Ways to Give Back

We still support organizations that provide food, clothing, shelter, and legal advice. But now we also get involved with issues of social and economic justice. Why just give money to homeless shelters and food pantries when you can have a greater impact by supporting community-based initiatives for affordable housing, renter rights, and livable wages? In launching any program, keep a few things in mind.

Get support from the top. If your Head Monarch isn't visibly behind the program, it won't work. Executive involvement sends a signal that giving back is a pervasive value.

Don't just add on. Be realistic. A giving-back initiative will always take resources away from other activities. Be prepared to commit those resources.

Find passionate people. SERT is our Social and Environmental Responsibility Team. Members take responsibility for specific activities. If they didn't, nothing would get done.

Gary Stewart began working at Rhino in 1977 as a clerk in the company's original retail store. He now supervises the signing of all new artists and oversees the label's historical reissues.

Ida Cole
Executive Director
Paramount Theatre
Seattle, Washington
idac@theparamount.com

I left Microsoft because I was tired. After a few years of "retirement," I looked up and saw Seattle's historic 1928 Paramount Theatre. It was shabby but beautiful. I realized that restoring it would be a perfect way to give back, since the theater brings people together. But the process wasn't easy.

The most important word in "nonprofit business" is "business." The best thing, I've learned, is to enter a project with illusions. If you know how hard it'll be, you might never start. Let your dreams get you through the hard part.

Ida Cole's Paramount Theatre raised more than $3 million for the Seattle community last year.

Avram Miller
VP, Corporate Business Development
Intel Corp.
Santa Clara, California
avram@intel.com

The greatest contribution you can make is your time. Busy and successful people convince themselves that what they're doing is incredibly important: I'm creating jobs that's great for society. They say: "I'm making money now. Someday I'll give it away." Sometimes it's true. Often it's not. What matters is now.

The best way for me to give is to extend my business expertise: networking, strategic planning, recruiting, and fund-raising. My greatest challenge is to resist other demands on my time and energy. I've learned to focus my efforts. I see my involvement as long-term almost like another career.

I serve as chair of Plugged Ina nonprofit organization in East Palo Alto. We have a community center, with programs aimed primarily at kids. We also teach courses, and we have started several team-based businesses. We received a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to provide Internet service and email access throughout the area. I see technology as a way to provide opportunities for everyone in this community.

At Intel, Avram Miller develops new business initiatives. Plugged In http://www.pluggedin.org is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that brings multimedia technology to low-income communities.

Chuck Hirsch
Cochairman and President
Aim High Inc.
Kirkland, Washington
chirsch@ahi.net

If you're looking for a hands-on, high-yield way to give back, I suggest mentoring. I've mentored two young men -- David in Newark and Felton in South Central Los Angeles and I can't think of a more valuable way to make a difference.

Over the years, I've helped each of them get through high school and into college. I've discussed everything with them from school and family relationships to summer internships to college applications. I took Felton on his college interviews, and now he's a freshman at Williams College my alma mater. And David now works at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. This experience changed my life. And I saw how mentoring could be applied on a larger scale.

While I was at Microsoft, I saw the growing number of talented people who were hungry for ways to give back. Unfortunately, they had little access to programs that were equally hungry for their expertise. Why wasn't there a mentoring network to match skilled volunteers with the appropriate organizations? The dots were all there. They just needed to be connected.

So this past spring, when my partner and I left Microsoft to start our own business, we created a charitable arm of our company to help fill this need. We're building a network to connect technically oriented volunteers with charitable organizations. Like SWAT teams, these groups will offer technical mentoring assistance for projects like building and enhancing Web sites and providing database management.