Social Giving For The Benefit Of Others

Business and/or personal, the results are the same.

In the last quarter of 1999, at the end of the dot com era, we launched a casualty insurance company with a unique value proposition. Our Chairman suggested that we do things differently because we were unique in the industry. At the end of our first quarter, we donated five percent of our gross to charity. Using Habitat for Humanity in AK, we started building homes that would benefit others.

Did it help sales? Yes, it did. Did it increase the amount available to Habitat? Yes, it did. It was very symbiotic in nature.

That was the first of my companies to help charities and make sales. Each of our management teams agreed, and the boards all agreed that profits should benefit others as well.

After my sixth retirement attempt, my wife and I started contributing to Three Square — Feeding America. Shortly afterward, we started For the Benefit of Others (FTBOO). We used the non-profit to do a number of things, but the best was purchasing fifty percent of a company that fed the homeless here in Las Vegas.

We especially focused on veterans, teens, and youth. We worked with Pizza Hut in Las Vegas to provide food that was over-made or not picked up by customers. We did this every weekday.

I mention these because my wife and I began our efforts with very little money, just commitment. Setting up a giving program doesn’t take much. It doesn’t have to be expensive to set up and doesn’t take much in the way of contributions. ANY amount of giving or volunteering is helpful. ANY amount.

When our children were young, we asked them to put something into a piggy bank to help others who didn’t have what we were blessed to have. Depending on the year, that may not have been much.

The kids had always been taught to tithe. We let them pick an amount when they asked how much for charity. We asked them to come to us when they wanted to contribute. We were curious to see how charitable they were and to let our other children know that everyone was giving.

Sometimes a penny, fifty cents, and once our four-year-old, at that time, gave a whole dollar she had just received. Many of us cried at her generosity. Today, she has personally been very blessed. Today, she’s set for life.

In 2005, three guys with too much money started a global not-for-profit. It was our conviction that money is meant to be used. It should benefit in ways that build community.

We can all give more than we do—one less Starbucks or something else, all adds up. We can do it.

We are stewards. What we see is only temporary. Someone else will eventually get it, earn it, receive it, or use it as we have. Sharing can be caring.

Charity exists at many levels. A story or article can open the heart and mind. That act will benefit someone, if only the writer.

Annelise Lords has a take on this that we should consider:

. . . and for consideration:

Think of something you could do with just $10.00 that would help someone else.

Thanks for reading,

©DR Rawson

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