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Charity ratings are something so inconsistent that highly rated charities might easily find themselves outdone in rating by unknown ones that materialize out of nowhere. Charity Water is a representative though new sample of this. The power of the online medium and ingenuity are helping brand new charities to drive their ratings sky high. A charity that may not have any rating one day might be considered as one of the top of the chart charities by the New York Times the next day and their rating would then go through the roof in no time.

Because of the power the mass communication media have over the people, when a charity is in the good books of the media, it expands very quickly and manages to get a lot of charitable giving. By that same yardstick, when media do not have much interest in propping up a given charity, its rating also plummets in the same proportion.

Directory listings of charity rating

With scepticism running quite high with charity watchdogs pinpointing charity problems such as misconduct, having exceptionally high amounts of funds spent on admin or the misappropriation of funds, charity rating directory lists are flourishing. It’s so funny that philanthropic organizations that set out to give to others are now under the eye of charity watchdogs. Philanthropy is becoming a little complicated!

Givespot.com, Guidestar.org etc. are institutions that give a detailed list of charity ratings. The list of Givespot.com is known as GiveSpot 100 list, which gives a list of charities that are rated as the top 100. Then there are other institutions like charitynavigator.org which has a charity check systems and also gives a list of the Top Ten charities so that searching for a charity becomes easy. The biggest US charity directory is Guidestar.org and it offers a wide range of charity information some of which is available for free while some of the data require payment. In USA Better Business Bureau is also a charity directory that provides a list of non-profit institutions as well as commercial enterprises.

So if you want to find the 100 top charities then there are so many charity rating guides out there and yet maybe charity ratings are actually about something else. What makes a charity stand above the rest often has nothing to do with its ratings at all. There are special ingredients that make any charity or non-charity organisation successful.

Charity Ratings and trust in the public

A YouGov poll of 2005 stated that about 56 percent of the British population did not have a considerable amount of belief even in well known global charities like Oxfam and Save the Children. Even among the charities that had a good charity rating, only about 15 percent enjoyed the public’s belief in them.

Charity Critics’ Warnings are profuse

People do not have faith in charities any more. They cannot be blamed for this state of affairs. Eagle eyed critics of charities complain about mismanagement in the field with high salaries for the staff and about 60% donations being spent on overheads for running the venture, leaving little for actual charity giving.

Recent analyses reveal that just the cost of raising funds could amount to about’% in UK and 20% in Australia. The studies of the Association of Fundraising Professionals in USA put the amount to be about 30%. Administrative expenses are in addition to this and could be higher. Many charity givers find that this is the main problem, more so when charity giving grabs media attention as was the case in Singapore a couple of years ago. Such unwelcome focus becomes conducive to a decrease in charity giving which is quite unpleasant.

Charity ratings secret revealed

There is little difference between businesses and charities when it comes to attracting money. Their end use of the money is of course different, but their special secrets to attracting it in the first place are much the same.

To promote the charity rating and also to ensure better cash flow, there is a one and only formula – enticement.

When we see a thing and might prefer to buy it, or would consider putting money in it, or creating a bond with it, we are likely to make the decision based on how enticing the whole idea is. If it is a very attractive proposition, we might instantly choose to opt for it while if it is not very enticing, we may not do it immediately.

Charity Water was exceptionally successful in getting media backing and good charity rating because of their appealing idea. The scheme of charging a good price for a bottle of charity water, and using the profits thereof for getting clean water to areas where it was not available, was a fascinating idea that appealed to all.

The elements making up the attractiveness for Charity Water and boosting it’s ratings are quite obvious.

* They have the perfect name – Charity Water that makes people easily respond to the obvious passion of the founder to the idea, and his eagerness to share it with others.

* Their idea of the vocation and their message is lucid, plain and remarkable – sell water and give water – Buy One Give One

* They focused on the solution and not the problem. This is the number one mistake that loses charities rating points lowering their charity rating in people’s minds. No one wants to feel guilty and sad. They want to feel uplifted and happy. In this case happy to know they could make a difference in the lives of others by buying a simple bottle of water.

How to reduce you Charity Ratings in a heart beat

The fastest way in which a charity’s ratings would go down is when it turns itself less tempting by centring its attention on the problem. People are by and large disinclined to listen to negative things. On the contrary, most people are keen on listening to positive things that involve verve, dynamism, motivation and effort to bring in a fresh vision.

We only need to observe ourselves with our own children and experience how when our children ask us for something in a fun and lively and enthusiastic way we just want to say yes. And when they ask us for the same thing in a whinging and whining way we say no very quickly.

The ratings of a charity depend substantially on the image it projects in front of the public. With a motivating and inspiring image people will be swayed to its ideas. They will then be ready to contribute well to the cause of the charity.

Social Enterprises improve Charity Ratings and solve the problems in Getting Funds

A new business model emerged a few years ago called Social Enterprise . This in a way is a hybrid mix between a charity and a business. Some entrepreneurs want to tackle social issues but they do not find the charity model effective or attractive enough.

Many socially conscious businessmen may find the ambience of a full fledged commercial venture and its decision making mechanism unpalatable. For such people a social enterprise is an apt field where they can use their business acumen and inspiration effectively to solve social problems and usher in changes. One of the best known among such socially aware entrepreneurs is Muhammad Yunus who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. He was the first business man to be given such recognition.

Buy1GIVE1 commonly known as B1G1 (Buy 1 Give 1), is a global organisation that is a recent entrant into the world of charitable giving. It is a perfect blend of business and valuable causes functioning at the global level. Buy1GIVE1 has so minimised its expenses of fundraising and management that it is able to give for charity all the funds collected. The institution is similar in its attributes to the online organization Kiva.org, which has been promoted by Bill Clinton; unlike conventional charities, Buy1GIVE1 involves direct giving to charities. Many people are convinced that it is a better way for contributing things and receiving richly in return.

Business leaders who are looking for opportunities to give back in effective ways and give to worthy charitable causes, see the great value and well-defined key marketing advantages businesses like Buy1GIVE1 offer. Each sales transaction makes a difference – and not just in an altruistic sense. With powerful ‘impact-matching’, businesses are gifted with an eye-opening, attention-grabbing marketing story. Compare the business that gives away a million dollars to charity with the one that lets their customers experience the joy of giving with Buy1Give1 transaction-based giving.

All ventures like Buy1GIVE1 particularize charities and these are mostly charities where help is considered to be fully necessary, with enough potential to attract contributions. Businessmen obviously understand how poignant situations attract customer interest and as such they tend to support such causes rather than give importance to the organisation’s rating. They are only too conscious of the customers’ proclivity to bond better with a stronger story than worry about charity rating.

The Australian company Maple Muesli collaborates with an Indian charity called Midday Meals in the city of Mumbai. Whenever someone buys a bag of muesli, the contribution from it feeds a needy child there. A meal for a child costs only the equivalent of 30 US cents and the charity in this way feeds 125,000 kids in Mumbai every day. This makes the children desist from begging, keeps them away from streets, and makes them remain in school.

Maple Muesli has helped to put Midday Meals on the map as a worthy and well-rated cause in Australia. Maple Muesli share their giving story with all their customers increasing the natural rating of this amazing organisation in Mumbai without Midday Meals doing anything other than feed children. Effective Giving – The Era for Plain Charity Donations is ending

A change is impending in the setting of the top 100 charities and would become visible in a few years as more novel and productive ways of charitable giving take shape. Nowadays only limited choices exist for making donations for charitable purposes. All the existing ones are not good enough to create enough difference.

Alternative Charity Ratings

Some of the new and different ways to give are highlighted and rated in the table below. Charity Comparison Points

We have compared and rated a few well-known and less well-known charities and Social Enterprises on areas that are important to their donors.

THE SALVATION ARMY

ROUTE TO GIVING: DIRECT GIVING

The Salvation Army is one among the most well-known 100 charities of the world – Both individuals and enterprises make contributions directly to it.

TRANSPARENCY – B – Lack of transparency – Sum of money is contributed – but result is not fully measurable.

MARKETING VALUE TO BUSINESS – C – Businesses’ one-off contributions to Salvation Army may be mentioned in the press.

FUNDRAISING COSTS – B – Spends millions of dollars annually to raise funds.

CONTRIBUTORS’CHOICE OF CHARITY – B – For direct giving, you can have a lot of charities to check out before settling which one is best.

POTENTIAL FOR REAL GLOBAL CHANGE – C- Nothing new to offer in terms of market change.

PRODUCT (RED)

WAY TO GIVING: MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Product (RED) is a brand licensed to partner companies, to raise money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Africa.

CANDOUR – B – Insufficient candour – Lots of money is donated – but result is not completely quantifiable.

MARKETING VALUE TO BUSINESS – A – People and businesses love to support (RED) as it is backed by adored personalities like Oprah & Bono. Marketing results a little hard to track though.

EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS – C – Spends huge sums of money on advertisements – giving that money directly to Africa would have been more practical.

DONOR’S CHOICE OF CHARITY – C – Limited choice for collaborators on deciding to which charity they should donate – all their charity work is in Africa.

POTENTIAL FOR REAL GLOBAL CHANGE – B – Products (RED) only partner huge companies and all their profits go to Africa.

THE BODY SHOP

WAY TO GIVING: BUSINESS TRADE & GIVING

The Body Shop is involved in community trade to help economically backward countries and makes large donations to causes from the profit they generate.

CANDOUR – B – Insufficient candour – Lots of money is donated – but result is not completely quantifiable.

MARKETING VALUE TO BUSINESS – A-tve – Customers are happy to be involved in community trade and are motivated to buy more. Visibility could be a lot better.

EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS – A – Costs are kept low – Business design is good enough to attract large contributions and further community trade.

DONOR’S CHOICE OF CHARITY – A – Enterprises are at liberty to choose where their contributions should go.

PROMISE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE – B – The potential for giving back to the community is substantial – but not everyone have the impetus and the extra energy to impel the change.

LIVE EARTH

PATH TO GIVING : EVENT FUNDRAISING

Live Earth was a series of music concerts for a global audience held on July 7, 2007 which kick-started a three-year long campaign to fight climate changes across the world.

OPENNESS – F – Intelligent Giving had reported that the takings from the concert tickets sales were not accounted satisfactorily.

MARKETING VALUE TO BUSINESS – B – Business sponsors got good coverage – but it was only a one time event and it is not easy to test and measure results.

EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS – C – Substantial sums were spent on promotion of an event which was considered a fiasco by many as it did not have any proper objectives.

DONOR’S CHOICE OF CHARITY – C – Only three charities could manage to get funds.

PROMISE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE – C – Such events can be held just once or at the most once a year. The amount collected generally goes to better known charities.

Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1 )

ROUTE TO GIVING: SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

B1G1 is a brand licensed to collaborate with any enterprise – uniting them with any cause across the globe. A fully comprehensive model.

TRANSPARENCY – A – One for one giving ensures funds given are used for what they were intended. Customers know their giving translates into real change (e.g. numbers of trees planted, numbers of children fed).

BENEFIT FOR THE BUSINESS – A+tve – Superb marketing value as a result of:

* Calculable giving * Media interest * Effective stories * Person to person * Returning customers

EXPENSES FOR RAISING FUNDS – A+tve – No cost at all – B1G1 can look after a charity’s fundraising requirements which will include a good percentage of management also. All the funds that have accrued go to the cause.

CONTRIBUTORS’CHOICE OF CHARITY – A – Business givers can choose their charity project or elect to give to a charity cause such as food or education, etc.

PROMISE FOR GLOBAL CHANGE – A – Unlimited. If more and more businesses can collaborate with charities internationally, the prospects for real change is colossal.

You Would Think Giving away Money Would Be No Big Deal!”

Donating money may not seem to be a difficult job – it is just a question of handing over some money as cheque, cash or via the credit card. Still, someone like George Sores, who is as generous a donor as could be, agrees that effectual giving is no cakewalk. Underprivileged communities and countries receive millions of dollars in aid and still the situation remains much the same year after year.

Asking the right questions is necessary for bringing about the required changes. Social entrepreneur Mohammed Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, has done pioneering work in the field of Microfinance and is revolutionizing the ways in which indigence and environmental problems can be tackled. People like him are showing the way as to how consumerism and social enterprise can change the face of the world. Another such example is the ‘Trade – Not Aid’ of The Body Shop. The ideals of Buy1GIVE1 are equally potent and are a model for charities. Social enterprise needs total recognition.

Bill Gates, when asked how one can make a difference in the world, pointed to the Internet. Kiva.org and Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com) are organisations that add value to the giver. With Kiva.org, people can receive email journal updates from the business they have sponsored. This happens with Buy1GIVE1 as well. Businesses also get the added benefit of marketing stories to tell their customers: buy a laptop with us, and we give one computer to someone who cannot afford it.

Other methods for improving your Charity Ratings

Ensure that you have an inquisitive mind, and remain connected to a computer, and spare some time to find out about the new types of charities and how they function. These programs are mainly based on networking and work through the internet.

Today if you are not linked in with powerful global networks through the Internet you are missing out and no matter what your charity rating is today, tomorrow things will change – radically.

Lots of companies nowadays make their appearance out of nowhere and are sold a few years later for billions of dollars. This was a scenario that would have been considered impossible a decade ago. But today this is a normal phenomenon. What every one of these internet companies primarily do is to tap into global networks or even perhaps create one themselves.

Buy1GIVE1 (Buy One Give One)

Buy1GIVE1 is a comparatively new Social Enterprise established in’97 by a Japanese lady named Masami Sato. Today any business globally can be a member of Buy1GIVE1. The membership fee for smaller enterprises is as low as $1 for a day. Contributions can also be as low as one cent on a sale made. Buy1GIVE1 is spearheading the Buy One Give One transaction-based giving global movement. For any enterprise or charity requirement, working jointly with Buy1GIVE1 is very simple. It is perfectly structured and accommodating enough to adjust to the requirements of its partners. An organisation can connect its products or services with any charity endeavour (Buy1GIVE1′s or their own) and each time a sale is made, the sale has to be recorded and the input paid at the end of a specific period. The amount can be sent through Buy1GIVE1 or directly to the concerned charity.

You are strongly advised to create lasting bonds with Buy1GIVE1 and also motivate your business associates to join Buy1GIVE1. It is a singular and wonderful organisation doing stupendous work and no one can afford to ignore it.

A new epoch in charity giving

Companies that had no presence a few months ago are ravaging cyberspace with the echo of user acceptance. Services life Twitter , Facebook , MySpace , YouTube, NING and TipJoy are places you must have a presence in. Organisations like Change The Present, Kiva and companies like Buy1GIVE1 you should be building relationships with. These are all the new future and will all help maintain and build charity ratings. Today is a new opportunity to build a new future.

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What we should be doing when the economy is down.

When the financial market is unstable worldwide, the first reaction of most people is to hold on to what they have and also cut costs. They also presume that practically everyone is doing the same thing, as that is the impression that newspapers create.

Everyone ISN`T acting that way of course. In fact, some people and some businesses thrive no matter where the economy is going. And when you look for why that is, you find that the answer often lies in a simple place where most people have never even looked. Let’s explore together.

When a current is going downward, whatever the reason be, the way to survive is by rowing against the current. If we let ourselves to be swept away by the current, we may sink deep down and survival might become difficult.

The reality is that when we learn how to be in control and in our power, we can stay above everything that is happening no matter what happens around us. Let’s take a look at how.

‘Go-getters’ or ‘Go-contributors’

Let’s say we want more – more profits, a pay raise, more holidays, more freedom, and more opportunities.

When we have a desire for an object, our first tendency is to straightaway go and have it. That just makes us ‘Go-getters’. And a ‘go-getter’ is surely a self-motivated person, an activist and a natural leader. Such a vision is a proven way to succeed in life as we have heard. Still, there is some sort of a snag. When this plan is brought into play, the results are somewhat surprising though in a way it is foreseeable as well.

The gist of the matter is that after ‘getting’ and ‘possessing’ it we tend to ‘get rid of’ it. We might actually jettison it or might become apathetic to the whole idea.

Then our interest swings to something else. This continuous swaying of interest is the biggest issue; the widening interests becoming a never-ending circle of desires so that we are never satisfied with what we have. It becomes a sort of junk food dependency!

But what if we turned our ‘getting’ into giving?

Most of you are aware that the act of providing gives a sense of fulfillment. This ensues from gratefulness and not from panic or avarice. A person can go on providing more and receive more and know full satisfaction in the voyage of life.

Our abundant and providing attitude creates abundant and providing clients and team mates while our cost awareness and ‘getting approach’ would draw towards us only similar clients and team mates. And those are the type of people we would not like to be friends with!

Inspiring capitalism

Most enterprises are conscious of this now. Companies have now started providing for others in myriad ways. A complete change has come over as companies understand how the idea of giving is crucial to their business. In an article in TIME Magazine in July 2008, it was Bill Gates who coined the word ‘Creative Capitalism.’

He explained that helping others might be the fine deciding point that could persuade people to prefer one product to another.

The gist of what Bill Gates is saying is that when an enterprise is associated with the idea of providing in any manner, that enterprise and its products become more appealing to clients. It carves out a niche for itself far above that of others.

Creative Capitalism is the idea of taking things a step higher than the destination at which one would have originally chosen to make the compromise. When we can leverage our visions and initiatives in a way that helps and promotes the needs of the global society, we are conserving things, efforts and abilities in trying to win pro tem. Then we begin fashioning genuine success for us as well as for supporting our global financial system.

The charm of effective giving

CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility is the word used for delineating the process of business establishments giving back to the community. It is becoming an obligation on the part of enterprises to do so. But when they donate as a duty or just for creating a good impression, it would soon become easy to make out. However, it works as an interim ploy for survival.

Individuals and enterprises that ‘contribute’, appeal to everyone. Their fervour and conviction about what they do are acknowledged by the people with whom they build up relationships. This acknowledgement is in addition to the official public relations campaign of the establishment.

What is likely to be the upshot if some of the capital meant for marketing is apportioned for contributions?

From the act of giving rises something that transcends us. The act of contributing results in revelation. And this revelation ensues only when it reverberates across those whom we want to arouse. And we are aroused when we become part of the happening totally. We cannot be satisfied with the narratives that are passed on to us. Those tales have to be lived in. in the end it is human nature to yearn for the satisfaction of making our own donation – to our kith and kin and organizations and society.

Transaction-based giving makes it happen automatically

The ability to give just got so much easier too, thanks to an initiative (some would say a ‘movement’) called Buy1GIVE1 (Buy One Give One). Buy1GIVE1 is the home of transaction-based giving. Transaction-based giving changes everything. Let’s use some imagination to see why.

How wonderful is the situation where every time someone buys an ice cream, a child somewhere in an underprivileged country gets a cup of milk?

Or a different scenario where with every subscription to a journal that you would like to read, a sapling gets planted somewhere where it was badly needed? Or whenever you ate out, someone routinely got fed out of its profit?

Or let’s say you’re being coached in your business. How interesting would it be to know that a child was educated for one month as a direct result (and by the way, all it cost the coaching company to do that was 60 cents per day).

Where a motivational speaker at a conference is connected with a charity, part of his income might go to helping kids who have speech problems due to facial defects. It will be a matter of great satisfaction for the participants at the conference to know that their very participation is helping a deserving cause.

Imagine now if you could apply transaction-based giving in your own unique way to match your main products/services to engage your customers and team members to be part of the giving story. Here’s how.

The economy where all benefits

Already, companies right around the world are ‘getting’ the power of this transaction-based giving. Just one example-the UK’s leading supermarket chain, TESCO now gives a school uniform to a child in Kenya whenever a customer buys a pair of school trousers.

Volvic is a Mineral Water Company that launched its scheme of transaction-based giving program last year. They help the cause of making wells in Africa. They call the scheme Buy1 GIVE 10 as it helps in generating a flow of 10 litres of water in the well, by every single litre of water they sell.

Lesser to middle level businesses have now begun to spearhead the movement of increasing the idea of global giving through Creative Capitalism. Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com), a Singapore-based Social Enterprise came up with a procedure that has turned this transaction-based giving into something each and every human being can be part of.

Buy1GIVE1 is the home of the most impactful transaction-based giving in the world because it connects any business of any size to any cause in the world. It’s creating a global community of business givers and for SME`s, Buy1GIVE1 connects businesses, their customers AND charities in a way that hasn’t been done before. And it all happens automatically.

You can enroll yourself as a citizen of this marvel of universal giving by simply getting a Buy1GIVE1 `VISA` directly from the Buy1GIVE1 site at www.b1g1.com. And if you are an entrepreneur, you can become a B1G1 Business through making an online application and choosing the requirement for which you would like to donate and your product or service through which you would prefer to do it to initiate the giving. Buy1GIVE1 forwards the whole of the donation to their international Worthy Cause Partners (with more than 528 projects to choose) making the giving entirely satisfactory.

Do you know?

* Half the population of the globe -about three billion people-is forced to survive on less than two dollars a day.

* Even when the new millennium dawned there were still almost a billion people who were illiterate.

* According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. That is about 210,000 children each week, or 20 children every minute.

* A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water; and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.

* Medical aid is not available for one billion people of the world population.

* Rainforests of about 63,000 sq. miles get destroyed every year.

Data From Global Issues

Buy1GIVE1 Businesses- scrutinize these examples

* Buy1BUILD1 (www.sunsplashhomes.com, www.arkgroup.com.au)

* Education to education (www.kipmcgrath.com.au)

* Medical practice providing healthcare (www.primanora.com)

* Phone card to communication (www.ultimatecomms.com)

* Meditation to restoration (www.meditate.com.au)

* Losing weight to feeding children (www.bodychain.com)

* Luminous blinds to luminous classrooms (www.blindscouture.com.au)

* Socks for feet to socks for social effect (www.socksforhappypeople.com)

* Coaching to train social entrepreneurs (www.b1g1forcoaches.com)

* And to get a complete picture, just go to www.b1g1.com.

Unearthing what we are looking for-Nature’s eternal secret

So let’s let us return to the starting point-turbulent economics and managing to get what we need. The needs are in fact not all that knotty. They are just a group of three words that begin with the letter S – strong bonds, solidarity and society.

When we can collaborate instead of isolate and when we can create an effective way to add to each other instead of taking away from each other, we discover there is so much abundance and resource already available in our world. And when we connect, not just with each other but with our true selves, we discover something really interesting-that we’re all ONE. Then we understand how easy it is to create a global community from something as simple as giving.

And the truth is there in all its glory in nature.

In the wild, all types of insects cross-fertilize plants to create fruits and flowers of endless varieties benefitting men and animals alike. The perfect give and take pattern was there even before civilizations started.

Failures are said to be stepping stones to success. In the same way we can turn setbacks into advantages. In reality we should be thankful for the current situation that is helping us to move ahead.

And when a person chooses to donate now itself, in spite of the financial crisis, he will feel more contended. And with this contentment he will find a hope that is rekindled anew, which will ring a bell on how the ebb and flow of things can change. Today’s charity might be that which will reverse the flow.

Discover more about how Buy1GIVE1 (BOGO) can transform your business using Cause Marketing. This and other unique content ” articles are available with free reprint rights.



Pt 2 of 3

This collection of beautiful quotes that will inspire you to discover and embrace the joy of giving is extracted from Masami Sato’s second book – “ONE”. Masami is the founder of a global giving movement called Buy1GIVE1. The quotes in this edition include topics that are related to our everyday lives, such charity, giving, receiving, joy, making a difference and rich-poor separation. This article is the second part of three “ONE Book Life-Changing Quotes Series”.

Giving and receiving

“What if giving actually was as important as brushing teeth?”

“Giving love is the only way to be generously loved.”

“one key in the giving process is never to expect a return when we give.”

“The people who give more (time, money, kindness, love, ideas) have more of these things because that’s the balance. And balance is the natural law of life.”

“we’re not here to give in order ‘to get’. We’re here to have more to give more.”

“one key in the giving process is never to expect a return when we give.”

“Giving is just a part of who we are.”

“Giving is just a part of who we are.”

“Giving is not just about helping others. It is about sharing the joy. We do it for our own joy first and we pass it on.”

“we can feel the real joy of giving when we’re doing something for others knowing that we’re simply doing it for ourselves-we’re doing it for our own joy.”

“Giving to others is actually giving to self.”

“Giving is not just about helping others. It is about sharing the joy. We do it for our own joy first and we pass it on.”

“Every single one of us prospers when we learn to give value to others first. We are rewarded naturally.”

On simple joy

“So without denying the benefit of having more innovation (because it feels good), can we find the way to have more joy in our life? If we can, then we can go beyond the temporal gratification. We can create a sense of permanent certainty.”

On charity giving

“charity organisations are like our out-sourcing agencies for the giving of our life.”

“Businesses and charities are actually the same thing. Someone started the organisation with the passion to do something-to make a difference.”

“Businesses and charities are actually the same thing. Someone started the organisation with the passion to do something-to make a difference.”

On having more or having less

“The moment we believe we have more, we’re saying others have less. And OUR attitude creates separation.”

“the moment we perceive someone as ‘poor’, our perception creates the poor feeling in the other person.”

On making a difference

“Big is nothing other than a whole lot of ‘smalls’. Small things can actually transform the world.

Find out more about how Buy One Give One can transform your business using cause-related marketing. This and other unique content ‘personal development’ articles are available with free reprint rights.