Please Read: My Personal Challenge to Companies, to Colleagues, and to YOU

It’s official… I am blissfully in love with life and with my work, and I want to sincerely and passionately explain to you WHY. Please bear with me on the length of this post, because if you could see my face right now, you’d know that this article matters. I am imploring you to hear me out to the end, and I want to issue a challenge– for companies, colleagues of mine, and all individual readers.

It was my honor Monday to help launch a major social responsibility movement along with Goodwill and Levi’s, as I explained to you in the last blog post. I want to tell you more about why it’s so important, in my own words– and also, on a very personal note, how it is part of what is making me feel so fulfilled.

The Donate Movement and the Donate icon are vastly significant, and it’s not just about Goodwill Industries– the reach is much further. Here’s how I see the vision of what this is truly about:

• Social Services/Charitable Impact: We want people to understand that their household item donations are just as valuable as financial donations. Just as you would not write a check to someone without knowing why, we don’t want you to just dump your unneeded belongings at the first convenient spot you see. Not all thrift stores are charities. If you don’t know what is going to be done with the revenues from the sale of your donations, please be a Conscious Donor and make yourself aware. Whether you donate to Goodwill or your own favorite charity, we want you to choose a reputable nonprofit that puts a significant percentage of their revenue back into their services to help others. 84% of Goodwill’s collective revenues go directly to support its mission of providing job training, placement services, and community programs to those who face challenges to finding employment. Goodwill’s founder Edgar Helms once spoke of “reclaiming the value of both things and people,” and I think that is simply beautiful. This mission is more important than ever, given our economy and the other circumstances we face—I just met CEOs of Goodwill member agencies from Louisiana and Alabama and Florida… they will be there to help displaced workers get on their feet with what is going on right now in the Gulf. You can find out more about nonprofits at CharityNavigator.org, Guidestar.org, or your local Better Business Bureau, and you can find your most convenient Goodwill location at donate.goodwill.org.
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  Environmental Impact to Landfills: Can you believe that people actually throw millions of pounds of clothing into the landfill each year? And did you know that Goodwill (in partnership with Dell) has saved 98 million pounds of electronic equipment from the landfill since 2004 alone? As I said in the PSA that Goodwill produced for this Movement, “Just as there are things you recycle, there are things you donate.” We want people to think twice before throwing something usable away and not only adding to the landfill, but depriving someone of desperately needed social services. One working computer provides 5.3 hours of career counseling! Goodwill has been an environmental pioneer of the “reduce, reuse, repurpose” concept for over 100 years.
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  Environmental Impact Overall: I was intensely impressed with Levi’s commitment to sustainability when I heard their representative speak at our launch. (Listen to Jason McBriarty from Levi’s here at 23:00 into the launch video) They looked at the entire product lifecycle of their 501 jeans and their Dockers khakis, from the cotton and how it’s grown, all the way to the manner in which consumers care for their products and beyond. They have been working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to find new types of cotton that are better for the environment and for the farm workers, and they launched their care tag that says, “Wash Less, Wash in Cold Water, Line Dry, Donate to Goodwill.” They are the first company to put the Donate icon on their product. This company has the vision to responsibly and comprehensively see its products through a longer lifecycle. Goodwill is working to find other corporate partners like Levi’s who get it and want to take their products as far as they can go for the good of everyone. As other companies join us, the Donate icon will eventually become as recognized as the recycling symbol, the pink ribbon, or the yellow bracelet.

And now to my happiness and to your challenge… I have come to realize that growth and contribution are some of the highest-level human needs and those that bring the most fulfillment. (Thank you to Tony Robbins, one of the world’s finest human beings, for that insight.) Growth takes effort and it takes conquering fear… it’s not easy and nothing worth having is.  I have worked hard for ten years to bring my company where it is today, and the journey has been difficult with a lot of risk. There’s a long road ahead, too, to be able to learn and accomplish more. And I am glad people think I was poised, but going out on stage to a live webcast to the world with so much riding on the speech I gave Monday was scary! (My launch speech is introduced here at about 11:30 minutes into the video)

What kept my nerves calm was the knowledge that I was speaking for those who can’t speak for themselves. And the sense of contribution and responsibility that brings is immense. I believe that every person has a unique set of skills, abilities, experience, and knowledge that can be matched with just the right opportunity for contribution. My friend and mentor Brendon Burchard helped me see that partnering with a nonprofit could be the right way for me to serve (the amazing Brendon, my mentor who is actually much younger than me! There is something not fair about that). I am so happy and fulfilled because I have found with Goodwill the opportunity that allows me to take everything I know and everything I can do well and use it to give back in the biggest and best way. I cannot begin to describe in words how moving and significant this is for me, and I have tears in my eyes as I write this. So that brings me to my challenge:

• To Companies: Are your thoughts on your products’ lifecycle considering the environment and the community in the fullest possible way? Can you be involved in the Donate Movement by putting the Donate icon on your products, or in the absence of products, by promoting the Movement in your company’s messages wherever they might fit with this vision? (If so, let’s please have a conversation!)
• To My Colleagues and Friends in the “Expert” Industry– Speakers, Authors, and Consultants: How could you contribute your unique expertise and your story to benefit the world? Who could you help and how can you serve them? And to my friends in NAPO… will you commit to educating your organizing clients about Conscious Donation, whether that means to Goodwill or to another reputable nonprofit in your area?
• To Everyone: Are you being a Conscious Donor of your belongings? And more importantly, what is YOUR unique set of skills, abilities, and knowledge? How could you contribute to your family, your community, or the world in your own way? Do you know the answer? Good… now, think bigger. Marianne Williamson says, “Your playing small does not serve the world.” When I am feeling afraid, this quote puts me in my place every time. What fears do you need to push through to achieve growth?

Thank you for making it all the way to the end. I hope you feel my heart and soul in this article and I hope you’ll comment and let me know if it spoke to you.

With gratitude,