Going Beyond YOU

When times are tough as they are now and have been for a while, it is easy to get mired in your own problems and how they affect you on a daily basis. However, finding a cause to support can be a great way to help you remember that while being concerned about your own problems is understandable, there is lot of suffering out there that you can help alleviate, if even in some small way.

I’ll give you a couple of examples, one personal and one business.

One day about a year ago while walking back to his office from lunch with co-workers, my husband was stopped on the street by an earnest college student trying to get people signed up for Children’s International. He pledged to send them $22 per month to sponsor a child in a third world country. I’m sure a lot of people, myself included, wonder if those street solicitations are for real. A month later, we found out that they are.

We got a picture of Brian, who just turned 11 and lives in Ecuador in abject poverty. A couple of months later, we got a letter from him, in his handwriting, with an English translation. I sent a gift of a coloring book that I got at Walgreens and received a very sweet thank you letter from him. For his birthday, we sent extra money and discovered that we had bought him a much needed pair of new leather shoes. While we dream of one day going to meet him, we feel pretty good about what our very small donation each month does for him and his family. The old clichés are true – doing good for someone else can really make your own problems seem smaller and make you feel good in general.

I know a small design and marketing company in the city that commits to supporting one charitable non profit per year, or sometimes for many years. They clearly state that their policy is that they support one charity at a time, which makes is easier to decline the many requests that they receive. Now the amount of support that they give is considerable – it is a true partnership and they assign a value to the services rendered so that everyone on both sides understands what is at stake. At one of the last printing companies I worked for, each salesperson was allotted an amount of money that they could “spend” on free or discounted work. They could spend it all on one project, or separate it into smaller increments. It also worked really well, because with an established policy about charitable work, it was easy to explain to people how it worked. And, people who had well established clients could offer the allotments ahead of time to encourage people to plan ahead. It helped strengthen and enhance relationships. And, bottom line, it did a lot of good.

So, if you are already doing something philanthropic, good for you! Keep it up. If not, you might want to consider it, either on a personal level or with your business. You’ll be glad you did.