Give a Little

My husband has been saying for a while that if he ever has his own company he will (if he makes any profit) give a little to a good cause.  He hasn't gotten the company yet but we decided that we'll start anyway to give every month. It can be the smallest amount or, if we can and feel like it, a bit more. It doesn't necessary have to be money either but it can be our time, clothes or anything else we can spare. Sometimes him and me can give to different causes and sometimes we can make a joint donation. If we give money I'll try to match the same sum to our saving account as well to keep a good balance. For the moment we won't sign up to giving to the same organization every month (even if it's a good idea) but I think we both like to just go along with life and see what feels most important at that time.

I got even more inspired about the idea as today I've read on the NonViolentMoney blog (in Swedish) about the most beautiful answer, according to the author Cecilia Carlsson, to why we have money. Her answer is that we have money because it makes it easier to give, especially to strangers.

I've also recently found out about Free Money Day, which occurs 15th September. They are organizing events around the world where people give out money to strangers asking them to share half of it with someone else. By doing this they want to raise awareness about economies based on sharing. They had the nicest quote by Winston Churchill on their twitter:

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

So this month I made a donation to Doctors Without Borders. This organization, which is probably well known by all of you, has a campaign in Sweden at the moment so it is easy peasy to send them some money with a text message to support their work in South Sudan. If you're in Sweden, read more about it here.

I'll try to follow up on our future donations on the blog. If you know Spanish you can also read about it in my husband's blog.

To go back to the subject about giving as a company, if you have your own company and want to do something good there's lots of alternatives to give something back to your community or to the planet. Many companies decide to give money to local projects which is a great idea to strengthen the local economy. Do think about what fits your company though so you can proudly stand behind your decision. This can definitely be a boost for the company image, if  the customers feels it goes in line with other things you do. Another organization I like is 1% for the Planet (not only because Jack Johnson is lovely), learn more about them in the video:

[one percent] of the story from 1% for the Planet on Vimeo.

Remember that no amount is too small and it's allowed to feel good about yourself for giving! I'm going back to being a student after tomorrow (last day at the summer job), so I might have to be creative about what I give but I'm sure it's gonna turn out fine.