We’ve talked throughout our career of donating 1% of [Electric Pulp] revenue to a worthy cause of our choosing. But even though we all agree it’s the right thing to do, we have yet to actually do it.
One of the reasons is that we’re already giving more than that to local causes. If you add up the cash and time we donate, we should be able to rest well knowing we’re giving something back.
More often than not, though, the causes haven’t been of our choosing. They find us, and all too often, they’re efforts we know nothing about.
This feels like a passive aggressive rant now that I’m typing, but that wasn’t the point. I’m all for good. I’m just realizing (after loosing the better part of my Sunday to one such effort) that it’s hard to feel connected to the good when you aren’t even familiar with the cause.
We get drawn into these situations all the time. We’ve been in ops for nearly 12 years now, some of these years were even spent networking in real life situations. The result is that our under served geographic market knows where to find us.
Maybe I’m just talking to myself (and Michael and Stefan) here, but I hate the idea of time and cash donations feeling like a business tax. Just once I’d like to come across a profound effort and ask them how we can help.
Karma -1.
2 Responses to “Worthy causes”
Personally, I feel like giving back to local charities/organizations is incredibly important. I think it’s awesome you guys are helping out the local landscape. I compare it to the whole don’t-build-an-application-you-wouldn’t-use-yourself mantra. It’s better to be intrinsically involved in your charity work, and that’s usually easier if it’s close to home. Not that I’m saying to never donate to National/International causes, but I wouldn’t get down on myself for donating to something because it’s local in nature.
Also, I think it’s good for your company to contribute locally. EP can only benefit from a city that has more cultural programs, community classes, diversity and acceptance, and all the other things you can donate to locally (I’m making some assumptions here about what kinds of local charities you have, based on what we have in Fargo). A better community means a greater chance of luring great workers to your area – so you guys can assimilate them into the borg of awesomeness.
*yes, I just made a star-trek reference in there…
Yes. And so we do. But this is like treating a characteristic as a virtue, all the time. It drains.