Ways to Give Back

It might sound simple, but my philosophy on giving back starts with something my father used to tell me: "When you leave a room, make sure it's a little neater than you found it." That's what volunteering is trying to leave society a little better than you found it.

Thomas Sloan has served as a volunteer at a New Jersey hospice and is a 22-year veteran of the Secret Service.

Katharine Paine
Founder and CEO
Delahaye Group
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
kpaine@delahaye.com

I once attended a conference with hundreds of successful, socially responsible entrepreneurs. I came back from it all fired up and ordered our contractors to use only responsibly harvested wood in our new offices. I initiated a sweeping program to donate 5% of our billable hours to other organizations. I also announced that we would all join the Literacy Volunteers.

Five years later we have yet to teach anyone to read. If there's any responsibly harvested wood in my building, it's there by accident. And the only billable time we gave away went toward two small programs in the first year. From these experiences (I never call them mistakes), I've learned a few lessons about giving back.

You can't "impose" giving back. I was instantly inspired, but that didn't mean everyone else would be. Literacy Volunteers is a great organization, but it demands time and commitment. Our young, 18-hour-a-day company was short on both.

Inspire, don't command. Now I use my bully pulpit within the company to encourage employees to use paid volunteer time (16 hours a year) to help the cause of their choice. They also use our email system to solicit other volunteers doing far more good in the community than our earlier efforts ever did.

Before starting her own business, Katharine Paine was Lotus Development Corp.'s director of corporate communications. She is a member of Businesses for Social Responsibility and Social Ventures Network.

Doug Austin
Founder
Austin Design Group
San Diego, California
adgsd@aol.com

It's easy to get wrapped up in the frenzy of surviving and forget about thriving. But if you understand that you have more than your money to give, you can make a big difference. It's wired into us: we feel good when we do something good for someone else.

I got involved in Homes of Hope and donated $2,500 to that effort. I went to Tijuana, Mexico with several associates to build houses for people living in shelters made of driftwood and cardboard. We built one house for a single mother with four kids. I'll never forget the look on her face when we gave her the key to her own house.

Bringing together your money, time, and expertise can be a very effective and very satisfying way to give back.

Doug Austin is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization. In 1990 he was elevated to the AIA's College of Fellows for his contributions in architecture.

Jay Backstrand
President
Impact Online
Palo Alto, California
jay@impactonline.org

In 1996, when I was at Sun Microsystems, I helped organize NetDay. More than 50,000 people gave up a Saturday to wire 3,500 schools throughout California creating $50 million in value. Time became money.

That experience changed my life. I realized that if I leveraged the Web to help thousands of people donate their time, I would give back a phenomenal amount of value. So I cofounded Volunteer America, which merged with Impact Online in October 1996. The goal of Volunteer America: to match nonprofit organizations that need volunteers with people looking for volunteer opportunities. I now spend all my time on this startup.

The word "startup" is important. Impact Online is a nonprofit but we think like a for-profit startup. We have a business plan. We've raised money from venture capitalists. We want to create a thriving business that perpetually gives back by creating a Web-based infrastructure that enables other people to give back.

As a marketing manager at Sun Microsystems, Jay Backstrand was responsible for the commercialization of advanced technology.

David Berge
director, Socially Responsible Banking Fund, Vermont National Bank
Brattleboro, Vermont
dberge@vnb.com

I can't always define community development. But I know it when I see it. For example, a woman and her husband had a small farm with about 300 goats. One evening last year, their hired hand quit. Three days later the husband died. The couple had usually sold their milk to Vermont Butter & Cheese. The head of that company called and said that we had until Monday to help the woman. I called one of our depositors, who put up $30,000 at 0% interest. We loaned that money to the cheese company at 0% interest, and the company loaned it to some local farmers, who bought the woman's goats. Now that's community development.