Canadians have a reputation of being modest – we don’t like to toot our own horn or boast about our accomplishments.
The Globe and Mail recently told the story of Carol Newell, a philanthropist who secretly donated more than $60 million to non-profit organizations and businesses committed to environmental causes and social change. After 10 years of anonymity, Ms. Newell decided to ‘go public’ to encourage others to “push the boundaries of giving.”
Many organizations are also surprisingly shy when it comes to promoting their community relations and green activities. Many organizations have the notion that bragging about doing good takes away from the purity of the act of giving and that you should be giving for the sake of doing good, not to get credit for it.
True, but…
I believe it is possible to do more good if an organization promotes its acts of kindness. The biggest reason is the ripple factor.
Drop a pebble in the water:
just a splash, and it is gone;
But there’s half-a-hundred ripples
Circling on and on and on,
Spreading, spreading from the center,
flowing on out to the sea.
And there is no way of telling
where the end is going to be.
James W. Foley
By communicating what your organization is doing to make the world a better place, you are showing leadership. Organizations can become role models, compelling others to follow with similar acts of charity and kindness.
When enough pebbles are dropped in the water, they can become waves. If enough organizations lead by example by communicating their philanthropic activities, waves of change can begin to make a real difference in our communities and our world.
