What's the Best Way to Do Good?

Think about that. Small acts really can add up to big transformation.

Lynn Ridenour has spent more than nine years at high-tech companies, including Onyx Software Corp. In September 1999, she joined GreaterGood.com Inc., which operates the Hunger Site and the Rainforest Site, as well as a shopping portal where as much as 15% of each transaction goes to the shopper's cause of choice.

John Sculley

Partner
Sculley Brothers LLC
New York, New York

You don't have to move mountains to make important things happen. In fact, if you start with goals that are too large, you'll get overwhelmed and miss the joy of what you're trying to accomplish.

When I decided to work with literacy, for example, I discovered that it wasn't critical for me to be the project head. It was more important simply to find a place where I could add value to help our project succeed. That's the great thing about giving back: Business-success criteria don't apply. There are no winners or losers. Everyone is motivated to work together in the most efficient way possible.

Fortunately, the Internet makes working efficiently easier than ever, in giving back as well as in everything else. The beehive is always more capable than any individual bee. The Net can connect many beehives of people with common interests, and those people can accomplish a great deal -- even if they never meet face to face. And those networks can work toward lofty philanthropic goals without having to wade through the mire of large physical organizations.

Start with modest goals -- and then find a great team to work with. Watch what happens. It takes only a few really great people to turn modest goals into something big.

In 1995, John Sculley, former CEO of Apple Computer and PepsiCo, cofounded Sirius Thinking Ltd., which produces Between the Lions, a children's television show on PBS designed to promote reading in children. Sculley also cosponsors Pop!Tech, a yearly nonprofit conference in Camden, Maine that focuses on technology's effect on modern culture. Sculley Brothers LLC is a private investment firm that funds more than 20 companies.