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The GoodLetter Thursday, August 1, 2002
GoodThings, Inc. :: Stories, actions, ideas, and greeting cards that connect us.
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GoodThings Greeting Card of the Week
Many Voices: Fresh vegetables in the garden...
Is there anything better about summertime than fresh vegetables? Share your passion for the goodthings of summer with friends who feel the same. Send them this week's featured card!
We don't have advertisements and don't charge for subscriptions to the GoodLetter, so the only way we can continue to do what we do is through sales of GoodThings Greeting Cards. Buy just one pack of 8 greeting cards for only $12.50 or a few single cards for $2.50 each (plus shipping/handling) and help make it possible for us to continue promoting positive and constructive organizations, ideas, and people. We can't do it without you. Don't forget: you can also choose from all our cards to create a variety pack of your favorites!
(We print all our cards on recycled paper using soy ink.)
Would your non-profit organization or progressive company like to use customized GoodThings Greeting Cards for your holiday or membership correspondence or for fundraising? Send an e-mail to cards@goodthings.com and ask us about our card customization program!
Please visit our online store today
(or buy them from a card store near you)
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Click the card to see it enlarged or to order
Text on card: Fresh vegetables in the garden
Inside: blank
(friendship, general) |
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This Week's Feature
Toward True Corporate Responsibility
by Dan Porter
With egregious scandals from Enron to WorldCom to Tyco to Global Crossing, most agree that corporate America could use a strong dose of financial responsibility. But is the conversation complete without a heightened corporate commitment to social responsibility, as well?
Editor's Note: Corporate social responsibility is hardly a new idea, but Portland, Maine-based IdealsWork is among the freshest members of an already-rich cadre aligned in the effort to make business accountable to a range of important social concerns. It's a "goodthing" that presents many real and often frustrating challenges -- economic challenges, logistical challenges, reporting challenges, and, of course, political challenges. But sometimes it's a burning passion for the concept of corporate social responsibility that gets at the heart of the matter and reinvigorates the effort. The IdealsWork story abounds with practical passion.
Fellow GoodLetter readers,
It's funny how one good thing can lead to another. How a chance meeting twenty some years ago can lead to a lifelong friendship, a twenty-year dialogue about making the world a better place, and, finally, to IdealsWork, a tool that can enormously increase the power of people who are thoughtful about social and environmental issues.
Will Crosby and I met by chance some twenty years ago and shared an apartment for several years. Even back then, we talked of how we wanted to change the world and how we wanted to integrate our ideals into our work. While we went on to work in very different arenas -- Will mostly in the corporate world and I mostly in the non-profit sector -- we both continued to share the itch about how to apply our expertise to bettering the world. Then one morning, after a series of coffee shop breakfasts, an idea was born. A crazy and impossible idea, but one that simply had to be put into motion.
The idea was to use business to make the world a better place. For us, it was an idea that emerged from the simple question, "What if?" What if there were a place people could go to learn how a company treats the environment, people, and animals? What if people could make decisions about what to buy based on a company's practices? What if there were a way for people concerned about social responsibility to make their voices heard in a way that would influence companies? What if it were free so everyone could do it?
As we explored these "What ifs?" it became clear that creating the place we imagined would be an ambitious and pioneering effort. Though times are changing, starting a business with a non-profit mission is still not a mainstream activity. When you are doing something different, maybe even something that has never been done before, it can be pretty scary, particularly when you're endeavoring to launch a Web-based company just as the tide turned on dot-coms. But if you have a dream and know what your purpose is, it can help you walk through that fear and connect with the people and opportunities that can help you. It also helps a lot to have a sense of humor.
Our experience with IdealsWork certainly bears this out. It took us about three years to get from the original idea to the reality of the IdealsWork.com Web site, and it has been a true adventure. But the journey has affirmed both our belief in what we are doing and our faith that people would like what we are doing and support it. Last month, visitors compared over 80,000 brands through searches on our site, and thanks to the Web, we've been hearing from people all over the world. Many have shared their thoughts, suggestions and experiences with us, and it's truly heartening (and helpful) for us to hear from them.
Now there is a place where people can go to learn where the brands we buy stand on the issues we care about most. It's a simple process. You just select the issues you care about, identify a product category, and -- presto -- you get a personalized rating comparing the brands in that category. You can send a message to companies about their practices with one-click ease, print out your shopping list, and take it with you to the stores. Or even better, become a member, and shop online through links provided by IdealsWork. When you go directly from IdealsWork to a merchant listed on our site and make a purchase, a percentage of that purchase goes to the non-profit you choose. We have put together a list of non-profits that specialize in a host of social issues, and you're able to select the issue that is nearest and dearest to you -- whether it be women's issues, animal welfare, or food safety.
It may seem like a small thing -- making a decision based on a company's behavior -- but companies do pay a lot of attention to what their customers are doing. They spend millions on market research so that they can figure out what people want. Isn't it about time we started telling them? Now we can. Through thousands of small and simple acts, we can make a big difference in how companies behave and dramatically improve environmental, working, and social conditions around the world. We've set out to change the world and invite everyone who's interested to join us -- because we can't do it alone and because we believe one good thing really can lead to another.
:: Dan Porter
Portland, Maine
Dan loves pursuing a dream, pulling for the underdog, and playing in the ocean. This summer, he's doing all three.
(Thoughts on Dan's GoodLetter? Inspired by what you've read? E-mail us -- don't forget to tell us your name, where you're from, and if we can use your words in a future GoodLetter or on our Web site.)
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Good Gratitude
Thanks to so many of you had such wonderful responses to George Watson's GoodLetter last week, "Dogs and the People Who Need Them" [#97]. If you missed George's GoodLetter, you can read it anytime on our Web site by clicking this link -- be sure to scroll down in the right-hand column to the "Readers Respond" section to check out what folks like Michelle Foster of Austin, Texas, and Julianne Perkovich of Wickcliffe, Ohio, are saying about their own amazing experiences with dogs.
George's GoodLetter also inspired a remarkable letter in our continuing Good Gratitude series. We send our gratitude to Tessa Wigger for the following letter and hope it sparks expressions of appreciation from those of you who'd like to thank the unsung heroes in your lives:
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Dear GoodThings,
It was one of the coldest Christmas Eves in the history of our southern city. I was at work and called my husband to get him to make a final run to the grocery store before Christmas. This seemed ordinary, but our lives were changed afterwards. When he arrived at the store, he noted a lady cuddling herself to stay warm and approaching people as they walked in the store. He went inside the store and got what he needed and came back out on the side where the lady was standing. Almost in tears, she pleaded with him to take a puppy that she had in a little box. He shook his head and was walking off, but the lady stopped him and said: "Sir, this dog is not mine, but I work in this store and I saw the box when I came to work this morning, not knowing that it contained a puppy. I live in an apartment, and I can't take the dog with me, but it is Christmas Eve, and I cannot let this puppy die in the cold, just because someone irresponsibly dropped the dog off here in this weather."
My husband understood the poor woman who had been standing there for a few hours with a puppy that most likely was someone's rejected Christmas present. He brought it home, where the puppy lingered between life and death for a couple of days. Finally one day, she began to play a little with our cats and eventually became a wonderful mutt named Noel. Today, Noel is the alpha female of six rescued dogs which she helps us potty- and boundary-train. She is the sunshine of our lives and a constant reminder that there are so many more animals that need our assistance. Though we do not know the lady who ultimately saved Noel's life, it is comforting to know that these people exist. Whoever you are, you may not remember that night four years ago, but everyday we thank you for your determination and love for the animals that need a spokesperson like you.
Tessa Wigger
Theodore, Alabama
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Do you have some GOOD GRATITUDE you'd like to share? Keep your thank-you letters coming! Let the world know how much you appreciate the people who have made a difference in your life. Send your best thank-you letters to gratitude@goodthings.com -- and don't forget to tell us your name and where you're from.
We love to hear from you about anything: ideas or situations that are inspiring you or challenging you to think, as well as organizations, programs, and people that contribute to your community and the world everyday. Please drop us a line.
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The Upshot
Entire cultures are at risk around the world, particularly as the global economy expands its influence. But there are some which continue to cling to a traditional way of life. In Search of Dignity, a new book featuring remarkably vivid work by renowned German photographer Gunter Pfannmuller and the essays of Wilhelm Klein, celebrates people from these cultures in their efforts to preserve for future generations the customs they know and the places they love. Pfannmuller and Klein traveled to different parts of the world -- remote parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, India, and Burma, among others -- and spent time in indigenous villages before inviting people from those villages into their mobile photography studio. The result of the seven-year project is an astonishing and enriching book.
:: Learn more about In Search of Dignity
:: Get your copy of In Search of Dignity
:: Learn more about the book's non-profit publisher, Aperture
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GoodThings on Public Radio
Have you been checking out our favorite public radio stories? Here are some of our favorite public radio pieces from this week (follow this link or the one below to the full summaries on our Web site):
:: Two-Wheeled First Aid -- Ever seen a paramedic on two wheels? In London, where streets are often too congested for ambulances, some of the injured are now seeing mountain bikes come to their aid.
:: Happy-Sad -- When a four-year-old discovers she has leukemia, what goes through her young mind? Her parents reflect on their daughter's extraordinary journey.
:: Hard Rocking for Literacy -- What does it take to instill surly teenagers with a love of reading? Why, heavy-metal rock music, of course!
:: Enjoying Senior Moments -- A new study reveals that the best way to remain physically strong and mentally healthy during the twilight of life is to maintain your positive attitude, in spite of the stereotypes.
:: Radiation Treatment As Metaphor -- With her husband enduring seven weeks of radiation treatment for his cancer, a children's book author resolves to write a sonnet a day as her own source of strength.
:: Steadfastly Finding An Audience -- "Maryam," a new and critically acclaimed film by Iranian-American Ramin Serry, has struggled to reach theaters, says Roger Ebert, because of the current socio-political climate.
:: Controlling Autism? -- For parents of children with autism, a hopeful new clinical study may make the challenges ahead just a little less dauting.
Visit our site to read full summaries of these stories and listen to your favorites.
Talk to us:
What's the best public radio story you've heard this week?
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