My Year of Hopefulness - Learning to Love Through the Particular

"The love of humanity is a noble sentiment, but most of the time we live our lives by smaller solidarities. We learn to love humanity not in general, but through its particular expressions." ~ Montesquieu

Michael Sandel used this quote by Montesquieu in one of his recent lectures on Justice. I spend a lot of time being of use to people I don't know, many of whom I'll never meet, many of whom I'll never even know by name. They are the people I help through my volunteer work, who come across this blog though never reach out to me directly, people who are helped by the nonprofits I donate money to.

I learned to care about the hungry because when I was a kid, I knew what it felt like to be hungry. I learned to write some inspiring words because the inspiring words of so many other writers helped me when I really needed to hear words of encouragement. I learned how important alumni donations are because some alumni helped me receive financial aid through their own charitable contributions; their donations helped me get the education that changed the course of my life so now I donate to my schools so that others like me can receive the help they need. I learned to love children because of my niece, Lorelei, and I learned to love people in general because of how much I love my own family and friends. My particular circumstances shaped how I look at the world as a whole.

This holiday, I wanted to do something special for some people close to me, and in honor of those people, I wanted to do something special for others that I don't know personally. I bought individual Christmas cards for my relatives. After a few recent passings in my family, I realized that I had no more need for a box of Christmas cards. I only needed a handful. I teared up a little in the greeting card aisle and then smiled as I picked out individual cards for my aunties, uncles, and cousins. I packed up a great big box for my immediate family filled with all kinds of goodies - some shared and some individual ones. For New Year's, I'll be having a little party in Florida for some of my very favorite friends. I am so happy to be able to do special things for people I really love.

And for the long-term impact: I have always bought Sebastian, our wonderful family dog, a present for Christmas. This is our first holiday without him, so in his honor I donated to the ASPCA. This week I received a magazine in the mail from Heifer International. It told the stories of the many people that they have helped to reach sufficiency. The stories were so moving that for the first time, I donated to their organization, asking that my contribution be put toward their honey bee program. The hives that my money will provide to several needy families have the ability to turn around an entire village in a very short period of time. So many people helped my family when we really needed the help, and this is a way to pay that kindness forward. It feels good to spread the wealth, to return so many of the favors that I've received over my lifetime.

This Christmas I've enjoyed spending a little time reflecting on my own particular circumstances. I've been thinking about the times when I really needed help, and who helped me, and how. And now that I've come through some tough situations, I want to help someone else, equally in need, whose needs I can identify with. I do believe that the Universe helps those who help themselves, and I also believe that every once in a while the Universe could use a little help and by being that help, we find that our own riches grow.

My Year of Hopefulness - M.S. 223 One Year Later

"A writer - someone who is enormously taken by things anyone else would walk by." ~ a quote found in the hallways on M.S. 223

Today I went to M.S. 223 in the South Bronx with Junior Achievement. It has been a year almost to the day that I first visited that school. One year later, I still felt excited and nervous, prepared and completely unprepared. My work with the organization, and others like it, make me feel more useful and alive than I feel anywhere else. Teaching is hard work - perhaps the hardest work I've ever done because it requires me to draw on every skill I have and then some. Every time I stand in front of a class, I learn something new about myself and about the world.

We spent the morning talking about international trade - how it works and its impact on our everyday lives. In one topic, we covered math, politics, economics, diplomacy, contract negotiations, sociology, and psychology. We didn't even get to the prescribed activities because the students had so many questions, insights, and concerns. As usual, I had to summon my improvisation skills early and often.

When we talked about product imports and legal stipulations that often impact those imports, some students brought up a topic I was not at all expecting: guns. They knew about licensing, having a warrant to search a house, the relationships between the police and people in a community, and the damage that guns cause. They asked me about laws governing guns, in the U.S. and abroad, their sale, purchase, and sadly, their use in neighborhoods in New York City. It was a tough conversation - this is the reality of an inner-city middle school student.

After lunch, they were wound up. We reviewed the activities in their workbooks. Some were engaged, and some were not. Most couldn't seem to sit still or focus or listen to one another. For the first time in a classroom I began to see the split between students who really embraced learning and those who did not, and I got very worried. I couldn't leave some behind and feel good about the day. I had to find a way to bring them all with me. What I was doing wasn't working and so for the last activity, we turned to the tool I love best - a blank sheet of paper.

On the back of their workbooks, I had them design and describe a product they would like to make and sell.

"How much money do we have?" they asked.

"Unlimited," I responded.

"How do I make something?" they asked.

"Think of something in your life that you want to fix and develop a product or service that fixes it," I said.

"Anything?" they asked.

"Yes, anything you want," I replied.

The floodgates were open. Even the most disruptive students had a rush of ideas: a global communication device that translates your voice to another language so communication with others is easier across the globe; a machine that cures every disease known to man; a pocket-sized screen connected to a home security camera. There was no shortage of creativity in that room and I was able to relate what I do every day at work to what these students were doing in this exercise.

"You get paid to make things?" one student asked.

"I do," I replied.

"Wow, you're lucky," another one said.

"It's not about luck," I said. "It's about deciding to get a certain skill set and then working hard. You could do it, too."

They raised their eyebrows as if to say, "Really?"

Our class ended in a rush and before I knew it, silence filled the classroom. Off they went out into the world, to circumstances that are more difficult than most people can ever imagine. I worry about them all the time. I'd like to think that years from now, one of them will create a product or service because of our 45 minute lesson on product development. Maybe it inspired a small dream that someday becomes a reality for one of them.

This is the most curious thing about teaching: you plant seeds with nothing but love and faith, hoping that somewhere down the line something you said resonates with someone, inspires them, encourages them, gives them a reason to believe.

My Year of Hopefulness - How a Dime Makes a Difference with a FEED 100 Bag

I arrived home last night to my ordinary neighborhood after a mostly ordinary day at the office. I walked down a few blocks to Whole Foods with the intention of picking up dinner and going back to my apartment to watch NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams – one of my favorite weeknight activities. (Nerdy, I know. I can’t help it. I’m addicted to the news, and I love the “Making a Difference” segment.)

After filling up my little basket, I headed to the cash register where the woman who was ringing up my groceries asked if I’d like to buy a FEED 100 Bag, a reusable shopping bag made from 100% organic cotton and sustainable burlap. Hmmm…I had seen these before though wasn’t totally sure what the deal was. They used to be $30. They’re now $10, and wait until you hear what they do!

For $10, you provide 100 hungry children in Rwanda with a nutritious school meal through the UN World Food Program (WFP). A single dime per child. 400,000,000 children go to bed every night hungry. And that pain of hunger is devastating. I know first hand. When I was a kid, we struggled financially and my brother, sister, and I often went to bed hungry, and scared, and feeling alone. We had free and reduced-price lunch for most of my childhood and I can guarantee that this program was one of the huge blessings that saved me. Literally. With that meal, I was able to pay more attention to my studies, which earned me good grades, which helped me to go college and graduate school, which helped me build a good, successful life.

A lot of people look at school statistics like “75% of children at this school receive free lunch” and see it as just that – a statistic. A number on an Excel spreadsheet. When I see these numbers, I see me, and my brother, and my sister, and a lot of people in my hometown who grew up just like us. This tiny contribution of $10 makes a difference, I assure you.

I arrived home from an ordinary day and I had the opportunity to do something extraordinary. A very small act that will make a very big difference. I helped 100 kids around the world have a chance to follow in my same path to happier, healthier days. You can, too. FEED 100 Bags are available at Whole Foods nationwide.

My Year of Hopefulness - Women in Need

Yesterday I participated in an event at work as part of my women's networking group. We provided workshops, some career coaching, and a healthy dose of encouragement to women who are in homeless shelters, unemployed, and who need a hand up in life. My networking group goes by the acronym WIN (Women's Integration Network).

I had volunteered to have a 1-on-1 lunch with one of the women who were visiting our office for the day. I was paired up with a woman who had an 11 year old daughter. Married, both she and her husband have been unemployed for some time. No college education, with a goal of being a social worker. We were joined by another woman who didn't have a lunch buddy. She had an 11 year old brother she was taking care of as well as a 1 year old daughter. She lives in a homeless shelter and began taking care of her brother after her mother had a nervous break-down. The father of her child is incarcerated, out of the picture. She hasn't had work in a while either, citing affordable and hard-to-come-by childcare as a major obstacle. She wants to go to school to be a nurse. Both are 25 years old.

What was I going to say to these women? How could I relate? How could I even begin to understand how difficult it is for them to just get up out of bed in the morning?

And then one of the women, the one who wants to be a nurse, said to me "Your name tag - you're from Women in Need." (Women In Need is the community group they belong to that helps these women find jobs, get money for school, and provides emotional support.)

"No, I work here in this office building," I replied.

"But your name tag says - WIN. That stands for Women in Need."

"Oh! That's also the acronym for our internal networking group here at this company. It stands for Women's Integration Network."

And with that simple revelation, I realized these women were not very different from me at all. My mom raised by sister, brother, and I on her own, no college education. We struggled with food and housing and health insurance. We had trouble keeping the lights and the heat on. Though that was many years ago, it's still there in me. All of it. I remember being hungry and afraid and hopeless. I remember having dreams that seemed unlikely, foolish, and impossibly out of reach.

I told them about putting myself through school twice, about my mom, about the role of education in my life and the advantages it provided to me. I smiled and laughed and asked them about their kids and their daily lives. I listened to them talk about their frustrations and hopes. And all it took was time - that's all it cost it me.

Through that lunch, I realized that there is a lot I can offer in these tough times, a lot of people I can help to live happier, healthier, more successful lives. And it doesn't involve any kind of extraordinary act. All it takes is me sitting down with people who are down and out, and telling them about my life and how I made it better, how so many people helped me along the way.

It's really just a way to pay forward all the blessings I have been fortunate enough to encounter. The people who helped me (my mom, my teachers, guidance counselors, some of my bosses, friends, authors, speakers, and the list goes on) were angels, and without them I am certain that I would have failed. This current recession provides us with an incredible opportunity to give and participate. It gives us a chance to repay the kindnesses we've witnessed.

My Year of Hopefulness - Hugh Jackman, Twitter, and Charity

Here is an encouraging way of using Twitter. I support the charity God's Love We Deliver through my volunteer work. I belong to the organization's Facebook page and they sent me the message below.

If you have a favorite charity that you'd like to promote, let Hugh Jackman know why he should make a $100K donation to your charity in 140 characters or less.

"Hugh Jackman (star of stage and screen) is hosting a $100,000 Twitter charity competition. He wants people who have Twitter accounts to message him a 140 character reason about why he should donate to the non-profit organization of your choice.

He wrote: "I will donate 100K to one individual’s favorite non profit organization. Of course,you must convince me why by using 140 characters or less."

If you have a moment and a Twitter account, please click the link below and then the arrow underneath the star on the Twitter page. The more clever and moving a reason for him to donate to God's Love, the better chance we will have to win!

Here is the link:

http://twitter.com/RealHughJackman/status/1519899038"

My Year of Hopefulness - Live United

Today I completed the Linkages Program, a training and placement program for future board of directors hosted by the United Way of New York. I've worked in the nonprofit sector off and on in my career, and I've been a volunteer at a variety of nonprofits my whole life. I went to the training thinking I knew everything there was to know about how nonprofits operate. I was wrong - from the moment I cracked open my training manual, I discovered that I had a lot to learn when it comes to nonprofit boards.

It's a testament to the United Way, and to my employer who paid for my attendance in the training program, that they recognize that most people, no matter how deeply involved they are in nonprofit work, don't really understand the ins and out of board operations. A weak board makes for a weak organization, and the United Way has stepped in to change that. In 2004, they conducted a study and of the surveyed Executive Directors: 45% planned to retire within 5 years, 57% had no professional development program within their organizations, and 68% ran organizations with no succession plans. New York City's nonprofits, and all of the vital services they provide to so many in this city, were in trouble.

In just 5 short years, the United Way is turning the tide. I was thoroughly impressed with the incredibly high caliber of the people in my class. Passionate, concerned, committed. We are willing to put our resources of time and money on the line to improve New York's nonprofits and the United Way is helping us succeed. We are ready, willing, and able to stand up and be counted.

Call it the Obama effect. Call it people wanting to find fulfillment in a time when so many feel down-trodden by the state of the economy. Call it the responsibility that comes with being extremely fortunate in a time when so many others face misfortune. I call it hope.

NY Business Strategies Examiner: Social Entrepreneurship: God's Love We Deliver - 10,000,000 meals and counting

Last Fall, I volunteered at a disorganized event for a nonprofit. I was griping to one of the other volunteers and she told me about a nonprofit that she works with that runs like a well-oiled machine: God's Love We Deliver (GLWD).

For the full article, please click NY Business Strategies Examiner: Social Entrepreneurship: God's Love We Deliver - 10,000,000 meals and counting

Hopelab on Examiner.com

I just kicked off my week-long series on Examiner.com of the use of video games in non-traditional gaming markets. First up: Hopelab, a nonprofit that uses video games to help young help fight chronic illnesses and live healthier lives. Check it out at: http://www.examiner.com/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m2d1-Hopelab-video-game-takes-on-cancer

My Year of Hopefulness - More Teaching with Junior Achievement

There are few days that I felt as nervous as I did teaching my Junior Achievement class in the South Bronx. It was the first Friday of December 2008 and I received the day off from work to teach Economics to 7th graders at Middle School (MS) 223. This school is just down the street from St. Anne's, the church featured in Jonathan Kozol's books describing the Mott Haven neighborhood. Mott Haven is one of the most violent, drug addicted areas of this country. It is ground zero for the war on poverty. 

In MS 223, I felt like I was making a difference to kids who needed role models but what struck me so suddenly was that those kids and teachers had a tremendous impact on me. 20 minutes away by subway from my safe, beautiful Upper West Side neighborhood I found a completely different New York. Many of the students I met that day have never been outside of their own neighborhood. They know that there is something more to the world than the South Bronx but they don't know if they'll ever get to see it save for watching it on TV. That one cold day in December changed the way that I looked at this city, and it changed the way I saw my life playing out. 

I was thrilled to get an email at work today from Junior Achievement about an opportunity to teach Corporate Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility at the High School of Economics and Finance. While not in the South Bronx, it's a subject matter that is very dear to me because of my link to the nonprofit world. It's steps away from my office building and for an hour a week for seven weeks this Spring, I will get to teach high school students about a subject that I am passionate about. It's opportunities like this that really make a difference - as much to my life as to the lives of the children I'm teaching. It's this sharing of knowledge, and the recognition in someone else's eyes that something you just said clicked for them, that makes our days worthwhile.     

My Year of Hopefulness - United Way Linkages Program

I have had the great fortune to move easily back and forth between the nonprofit and private sectors. I started out in nonprofit just after I finished undergrad, then went to the private sector for a few years, back to nonprofit, then to business school, and back to the private sector. This movement between the two sectors has been a great source of strength for me. Firsthand, I have been able to see how the two inform one another, and I learned that while many people draw a hard line between nonprofit and the private sector, it's unnecessary. The skills, competencies, and structures are so similar it is sometimes tough to tell one from another. 

This ability to draw the connection between the two was the strength I pointed to in my United Way Linkages application. The United Way Linkages Program trains prospective nonprofit board members and then serves as a matchmaker between members of the program and nonprofit board of United Way charities. I was thrilled to learn today that I was accepted into the program and begin my training at the end of February. 

This is one more stop on the train that is leading me to start my own business based in the nonprofit world as part of the growing number of entrepreneurs who are looking toward social entrepreneurship. This is the last piece I need to close the loop - I have worked at nonprofits, large corporations, and small companies, though don't have any board experience. This training will help me to begin to fill that gap. Another bonus is that it will be a good networking opportunity for me and I will meet other, like-minded business people with this same interest of serving on a nonprofit board. 

In a week when Wall Street and Main Street announced thousands of layoffs, plunging earnings, and more doom to come, this news today about the Linkages Program helped me lift up my eyes and see what's out beyond the horizon. It helped me to look my future right in the eye and smile. 

Just Begin

I marvel at how much time it takes people (and I am as guilty of this as anyone) to get going on a new idea. Have we done enough research? Have we thought through every possible scenario? Do we have enough money? What if it doesn’t work out? These are only a handful of questions we might ask ourselves as we consider a new venture, relationship, job, or even a hobby. How do I even know where to start? As Mary Poppins said, “Start at the very beginning.”

To this end, I have two things I’d really like to accomplish in my career this year: I’d like to become more familiar with the social entrepreneurship field and I’d like to get my writing out to a wider audience. Today, my first blog post on a site other than this blog is being published. I joined the blogging team at the Literacy ‘n’ Poverty Project, an organization that promotes literacy and adult education as tools to fight poverty and promote social change. I’ll be publishing on their site twice per month and my writing will focus on social change and poverty alleviation efforts.

To get involved, visit the site at http://www.literacyandpovertyproject.com/. The organization also has a group on the Ning social network that you can join: http://literacyandpovertyproject.ning.com.

My Year of Hopefulness - Dress for Success

My mom keeps everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! She has magazine that are older than I am. It drives me nuts, though I there's also something endearing about it. She feels comfortable surrounded by her things. And in these times, who among us couldn't use a little more comfort?

It was with great surprise that my mom emailed me yesterday and asked for a name of an agency that donates business clothes to women who are looking to get jobs in offices though cannot afford appropriate clothing. In some ways, it pains my mom to give away her things and here she is finding a way to make that task less painful by giving away extra clothes to people who need it most. I pointed her to Dress for Success.

I was thinking about this and considering this lesson in my own life. I enjoy waking up early, though I don't enjoy having early morning obligations. However, I'm so excited to volunteer with God's Love We Deliver that I'm willing to be there at 6:30am once a week. What better use could I have for any early morning that packing up meals for people who are in need of them?

It's a good lesson for me to consider. We all have things we don't necessarily like to do, though they may be necessary to do them. The trick is figuring out how to do them in a way that gives joy rather than in a way that causes discomfort.

My Year of Hopefulness - United Way NYC Linkages

If you've been a community volunteer for a while, you may be considering taking on a greater commitment with an organization you love. If you're a business person in today's climate, you may be feeling a little hollow about your day -to-day job. And if you're unemployed and the job searching is driving you nuts, you might need a bit of a diversion. All of these are good reasons to consider joining a nonprofit board. 

The United Way of NYC has an excellent program called Linkages. It is a two day workshop that teaches participants the ins and outs of being a board member as well as providing a matching program to pair you and with a nonprofit board that falls under their umbrella of organizations. They accept 35 people, twice a year. Cost of the program materials is $150. 

They are currently accepting Linkages applications until Friday, January 16, 2009. The application is user friendly and entirely on-line. Visit: 

https://www.uwnyc.com/uwnyc/nldi/nldimenu.cfm

My Year of Hopefulness - God's Love We Deliver

I've been doing  a lot in these past 8 days  of 2009 to make myself more hopeful. The second half of my New Year's Resolution is to generate more hope for others and today, I started down that road. Last Fall, I was at an event for a rather disorganized nonprofit. I was griping a bit to one of the other volunteers about how disorganized the event was and she told me about a nonprofit that she works with that runs like a well-oiled machine, God's Love We Deliver. I looked into the organization and learned that they deliver handmade, nutritious meals to people in NYC and the greater area who are homebound due to serious illnesses like cancer, MS, and HIV / AIDS. I love to cook and figured that this might be a match, so I went to an orientation tonight. I left after the hour session with more energy than I've had in weeks. 

The organization prepares and delivers meals with love to people who are desperately in need. Each client receives 10 meals per week. The meals are tailored to the clients' dietary needs. They are healthful and creative. On staff, there in a dietary / nutrition department and the head chefs are French trained. There are 24 volunteers for every one staff person. And this crew cooks, laughs, and plays together. You tastes that joy and care in the food. They are saving lives, literally. What could we ever do that would be more hopeful?

And what's more impressive, they think about the whole person. On Thanksgiving and Christmas each client is given an extra meal so they can invite a friend to spend the holiday with them. They receive special baskets on Thanksgiving with sparkling cider, cheese, nuts, candies. They receive a blackout box and a blizzard box each year that has nonperishable items so that they can get by for a few days if for some reason God's Love can't deliver to them. Each client receives a birthday cake on their birthday. The compassion and care of the organization is incredible. 

There are all kinds of opportunities available from meal delivery, to baking, to packing, to prep, to office work. The shifts are available from 6:30am - 9pm every week day and opportunities on Saturdays and Sundays as well. I hope you'll join me!  http://www.godslovewedeliver.org   

The other 86%

"May you live in interesting times." ~ Chinese proverb

Every week I am mystified by an IBM ad that consistently appears in Business Week. It's part of their "Stop Talking Start Doing" campaign and in large bold type it predicts, "86% of the world population will live in emerging markets by 2050." As a product developer, this is a fascinating statistic that will be critical to my future success. 

The majority of those who consume products I will create going forward will not be from my heritage, my culture, or raised in my country. Aside from the big four, known as the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China), places such as Egypt, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey will becoming increasingly big players. And the companies that are succeeding and will continue to succeed are companies that most of us have never heard of: Concha y Toro, MISC, and Sasol.   

What is exciting for me is that these markets will demand a decent percentage of products that fall into the "extreme affordability" category, and this means that we may soon be coming into a time when social entrepreneurship will reign supreme over the activities of large multi-national corporations. If we pair that prediction with the closer relationship that has emerged between government and business, it becomes a perfect (good) storm for product developers like me who want to do well and do good at the same time. Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times Columnist, wrote his Christmas column about a recent book on this very subject. The book, Uncharitable, discusses the moral dilemma and possible solutions for nonprofits who find themselves in the midst of this struggle to bring in funds and do good in the world.  

What I think is a tremendous opportunity is the role that international nonprofits like UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, and Mercy Corps can play. They have been working for decades in emerging markets. They can and should be a tremendous resource to entrepreneurs and start-ups looking to expand their business into those markets. These social entrepreneurs will provide better services and goods for the people they work so hard to help, and they can generate additional income streams for their organizations through a consulting practice on emerging markets. 

I recently viewed Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement speech at Stanford. His message is that we can only connect the dots of our lives looking backward. In order to move forward, we have to trust our intuition, we have to have faith that we can build our own road, and we have to believe that the dots will connect eventually, somehow. I am beginning to finally see how the dots of my patchwork life and career will connect - through this field of social entrepreneurship that leverages all of my experiences, all of my education, and all of my contacts, passions, and beliefs. Indeed, we are in the midst of interesting times. 

 

The image above can be found at http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1140/1396403046_e8ba6915d5_o.jpg 

DSY: Development School for Youth

A contact from a recent networking event invited me to a graduation tonight. The graduates had just finished the All-Stars program as part of DSY: Development School for Youth. The group helps at-risk youth see and experience greater value for learning through performance-based education. You've heard this all before right? Get them to stay in school, off the streets, value and respect their educational opportunities, get them mentors, etc. etc. Originally, I urned down the invitation, but my networking contact wouldn't take no for an answer so I got myself together and headed downtown. I thought I knew what I was in for. I've sat through a myriad of these types of events, and I tell you, this one is different and special and worthy of your attention and mine. 

First, they treat kids as whole people. Get their creativity going, teach them to respect others and their communities, get them to see opportunity even if it isn't apparent on their street corner of their neighborhood. 

Second, the articulation and passion that these kids have is nothing short of miraculous. These are kids that were in gangs, school drop-outs, drug users. They've seen friends and family fall prey to those streets. It would be easy, and understandable, to watch them go down the same route. Instead, they are choosing a different way and they are expressing themselves through performance. Their blatant honesty and poise would put some corporate executives to shame. 

The third piece that I love about the program is that participants are set up with an internship as a capstone. They earn money and understand that getting up and getting to work everyday can be a rewarding, gratifying experience. They have mentors and coaches - people who care and are invested in their success. And that personal investment of time is making a difference. You can, too, at http://www.allstars.org/programs/dsy.html.

Make it easy for me to participate

See that blog post just below entitled, Root for Your City? I didn't write it - not a single word of it. A handful of clicks and it was posted for me. American Express ran a program called "Root for Your City". 8 cities across the country are competing for the largest share of 1 million tress to plant in their cities. By using my Amex cards (I am now up to three of them as of yesterday!) at participating stores and restaurants, I am contributing to the effort in my city.

I went to the site after receiving a customer email (1st click) and clicked on the button "RootforNYC.com" (2nd click). After arriving on the home page for the contest and learning a bit about it I clicked on the button "Spread the Word" (3rd click). There was a tab titled "Post to blog" (4th click). I checked the "Blogger" button (since my blog is hosted by Blogger), entered by username and password, clicked "sign-in", and then click "post" (5th, 6th, and 7th clicks). That's it. Done. Posted up to my blog with a link to the contest's site and a pretty picture. A clean, easy to follow, aesthetically-pleasing process. (It was so easy that I felt like I was visiting a site designed by Apple!) Now that is service.

This tiny event was a big lesson for me. In this day and age of messaging and the need for mass participation, the organizers of events, efforts, and campaigns need to make participation easy. Companies need advocates now more than ever. Give a customer a good experience and they're with you for life. This is the age of customer service, when finally customers are given their due as valuable, cherished members of a company. And the companies that will come out ahead when it is all said and done are those that not only call their customers kings and queens, but treat them like that as well.

March of Dimes Petition for Preemies

My friends over at the March of Dimes have put together a campaign to address the health and well-being of the tiniest members of our communities. They put up a beautiful post on their website and I want to share it with all of you:

Petition for Preemies

My best friend just gave birth to her first child – a baby girl named Milana.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to share in my best friend’s happiness!  But to be honest, I’m also a little nervous. That’s because Milana was born prematurely, and babies who are born preterm face special health risks.

Milana isn’t alone.  In the U.S., 1 in 8 babies are born prematurely. In fact, more newborns die from premature birth than any other cause. That’s why I signed the March of Dimes Petition for Preemies.

The Petition for Preemies will help give all babies a healthy start by putting public officials – and all Americans – on notice that it’s time to focus on the growing problem of premature birth.

Show your support by joining thousands of other moms in signing thePetition for Preemies. If you’re a blogger, write a post about this issue or put our purple widget or button on your blog. Get information about how you can help more babies come into the world healthy.

Thankfully, Milana is home now and doing just fine.  Let’s help more moms have healthy babies!

Want to lend a hand in the effort? Sign the petition:http://www.marchofdimes.com/padpetition/index.aspx?a=1&z=1&c=1&l=en

Cupcakes for a Cause

That delightful time of year has arrived again: the leaves are changing, the air is crisp, and we can stuff our faces with the sweet, yummy goodness of cupcakes while doing some good in the world. The annual celebration of Cupcakes for a Cause kicked off today to benefit Cancercare for Kids. For the remainder of this week you can help the organization by picking up the goods at local bakeries around the country, all conveniently listed by state on the causes's website.

Watching your diet? No problem. For every e-cupcake you send through the site, $1 will be donated to the charity, up to a cap of $10,000. You have some controlled functionality to design your own virtual cupcake or choose from a selection of beautiful stock designs. I've been happily sending them out this evening to family and friends and it's almost as much fun as baking them myself.

So what are you waiting for? No time like the present to gobble up some cupcake goodness and help a worthwhile charity, all in one delicious bite.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

I spend a lot of time reading books, magazine and newspaper articles, and watching TV programs that pertain to work being done by nonprofits and NGOS. I spent part of my career in the nonprofit world and have volunteered in my community for as long as I can remember as my mother is also very committed to service.

I talk to friends about their nonprofit work and my company gives generously to a whole host of these organizations. I have a carefully chosen few organizations that I donate to and if friends send me a notice that they are running a race or taking part in some other way to raise money for a charity they believe in, I'm good for a donation. Lately I've been feeling the need to do more and I'm not sure if that means joining a board, lending my business expertise on a pro-bono basis, or committing a great amount of volunteer time. Maybe it means starting my own nonprofit. 

Because of my interest in education, especially that of girls in developing nations, I picked up a copy of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The book charts the course that Greg Mortenson took to building schools first in the village of Korphe in Pakistan, then all over that country, and most recently in Afghanistan. I was so moved by Greg's story that about 50 pages through the book I went to the website to make a donation. He is compelling, engaging, passionate, and he's in the field for all the right reasons. 

Greg believes, as I do, that education changes the paradigm. We cannot hope to ensure our own national security and that of our allies if we do not take make the effort to provide basic education, particularly to women, in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. We cannot go in with guns a-blazing a la George W. Bush, obliterate an entire nation to rubble, and then walk away with a defiant "take that" tossed over our shoulders. Our behavior in the Middle East makes me hang my head in shame. 

The way to peace is through books, through education, and through nurturing the imaginations and curiosities of children. Greg and his nonprofit, the Central Asia Institute, are doing that effectively, efficiently, and safely. I couldn't imagine a better use for my charitable giving.