain causes that businesses, non-profits and individual donors support are more popular than others. I was recently told, "Its really important work... it just doesn't rev my engines." In fact, the work made this person sad. Who wants to work in the sad sector?

So when it comes to businesses publicly supporting a cause either through their operations or through separate philanthropic efforts, they don't want to be associated with the sad sector either. So they choose youth and education and breast cancer. Domestic poverty, mental illness and others are much more sad and therefore often don't get the attention they need. How can we up the appeal of the sad sector?

Social Responsibility of Business

2011-11-29T13:26:00.001-08:00

On Thanksgiving I flew to Toronto to present in a business case competition entailing sustainability as it pertains to the mining industry. While very thorough and direct attention has been paid to the environmental impacts of the business on the land and sea surrounding each mine site, there is a hole in the plan where they people plan should be. I could wax poetic about all the ways billion dollar mining companies could do better in this area, I think more important is this issue as an indicator of business as usual.

Perhaps as far back as the beginning of time, there have been organizations that exist solely for the purpose of helping mankind. Often this way the job of the church and when people began to be left out of that equation other groups were formed to help these people. Even businesses began to form in an effort of more efficiently filling the needs of people. But somewhere in the last century we got ahead of ourselves. The high we got from the excitement and efficiency led us to business in spite of the people. So business went into the business of growing to make more money to serve the "needs" of more people. Other groups dubbed non-profits or foundations came to lobby for or take care of the people businesses were leaving in their dust.

There are plenty of voices now shouting the inherent problems with letting business run parallel to caring for people. So this post need not be a space for that. This can be a place for inherent solutions though. In what ways can business exist to better the lives of people and serve their needs instead of relying on the non-profit sector to do the caring?

Thankful for the Ability to Give

2011-11-23T15:03:00.001-08:00

The feeling of thanksgiving is often downplayed in these modern days. It is glossed over by Christmas decorations already in stores. Football and turkey are certainly highlights. Even the parade is mostly cartoon balloons, teen heartthrobs and Rockettes as little Santa helpers.

Thanksgiving is about bringing together people you care about. Being thankful for their place in your life and the things we do have. Right before Christmas we think about all the things we want. But Thanksgiving reminds us what is important that we already have. For some its shelter, some its family and good friends, this season we could be lucky to have a job, and we need to stop and give thanks for those things. That we even have food on our table at all is a blessing and that we have the option to buy and eat it with our famlies. Other famlies around the world are not always blessed in this way and have very different things to be thankful for that we would most certainly take for granted.

I would like to give thanks for my ability to give so that those less fortunate may be more fortunate next year. I am able make my own choices that others, due to circumstance or underprivilege are not able to make. And thanks for my family that will be whole this year in presence or in heart. I can't be thankful enough for these gifts...

Keynotes from a Position of Change

2011-11-14T11:37:00.001-08:00

photo from vimeo.com

On Thursday, October 27th upwards of 3000 business students gathered at the Net Impact conference in Portland, OR. I was among them. As any conference does, it began with a keynote address. Lord Michael Hastings started off our weekend of learning and communing with a half-sentence. He started "The single greatest way to change the world is..." As the Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity at KPMG, Hastings has a unique perspective on how large firms can effect change on both macro and micro levels.

On a large scale, KPMG has adopted a position of leadership in environmental consciousness and sustainability. Globally, they can effect their clients' view on their environmental footprint. Hastings quoted an old proverb to illustrate this. "If we don't change our direction, we will end up where we are going."

To illustrate the support of KPMG on a micro level, Hastings shared a story of an associate who was traveling and had taken on the project of supporting the community that he had become a part of. The associate felt that now that he knew these children he could not go back to the rest of his life and leave them there in poverty and suffering. So he started a charitable organization that would help build infrastructure for education and healthcare. KPMG supports the efforts and passion of their employees and through them... communities throughout the world. This is a wonderful example that large organizations can follow.

On both the macro and micro levels, there are illustrations of all the work than can be done. As Hastings put it there is a condition necessary to for a sustainable society, that is "a social cohesion based on a common purpose". Put another way.. "if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

In closing he brought the statement for completion... "The greatest way to change the world is...overcoming cynicism." Cynicism obliterates hope and positivity. It destroys our soul, he said. Lord Hastings is right. At the very base of our efforts to come together as a country, a world, a planet is our common purpose. Only together can we expand out capacity to persist with change.

Traditional Model 501(c)3 - Living Yoga

2011-11-10T09:57:00.001-08:00

Crystal Mourlas and her former neighbors at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Oregon State are a big reason why Living Yoga exists. Listen to her tell you her story. Generally speaking, Living Yoga is a traditional 501(c)3. The organization earns its operating budget by fundraising and hosting events. Its standard Profit and Loss Statement is available publicly to illustrate this point.

Living Yoga is highly successful and thriving on this traditional model. What do you think are the key success factors for traditional fundraising 501(c)3s?

Service Club - Lions Club

2011-10-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

This past week I had the pleasure of being introduced to two very special non-profit organizations; the Lions Club and Living Yoga. Both are 501(c)3 organizations and rely heavily on volunteer manpower to get their missions accomplished. Today I want to dive a bit into the Lions Club. (More on Living Yoga another day.)

The Lions Club is just that; a club. A service club where community members are invited to join by other members, are initiated, pay dues and volunteer for the many programs under the "humanitarian" umbrella. Most of their work is done in the name of their primary mission to provide sight through vision screening, eye banks, and eye-glass recycling. In short, the Lions Club is doing significant work to support the world's population and each person's inevitable struggle with the vital sense of sight.

These programs are funded by the Lions Club Foundation. On their website, they bold the following statement for emphasis: 100 percent of every donation to the Foundation goes to our projects; all administrative costs are paid through interest earned on investments. LCIF receives no part of club dues.
It goes on to say, in summary, that LCI projects are funded by grants and other fundraising. Given the current state of world financial markets, what confidence do we have that this model can continue?

An aging population without the financial security they once enjoyed means more people in need of Lions' services and less money to contribute. This will likely increase the clubs reliance on grant funding which, depending on the sources, could also be strained. In the 2010-11 fiscal year, the Lions Club was awarded 519 grants totaling in excess of $38.6 million.

It is also interesting to note the Top 10 Contributing Districts, again per their website, are all in Japan, India, Korea, and Taiwan. The United States is only represented in our contributions on the Contributions Per Capita list. This is thanks only to a district in New Jersey. Fascinating from an organization started by Chicago businessmen, no?

Five years from their 100th anniversary, the Lions Club looks very different than it did then. But their mission of giving sight, supporting youth and disaster relief remains intact. What do the next 10, 50, to 100 years look like in America for such vital social service organizations?

Social Ignition via Food - Blog Action Day 2011

2011-10-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

Over the course of its time on the interwebs, this blog will be a place to explore those better ways. There isn't just one right way, so lets dig in...

In honor of Blog Action Day, we can start our work with two prime examples. Both DC Central Kitchen in Washington, D.C. and FareStart in Seattle, WA have opened successful revenue generating arms to their social missions. On opposite sides of the country, each trains people in food service techniques along with the softer skills of accountability and self-worth. Through catering (DC) and restaurant (Seattle) services, they are able to generate revenue to support their educational programming. In his book, Begging for Change, Robert Egger reinforces the notion that the traditional fundraising model of non-profits is not sustainable. Due to these addition revenue sources, DC Central Kitchen and FareStart make an impact on present and future students that measure for beyond the time they spend in the kitchen and serving customers.

Start your engines.

2011-10-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

There are over one and a half million registered non-profits in the United States. These organizations, along with state and federal governments, are responsible for everything from arts education to our zoos. We rely on these organizations to educate our children, find cures for cancer, and support us when we are old or cannot care for ourselves. The trouble is as economic times get tough the ways that non-profits have been funded no longer supports their mission. Organizations are left to the equivalent of pan-handling, known as fundraising, when government grants are dwindling due to low tax revenue due to high unemployment. These programs are capable of saving lives and changing the trajectory of communities, yet they are dependent on hand-outs to run their operations. There is a better way...