In Michael J. Mahers book The Seven Levels of Communication, he talks about the Generosity Generation. He encourages people to come from an approach of giving. I'm sure that most of you have heard of the saying; Give and it will come back to you 10 fold. But beyond that, giving just makes you feel good. Helping others and feeling good about it should be enough reason in and of itself.
With that in mind, I wanted to find a charity that I could support through my business. It had to be a local charity; something where the money would directly benefit the general community that my real estate business serves and where most, if not all of the money raised goes directly to help the people and not for administrative costs.
I found Safe Haven, doing business as A Small World, a 501C3 charity that helps at risk children and provides child care services for little or no cost to the parents so that the parents can go on job interviews or go to work. Many of these children come from single parent homes. Some even live in cars because they have no home. In touring the facility, I heard of many heart breaking stories regarding these children. Some leave on Friday afternoon and don't eat again until they return on Monday morning, when they have breakfast at the facility. One child arrived with multiple bruises. The manager called the police and the father was taken to jail for beating the child and is no longer in the picture. I could go on and on.
The charity depends on donations to keep the doors open every month. I wasn't sure just how much I was going to be able to help but I would try. One thing I could do was to stop by on Friday afternoons with some food so those children would not go hungry all weekend and encourage others to do the same.
The following week, just in casual conversation, I was telling someone about Safe Haven and how I was hoping to be able to help these children. In the middle of the conversation, the person stopped me, got out his check book and wrote a check for $2000 to the charity. He said that no child should go hungry and wrote a check. I was shocked and excited at the same time.
A few days later, I met with George, the fund-raising chair person and presented the check at the center.
That check will help those children for a month or more. He was happy and I was thrilled to be able to help so quickly; all because of a casual conversation. I may not have personally written that check, but through connections and the compassion of others, I was able to make a difference in a small way. I hope to be able to bring many more checks to this worthy charity. Those children or their parents may never buy or sell a home with me and I'm perfectly OK with that. Doing Gods work is a blessing beyond words and that's way better.
Are you giving back? Are you helping the communities that help you in your business? Or are you just taking and moving on to the next transaction? If not, consider finding a worthy charity to actively support. You can make a difference. And make it a habit to do a random act of kindness for someone every day and change the world one person at a time.
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