Pass it forward

Image by Twenty Questions

Can social networks and virtual communities revolutionize charitable giving?

This is the question that Georgia Levenson asks in a post on Slate entitled “The Facebook Philantropos” (link). Although many people expect that philantropy will be democratised by viral marketing tools like Facebook’s ‘Causes’ application, or MySpace’s Impact add-on, the cold reality is that philantropy is yet another area of modern life where the 80/20 Pareto rule still is alive and kicking: 80% of the contributions to social causes come from 20% of contributors.

Should this discourage us from active participation? After all, a primary motivation for those donating money or time to worthwhile causes is to ‘make a difference’. When you put your contribution into context, it begs the question of ‘is it wortwhile’?

Because only you can answer that question, I’d like to share my perspective on the question. Every time I decide to conduct a Randm Act of Kindness, to donate money to a wortwhile charity, or to give some of my time to making a difference, I remind myself of the following: Only I can give my time, my money, my kindness. And when I do, I make a difference – no matter how small it may be – to someone’s life. To the millions of people that get helped by the millionaire’s contributions, my assistance meant nothing at all. But for the one person that my action helped, it meant the world. And that is why I choose to continue giving to others.

Yesterday (7 Feb ’08), the Pittsburgh Post Gazette started reporting on Random Acts of Kindness (link). They even encourage their readership to submit more stories by sending an email to page2@post-gazette.com.

The first story they share is touching, as it shows how a seemingly small act of kindness can change someone’s life:

On Nov. 15 of last year, I was leaving South Hills Village mall when I lost my footing on a curb. I fell and hit my head, hard.

I was lucky to have two strangers stop to help me. Little did I know just how fortunate I would turn out to be.

The man and the woman firmly ignored my request to let me just get up and proceed to the T station. They knew that I needed immediate medical attention.

The woman parked her SUV in a way that shielded me from traffic and passers-by, and covered me with a wrap so that I would stay warm. The man called 911 and acted on its instructions not to let me move.

They both stayed with me until the ambulance arrived.

At UPMC Presbyterian, I was found to have bleeding on my brain. Emergency surgery was performed.

If those two people had let me go up and go on my way, I would not be here to write this letter.

I didn’t get your names. Wherever you are, let me say to you, with no exaggeration:

Thank you for saving my life.

– PAULETTE DOBROVOLSKIS, South Side

I hope next time you see someone having a bad fall, you will feel inspired to help them instead of laughing at them, as many of us do these days.

Should you focus on doing Random Acts of Kindness, or on systematically being good to others?

According to Stanford University’s professor Sonja Lyubomirsky, you should do both. Her research proves that our ability to ‘Be Happy’ is determined 50% by your ‘set point’ for happiness (ie. genetic influence), 10% is determined by the circumstances in your life, and the remaining  40% is determined by your own attitudes, values & behaviours link.

In that article, she suggests a number of personal strategies to increase your levels of happiness, and amongst them is the following gem:

 - Practicing Acts of Kindness
These should be both random (let the dad with the crying baby go ahead of you at the check-out counter) and systematic (read a newspaper to an elderly neighbor). Being kind to others, whether friends or strangers, triggers a cascade of positive effects : it makes you feel compassionate and capable, gives you a greater sense of connection with others and earns you smiles, approval and reciprocated kindness. These are all happiness boosters.

So go crazy and start doing RAKs or SAKs every day – not only will you make someone else’s day, you will also be making yourself happier!

To learn more about Sonja’s work, head over to  http://chass.ucr.edu/faculty_book/lyubomirsky/

Who would have thought you could get paid good money for spending one year doing charity work?

Today I found out about Vodafone’s “World of Difference“. Here is another corporate citizen trying to do their bit for leaving the world a better place.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? I wish I had incorporated “Pass It Forward” as a registered non-for-profit organisation, so I could offer all of you the challenge of nominating yourself to work on promoting the PIF movement for a whole year – and get paid for it!

Maybe I will look into it for next year’s (2009) entries and get some excitement happening around here.

What do you think? If we were a registered charity, would you nominate yourself to work with us for a whole year? If yes, why yes? If not, why not?

Amazing!!!

Today I came across an article that describes how a US-based bank started giving 5% of its profits to employees, and asking them to pass the money forward to someone who needs it. You can read the full article here.

One thing that many Australians don’t realise is just how socially responsible one of their banks, Westpac, really is. One of their HR policies allows employees to take one day off every year to donate to charitable organisation. As bank with over 30,000 employees, this effectively translates into about 82 years of labour for non-for-profit organisations – EVERY YEAR!! It is absolutely staggering. Obviously, not everyone is disciplined enough to make the most of the policy and use one day every year for someone who needs it; but even if only 10% of its’ workforce uses the entitlement (8 years of labour every year? Not bad!), it is still a significant amount of time that non-for-profit organisations would not have received from volunteer.

One product I have really loved from this same bank that makes it far easier to give money to those in need is the Westpac Gift card. You go to a branch; decide how much money will the gift card have; add $5 to cover the cost of the card, and you get back a DEBIT MASTERCARD. Yup, that is right. It is effectively the same as a “pre-paid” credit card with a limit you chose. You can then give this card to whomever you choose: a single mum you know is going through some trouble; a homeless person; or your neighbour whose car got smashed by a tree in the latest storm.

I wish more banks thought of – and acted on – ideas to make the world a better place…

No, my loyal reader; I am not going to talk about Bryce Courtney’s famous novel in this post – although it is a highly recommended read from one of Australia’s most powerful story tellers.

Instead, I want to talk about one of the major issues encountered by those of us trying to change the world ‘one step at a time’. As I explain in the history of this movement, I got the idea of working on this project in late 2006. Back then, I was totally unaware of just how many people shared the same idea I had. Since then, I heave realised there is a real army trying to change the world, one Random At of Kindness at a time. Let’s take a good look at them:

The author who started it all

Most prominently is the ‘Pay It Forward Movement‘ started by the author of the novel that inspired most of us, Catherine Ryan Hyde. Soon after I started my web site in its first incarnation, I wrote them an email asking for their help. I essentially asked her if I would be allowed to borrow the design from their web site and adapt it to Australian conditions. (incidentally, I never got an answer!!)

The various chapters

From the Pay It Forward movement’s website you can find a page with the international chapters of this movement. At last count, there were seven international chapters. I just took a look at the web site, and there is only one left!!! (the Singapore chapter). It seems that many people that started a local movement simply didn’t have the stamina, resources, or determination to make it work and keep at it.

Pay It Forward day

Another group with a lovely web site. Unfortunately, their guest-book is empty, and their true stories stopped on May of 2007.

We are what we do

From their web site “Hello …and welcome to We Are What We do, a new movement inspiring people to use their everyday actions to change the world. We’re not talking moving big mountains. More of a gentle nudge from the corner desk. A little prod from the sofa. A gentle push from the PE room.” According to their web page, they have managed to attract 15,941 people to track their actions through their web site. Assuming some of those are ‘dead logins’ (mine being a good example – I used it for a few weeks, then didn’t go back to the web site), they still have managed to create a decent following. They have leveraged the power of publishing by securing funding ( I assume) from their success ‘Change the world’ series. Well worth a visit.

Change the worldin 5 minutes

Another commercially backed project (this time from SBS), this one has a twist on media – think of it as the YouTube of the Pay It forward movement. You can submit video or images that show the small actions that can change the world without much effort. A fun example is the following image:

Australian Kindness Movement

This is the Australian chapter of the ‘World Kindness Movement’, created in 1994. I couldn’t how many visitors or subscribers it has (It sends a regular newsletter, although apparently its founder is not well as since then the web site has been in a hiatus: “Brian Willis, founder of the Australian Kindness Movement, is currently recovering from a serious illness – and now well on the mend. We will be updating the new site extensively over the next few months. -Carl Holden – 9th December 2007“.

How you can change the world

This site is for all those people who despair at the problems that face our planet, but feel helpless and unable to act. You are not powerless. Read on and find out what the problems of the world are, and how we can resolve them by acting on eight guiding principles. (From the web site’s home page). This site does not seem to have membership, and does not publish web stats; although it has a forum. The forum boasts 179 registered members, and the most recent post at the forum was from 25 Nov 2007.

This is the list I have managed to compile so far. Quite an army of strong-minded individuals, trying to make the world a better place; working (mostly) on their own.

But where is the General or Admiral of this army? Where is the vision to ‘unite and conquer’? No, these people believe in the ‘Power of One’. They, like me, were convinced that all you need is a good idea, tenacity, resilience, and the right reason to embark on this adventure. The problem with that view is that it will suffice, as long as success is a ‘nice to have’. I understand if you don’t believe me, even after reading the semi-comatose state in which most of our web sites are ( I include mine, where a daily count of 10 webhits puts me on a great day!). But I do ask you to read on with an open mind.

If you look at the great, visible forces of today that make a difference (whether for the ‘dark side’ or for good), they share one thing in common: They scale up. Look at large corporations. Look at organisations like the Red Cross, Medicines Sans Frontiers, or your favourite (famous, successful and recognised) charity. They all have applied the secrets of modern marketing to their strategy. They all have gained notoriety. They all have more than one, ten, or even a hundred people working with them.

So this is what I propose: Let’s all of us check our egos at the door, and decide we will transform this space by creating a globally recognised movement. Let’s aim to have a million, ten million, a hundred million people doing Random and not-so-random Acts of Kindness every day, or at least every week. Let’s think beyond big; Let’s dream. And let’s unite forces to make this world, truly, a better world.

I will be sending an email to the ‘info’ address of every single one of those movements to make my proposal. I will post updates on this page (or maybe they can simply leave a comment on this post) as replies happen.

Let’s stop WISHING to make the world a better place , and actually DO IT!!!!

The clamour for changing the world is going stronger. The One Voice movement is trying to resolve the middle-east conflict using non-violence…

… whilst a film maker is trying to unite people around the globe in watching, simultaneously, inspirational movies in a theatre near them on Pangea Day:What are YOU doing to change the world? Maybe you can get some ideas from this web site