Archive for the ‘Lifestyle’ Category

What’s Next for Me is What’s Next for Philanthropy

January 2, 2012

I’ve been advising people about their philanthropy for over a decade. In person and through this blog I’ve always encouraged them to go beyond giving money to charity and think about all the assets they can bring to the table, and how they can especially use their power as investors and consumers to bring about the changes they want to see in the world.

Philanthropy as we have known it for the past few decades has been about giving money. But as we progress in the 21st century, I believe it will be about spending money: people are becoming more aware every day that we are shaping ourselves and the world around us by voting with our pocketbooks everyday.

The evidence is everywhere:

  • The exploding local food and “slow food” movements, rejecting the agro-industrial complex in favor of healing the economic, environmental and social health of our communities;
  • The growing fair trade movement, which provides fair wages and working conditions for workers and prevents the exploitation that often accompanies the production of cheap goods for consumption in the US;
  • The call echoing out from Occupy Wall Street for conscientious citizens to move their money from big commercial banks to local community banks, personified in the Move Your Money campaign;
  • The surveys that show that consumers want to purchase from socially responsible companies;
  • The growing voices of Millennials looking to work for socially responsible companies, or better yet, that want to start their own;
  • The expanding corps of investment advisers who specialize in “socially responsible investing” or “impact investing” a market estimated to grow to over $500 Billion in invested assets in the next 5 to 10 years;
  • The rise of services like Moxy Vote, which help you vote your values on any shareholder resolutions that come before companies whose stocks are in your investment portfolio

In addition to these trends, maybe you have heard the term “collaborative consumption,” which is being used to describe an emerging approach to people and their stuff–an approach based on borrowing, renting, sharing and accessing rather than owning outright. Early examples include Netflix for DVDs, car sharing services such as ZipCar or iGo, and more recently the peer to peer travel booking site Airbnb, and for designer gowns, Rent the Runway.

I’m so drawn to the concept of collaborative consumption, I am excited to tell you that I have launched my own social enterprise, one that applies the concept of collaborative consumption to an industry out of control: parenting.

Good Karma Clothing for Kids is a subscription baby clothing service that provides busy, socially conscious parents with like-new baby clothes in sizes newborn through 24 months so they don’t have to spend a fortune keeping up with fast growing little bodies.

We send a bundle in the size the baby is now, they wear, wash, enjoy, then send them back in the prepaid, reusable shipping bag when they need to exchange them for the next size up. We only use environmentally- and baby-friendly Selestial Soap to further reduce the environmental impact of the clothing, and we turn stained, ripped or worn out clothes into “upcycled” hand-made bibs, baby quilts or stuffed animals.

Our web site is live and we are now in our public beta. Check it out at www.goodkarma.co

Reclaiming My 9/11 Birthday: 10th Anniversary of the Attacks is on 9/11/11

June 21, 2011

I’ve written before about how my birthday is on 9/11, a day which has come to be synonymous with an attack on our country–and the fear, terror and protectionism that attack triggered.

But as much as 9/11 brought out some of the worst in American ideology (anti-immigration, anti-Muslim sentiments and “preventive war,” among other bits of ugliness), it also brought out the best in Americans–helping neighbors, a renewed spirit of civic duty and a calling to public service.

In an effort to highlight the best of the American spirit, I believe we need to set aside 9/11 as a special day to serve our neighbors and reflect the best of our country.

Chicago Half Marathon Logo

Today I am beginning my 12-week training program to culminate in running the Chicago half-marathon on 9/11/11. While this is a meaningful goal for me personally (I currently can run only about 1.5 miles before stopping to walk a while), it’s also a community event: I’m running to benefit an organization that I am dedicated to, The Cara Program.

I hope you’ll join me. In fact, to make this more of a community event, I’ve started up a challenge using the Nike+ platform.  For every person who joins my challenge at Nike+ and completes a half-marathon on 9/11, I’ll donate $1 to charity (max $1500), split 50/50 between The Cara Program and the Chicago-based charity of a participant.

So join the effort to “Reclaim 9/11,” you can start training today and be ready to run 13 miles on 9/11, 12 weeks from now. And if you click here and join my challenge and leave a comment with the name of your charity and why you support them, you could raise up to $750 for the charity of your choice.

Spread the word to all the runners you know–you don’t have to be physically in Chicago or at the Chicago half-marathon to participate. You can run anywhere in the world as long as you upload your run to Nike+.

Or, start now to plan your own way to Reclaim 9/11. As Nike might say, “Just do SOMETHING”

(Thanks for asking! You can pledge to support my half-marathon run for the Cara Program here)

Tithing Your Time Online

January 12, 2011

I just read a fascinating post suggesting that we need to make purposeful choices about how we live our increasingly online lives, “choices that will determine both the quality of your life online and of your relationships offline.” The author, Alexandra Samuel outlines 6 decisions we often make without ever consciously making them.  But one in particular stuck out to me as an interesting idea.

Essentially, given all the time we waste online, Alexandra suggests that we do something to give back or be helpful to others with some of our online time.

What problems am I choosing to fix with the help of the Internet? The village that needs a new water pump. The prospect of climate change. The aunt who needs a new beau. The creative vacuum left by the implosion of your garage band. Whether it’s a problem for you, your community or the world, the Internet can help you fix it. Tithing 10% of your time online — from micro-volunteering to online activism to writing a heartfelt note to a lonely friend — is a structured way to ensure that the Internet becomes part of the solution instead of part of the problem. This can be the year in which you get serious about the Internet as the single most promising problem-solver in a world that faces many fast-growing problems.

Sounds like a great plan. What can you do with a portion of your online life to make the real world a better place? Ideas and suggestions welcome.

How Do We Ensure Someone’s Watching Our Back in Chicago?

December 30, 2010

We made it back to our home in Chicago this past Monday from a week in Ohio visiting my in-laws for Christmas. Our wonderful neighbor’s kids not only took care of my son’s fish Percy (thanks, Concetta and Chance!), they also collected our mail and newspapers while we were gone, since I wasn’t quite with-it enough to put them on hold before I left.

Coming back to all those newspapers at once was shocking. One week of the Chicago Tribune equals about 8 inches of dead trees, something I hadn’t realized until I saw them all, stacked up at once like that. And although those 8 inches includes some interesting stories, great recipes and entertaining Doonesbury strips, it is overwhelmingly stuff I don’t want or need to have in writing.

See, I get most of my news from NPR, or from  specialized news outlets like the Chronicle of Philanthropy or Philanthropy News Digest. By the time I read the paper, I’ve heard most of the “hard news” stories somewhere else.

Except that, once a month or so, there’s a story that isn’t anywhere else. It’s a piece of investigative journalism by the reporters at the Chicago Tribune. A sample of the past few years:

  • An expose of the “clout list” used by politicians to get well-connected but potentially unqualified students into the state’s premiere university.
  • Ongoing investigation and reporting on the administration of Rod Blagojevich that was interwoven with the federal investigation that led to the governor’s indictment at the end of 2008.
  • A call for greater oversight of nursing homes after uncovering the deaths of 13 children with disabilities in the care of homes who didn’t, in fact, care for them.

Dozens of Chicago Tribune investigations have resulted in public hearings, new oversight, reforms and even new laws. You can see a watchdog update from August on a bunch of Tribune investigations here.

Truth be told, I don’t read the full text of most of those stories. I read the first few paragraphs. I skim the follow-up articles, check out the graphs. But even if I don’t read them all the way through, I’m so glad they’re being written. I’m glad the Tribune is doing these investigations, and I feel like they’ve got the public interest in mind.

So here’s my conundrum: I want to support the important work of the journalists, the civic watchdogs at the Chicago Tribune, but the 8 inches of dead trees (much of it ads for new and used cars, and I’m not in the market for a car of any kind) is unconscionable for me. I honestly would like to cancel my subscription, except for the fact that those journalists need to get paid, and they need subscriptions to their newspaper to get paid.

A Failed Social Enterprise?

(As a side note, newspapers who rely on subscriptions might be one of the oldest and most important social enterprises around. They provide a critical community service and get paid by the members of the community who value that service. Not the most “cutting edge,” but clearly a social-purpose business whose struggles with sustainability have been well-documented in the last few years.)

What’s the Solution?

But I think members of the community still value this service, they just don’t value the paper it’s printed on. So how do we continue to support real, important, serious journalism but stop getting a few phonebooks worth of needlessly murdered trees every week? I certainly don’t want to put my paper carrier Sid out of a job, but I would love to get paperless journalism of the same caliber as the printed paper.

We need to find a way for real journalists (sorry, blogosphere, blogging and opinion is not the same as actual journalism) to be supported.

I’m struck by a few relevant sentiments:

  • In conversation regarding the limits of the markets to solve social problems, my former fellow Chicagoan Nathaniel Whittemore once used public radio as an example of something that should never move from a donation-based revenue model to an earned revenue strategy (such as from corporate ads) because  it would ruin their independence. Are newspapers so different?
  • Marketing guru Seth Godin once pointed out that newspapers act as if they are in the business of selling (dead) trees. But of course they aren’t, or shouldn’t be.

So what’s the solution? A major foundation who supports newspapers through large grants each year? Hardly, in some ways that is no different from a few big corporate sponsors as it potentially compromises newspapers’ journalistic independence. No, communities need to support newspapers because a diversified funding base is what ensures that the journalists don’t become too dependent on any single one of us for support that they can’t risk our anger or withdrawal.

Maybe the answer is an “online only” subscription. Maybe newspapers need to change their marketing message from “bringing you the news, weather and commentary” (which I can get elsewhere) to “the investigators who have your back and will pursue the public interest without regard to partisan politics.” Maybe newspapers should adopot the same donation model as public radio.

I brought this up to Colonel Tribune, the gentlemanly Twitter representative for the Chicago Tribune, who may or may not be the collective brain child of a group of (highly entertaining) lunatics over at the newspaper. His response, in the required 140 character limit imposed by the Tweity*:

“First, follow #TribNation http://bit.ly/gjjpSy and on [Facebook]: http://on.fb.me/aAsMa3. You’re still our people.”

I was touched by the sentiment (I’m proud to be your people! sniff sniff) and I’ll do both. But I wonder what’s the next step?

Is investigative journalism important to you? Do you get the newspaper? Do you get your news online? What would you be willing to support?

*”Twitter deity.” Too forced? Well, it’s almost midnight. Cut me some slack.

A Letter from Sid

December 22, 2010

Every year around the holidays I get a letter tucked into my newspaper from Sid, the guy who delivers the papers. This year’s letter is so full of heartfelt joy, I just had to share it with you, word for word as he typed it.

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas.

Season’s greetings:

Well, another year has passed. I hope it’s been great for you. For me, it’s been absolutely wonderful. I say that because even though I still face what sometimes seem like insurmountable obstacles, I’m a cancer survivor. Every day, every single moment is a gift I’m grateful for. Every day is another opportunity to learn, to laugh, to love, and to live.

Life can be so strange sometimes, so unpredictable. I just recently discovered that the doctor who treated me for my cancer, the man who saved my life, and gave me a second chance, now has inoperable cancer. He has no more than a few months, perhaps a few weeks to live. How ironic.

Cherish every moment you have. Embrace your loved ones as though you’re seeing them for the last time. It might be. Take a Viagra pill (take two if you need to), and make passionate love. Stand on the corner of the busiest street you can find, and laugh out loud. I mean LOUD, UNCONTROLLABLY, till everyone thinks you’re a nut. Lastly, thank God for this wonderful gift of life.

From the bottom of my heart, thanks for being a great customer. So help me, I mean it sincerely. Happy holidays, and best wishes.

Sid

The Most Important Thing to Be Grateful For

November 23, 2010

This week, as we give thanks with our families and friends, let’s also take a minute to be grateful for the most fundamental gift in our lives: the circumstances we were born into.

I think it’s too easy to think we earned it. Too easy to think we deserve it. But the truth is, we lucked into it. It was a cosmic gift.

I’m no expert on this topic and I can’t unpack the invisible backpack of your privileges, but I can recognize a few of mine. To name just a few:

  • I was born in America, where paved roads, clean water, stable electricity and safe streets are taken for granted.
  • I was born into the dominant race, where I can be confident that my race does not work against me.
  • I was born into a middle-class family that values education and has social connections to other successful, privileged families.
  • I learned a very standard version of English as a child  so that people generally attach positive stereotypes to me when they hear me speak.
  • I got a first-rate education, primarily paid for by my parents
  • I grew up in a neighborhood so safe, the joke was that the cops would stop a bicyclist for speeding. I never had to worry about walking home alone, being home alone, playing outside with my friends.
  • My home environment was also safe and loving. I could just focus on being  a good student and when my next soccer practice was.
  • In my world, if you have a problem, you take it to the authorities who will help you and protect you from injustice and wrongdoing. I need not hesitate to take my problems to the authorities for fear that I will be harassed or embarrassed much less deported. I can feel confident they will take me seriously.
  • I’ve been given license to follow my dreams and told by everyone–my parents, my teachers, the media, our culture at large–that I can do whatever I want if I just work hard. I’ve had many positive, successful role models to show me the way and open the doors for me.
  • I had the opportunity for resume-building internships during summers off because I had a great resume already going in and the luxury of my parents’ financial support through college.
  • I also had the haircut, the clothes and the “soft skills” of comfort with authority and ways of expressing my self-confidence that were acceptable to powerful figures.

Sometimes I forget how much was handed to me by fate, and I start to feel like I’ve earned this amazing life I lead through my particular blend of charm, intelligence and competence.

But it’s when we think we earned our success that we become complacent about the plight of others. We become self-satisfied. We lose compassion. We think it couldn’t happen to us. We think those other people are lazy, or maybe immoral. It’s the easy way out because it lets us off the hook. If it’s their fault, it’s not my fault and I don’t have to do anything to make it better for them. They should just try harder.

But if we recognize how much luck is involved in our success, we realize how easily that family made homeless by medical bills could have been us if we never had the social safety net of our parents, the preventive care of our childhood and the grooming for a professional job that comes with health insurance. We realize how easily we could have been the single mom who is chasing one dead-end job after another earning minimum wage with no sick pay for when her kids get the flu, much less a 401k.

But I think the key is once you recognize these things aren’t earned, and that your success is built not just off of your personal virtue and hard work, you also have a responsibility to try to equalize the playing field. People who weren’t born with these privileges are no less deserving, no less virtuous than we are. They shouldn’t have to be extraordinary individuals in order to “rise above” the systems that work against them.

So remember to be grateful this Thanksgiving, and in gratitude commit anew to fighting the embedded racism, sexism, homophobia, and fear of immigrants and Muslims that continues to infect the greatest country on earth.

(Thanks to the incomparable Maria Kim for reminding me lately of this landmark essay “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack“. If you’ve never read it, I strongly encourage you to do so)

Thanksgiving Traditions

November 4, 2010

Maybe you always make lemon meringue pie for Thanksgiving. Maybe you always serve dinner on your  grandmother’s china. Maybe you always toss the football before dinner and everyone collapses on the couch to watch football after. Whatever your family traditions, maybe this is the year to start a new one.

I love Thanksgiving because it’s all about gratitude. See, it’s right there in the name. No presents to mess up the intentions. Just food and family and time together. So maybe this is the year to add one that expresses our gratitude for the many blessings we’ve been given.

Soup kitchens have a lot of volunteers this time of year. It’s a great idea, but if your local soup kitchen says they’re over capacity with volunteers, here are a few other ideas:

  • When you go shopping for the big meal, pick up a few cartons of diapers and drop them at the local food bank. Diapers can’t be bought with food stamps and they are often in short supply.
  • Ask all your family members to bring something–canned goods or maybe a warm coat–to donate to a needy family, and during the weekend after Thanksgiving drop it off along with your kids.
  • Give business to a socially-oriented company. For example, order baked goods from a bakery that doubles as a jobs program such as Sweet Miss Givings here in Chicago. Or find an indoor farmer’s market to buy your produce by searching at Local Harvest.
  • Find other social actions from over 60 online platforms, including Volunteer Match, Global Giving, Kiva, and many more outstanding organizations at Social Actions. You can enter a few keywords to easily find opportunities to volunteer, donate, sign a petition, make a loan and more.
  • Read a special book with your kids every year. (I’d love to hear your suggestions for great books for kids that demonstrate lessons of gratitude and sharing.)
  • To keep the kids busy during a long afternoon, do a craft together that you can donate. I’m thinking that in celebration of my daughter Willa’s healthy birth in August, we could make no-sew tie fleece blankets for Newborns in Need. You can find a chapter of 501c3  charity Newborns in Need by clicking here.
  • If you brave the crowds on “Black Friday,” many stores have a toy drive each year. Maybe you buy two of something you’re getting for each one of your own kids, and donate one to the toy drive.

What are your family traditions? What are your ideas for making the holiday a true expression of gratitude?

Be Green, Save Green: Buy Used

November 1, 2010

photo of Wolff's flea market added by Justin G. at yelp.com

 

There’s a part of me that wants to build the perfect green house from the ground up. Bamboo flooring, lots of windows for natural light, energy efficient appliances, recycled materials for counter tops and plenty of insulation.

But here’s the thing: the “greenest” new items are still less green than buying something used. To manufacture new items, new raw materials must be created or harvested from somewhere. They must be converted to finished products, which takes energy and probably water and produces waste and potentially some level of pollution, even if it’s less than the traditional alternative. They must be transported often long distances to get to you, using fuel and creating congestion and pollution.

Buying used furniture and other household items not only spares the environment the effects of new manufacturing, but it keeps perfectly good items out of the landfill. Plus, it helps you get higher quality items than you could get for the same dollars new. And if you no longer have a use for your belongings, don’t throw them away: you can pretty easily find someone else who might be able to use them.

A few of my favorite resources for acquiring or disposing of used goods:

  • Craigslist: need a new couch? Check out the craigslist postings in your community. They’re great for large items that people replace when they move, especially furniture. I bought my sofa, a hutch, a coffee table and other unique and interesting items for great prices from people who were moving and just didn’t have room for their stuff anymore. My tips: if you’re looking for something specific check frequently because good stuff gets snapped up quickly. And please be safe about meeting complete strangers, whether you are buying or selling.
  • Freecycle: There are hundreds of Freecycle groups around the country (click here to find yours). The idea is for members to offer up their unwanted items in the hopes that someone else can make use of them. It’s not glamorous stuff, and pretty random (Today’s offers on my Freecycle group included two kids’ Halloween costumes and “Two, 15 ounce containers of Chocolate Fruit Dip, T. Marzetti”.) All I can say is, as random as this stuff seems, everything offered seems to be taken pretty quickly.
  • Consignment stores. People like my mom are not interested in putting their items on craigslist and then dealing with a bunch of people who might not show up or receiving spam email (it’s a possibility with any internet service like that). So she uses a fancy furniture consignment shop that sells her stuff for her and takes half the proceeds for their troubles. The upside for you is that these shops are picky about what they take and so the quality of merchandise is more consistent. Plus it’s a public store so you can visit at your convenience rather than setting an appointment with an individual. The downside is that while the prices are still better than retail, they know the value of their inventory and you’re less likely to get a real steal. To find a consignment shop in your area, just google “consignment shop” and your city. Personally, I also like to find baby and kid’s clothes at these kinds of places because kids grow so quickly. Two of the better known franchises are “Once Upon a Child” and Plato’s Closet (for teenagers).
  • Flea Market: How much fun is it to walk through a bunch of tables and stalls and look through what seems like junk, then find some cool, interesting little piece that will be perfect for your home? And if you ask for their best price, you can get great deals at your local flea markets. Here in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, I’ve enjoyed Wolff’s Flea Market at the Allstate Arena.
  • Estate Sales: What’s the difference between a garage sale and an estate sale? Estate sales sound fancier, and they are. Usually they include an entire house worth of furniture, dishes, decorations, etc. And since the seller’s objective is just to get rid of the stuff while perhaps making a few dollars, you can get amazing pieces for great prices. Find estate sales near you through this searchable website, EstateSales.net.
  • Swap Party. I heard this idea on The Nate Show, and can’t wait to try it. Basically, you invite your friends over and you each bring things you no longer want or need and then shop each other’s stuff. It could be clothing (if you are all a similar size) or household goods, or kid’s clothing, or the little gifts you’ve received but won’t ever use. You can hand out fake money so people bid on stuff, or you could say “bring three, take three,” or whatever other arrangement you think would make it fun. And I envision there would be a fair amount of wine involved.

So have some fun hunting for the perfect piece at a great price, and know that you are helping to reduce consumption and keep good items out of landfills. If you have other great ideas or experiences with used goods, I hope you’ll share them with me.

Over-Tippers Anonymous

October 28, 2010

I have to admit that having been a server for a few years in college makes me both more understanding and more critical at the same time. On the one hand, I know how easy it is to get “in the weeds.”  On the other hand, I was trained to deliver great service and can often find ways our server doesn’t rise to the challenge.

I used to leave the server a tip according to the perceived level of service. 15% is standard, right? So you had to be really great to get a 20% tip. This felt judicious and reasonable and fair.

But since the recession, I have started to think differently about tipping service people of all kinds. I kept hearing stories about how people were eating out less, getting their hair cut less, certainly vacationing less.  And it seems like the people most affected by this are the people who can afford it the least.

[Servers, for example, make far less than minimum wage, usually no more than $3 or $4 an hour. Rather, tips make up the bulk of their wages.  Usually, servers take home the tips they make, and they are lucky if the base wages actually paid by the restaurant cover their taxes due.]

Despite the recession, I’m still able to eat out with my family. I’m still getting my hair cut, and I’m still taking cabs and traveling regularly. So I’ve started viewing these interactions as opportunities to help out the people working hard every day and probably taking home less than they used to, through no fault of their own. To help compensate for fewer customers with tighter purse strings, I’ve become an “over-tipper.”

20% is now my minimum tip for servers and hairdressers and the like. An extra few bucks means almost nothing to me but can make a big difference to these people.

And even if I use a credit or debit card to pay for the service, I try to tip in cash so the service person can have it immediately to take home. It’s more flexible for them and they may need the cash flow, rather than waiting for the company to put credit card tips into their next pay check.

I’m also trying to be more mindful of tipping the various people I run into in the course of my business travels: hotel doormen who get me a cab and housekeepers who clean the room like the invisible Hogwarts house-elves. (more on how to tip while traveling)

Beyond the people you tip each time they provide a service, many etiquette writers suggest you tip folks during the holidays as a way to say “thanks” for great service throughout the year. Check this article “10 tips on tipping: Who gets  how much?

So if you’d like to join my new club, “Overtippers Anonymous,” be warned: it’s not a way to save a few bucks. But instead of feeling judicious (which I look at in a completely different way, now seeing how close it is to “judgmental”), you’ll feel gratitude, solidarity and joy.

Celebrate!

October 25, 2010

My friend Lisa told me a story recently of how a celebrity wedding almost brought her and a complete stranger together—but didn’t.

Lisa and this woman she didn’t know were both getting their nails done at the same salon one day, and the television set blaring from the corner was showing a program on celebrity weddings. One famous bride was extremely proud of her Mediterranean heritage and so rented ancient Greek sculptures to serve as centerpieces, shelling out $5,000—each. The stranger said to Lisa, “that’s crazy. I mean, there are so many other things you could spend that money on…” and Lisa was nodding in agreement. Starving children, she thought, or health care for pregnant women. The woman continued. “She could have gotten a fabulous diamond tennis bracelet, or…”

So close, but so far apart.

Whether you’re planning a wedding, celebrating a birthday or welcoming a new family member, the way we choose to share our joy is an important reflection of who we are and what we value.  There’s nothing wrong with spending money to celebrate special events, but to live an integrated life we need to realize that money is merely the means to an end, not an end in itself.

If you’re wondering about specific elements to include in your big moments, ask yourself these questions:

  • Does this aspect of the celebration fall in line with my deepest values?
  • Do I feel good about spending my money in this way?
  • What am I signaling to my friends and family with this celebration? Am I demonstrating superficial aspects of who I am (monetary wealth or popularity) or deeply rooted beliefs and priorities (gratitude or the importance of family).

You are the only person who can answer these questions honestly, and your gut response will tell you a lot about your underlying motivations. Do they make you uncomfortable or defensive about your choices? If so, ask yourself why and try to be honest. But if you can answer these questions with clarity and confidence, you’ll feel good about what you’re doing and enjoy your celebration as a true expression of the whole person that you are.


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