Doing Good While Doing Business
Several weeks ago in my first email newsletter (Subscribe here!), I talked for the first time publicly about my desire for my business to have a positive social impact. I knew from the beginning of starting my business that one financial goal would be to not only increase our family's income but also to increase our capacity for generosity. There are many causes and organizations doing great work in the world - it was exciting to think that we would have more capacity to say yes when they came knocking.
The how and when of how to implement something to reach these goals were still unclear and put on my back burner when one of my new favorite podcasts, Masters of Scale, did a podcast with Starbucks Chair and Former CEO Howard Schultz called "How To Do Good - And Do Good Business". In it, he discusses the multiple ways that Starbucks, from the beginning, incorporated their desire to have a social impact in multiple ways across the organization. It's what informed their policy on employee healthcare plans and the college tuition program they have. (Side note - it was only a few weeks after this episode aired that a highly publicized incident occurred at a Starbucks where a manager called the police on two black men who were waiting in the shop for a colleague. Having listened to the podcast, I was very interested in how the company would respond. Since that whole situation has been fully discussed in better forums, all I'll say here is that I could recognize the ways the company wanted to address it in a way that could have an impact beyond the specific store/community where the incident occurred and that the company remains interested in making society better. It's that underlying motivation that reveals itself when something negative happens in your company.)
The podcast was inspiring and helped me to see I didn't necessarily need to wait until a specific income point to make "doing good" a real part of my business plan. So, as I told my subscribers last month, I've now committed to donating a percentage of my proceeds each month to an organization or cause that I believe in. I'm excited to introduce these organizations to my audience and excited to be able to do my small part in bringing more justice, equity, and opportunity to people around the world.
In June, Your Administrative Ally was able to donate to Be the Bridge, an organization that inspires the church to have a radical and transformative response to racial division, equips bridge builders with skills to build racial unity, and partners with other organizations who have a heart for justice, restoration, and reconciliation. This organization is doing the long and slow work of dismantling notions of white supremacy one conversation at a time. It's long and slow work, and I'm so impressed by what they're doing.
If you're interested in learning more about what they do and how they do it, check out these links. This one tells you more about the organization and its founder, Latasha Morrison. This one is one of my favorite transformation stories.
Over the rest of this year, I'll be honing and refining my social impact statement, clarifying the kinds of organizations I want to support and sharing that here on the blog. I'd love to hear about your favorite causes and non-profits. There are so many people out there changing the world - let's inspire one another!