Blogging the GIVE
Happy Mothers Day!
May 5th
As I left the house this morning I saw this little beauty sitting on
our front porch. It seems that our neighbors Ed and Mary slipped a
little gift for my wife for Mothers Day inside our front door last
night.
It made ME happy so I’m sure my wife will LOVE it!
What moms in your life can you surprise with a little pick-me-up like
this? Think about it!
Thanks Ed and Mary!
Posted by Brian
Let’s challenge ourselves to do more
Apr 19th
A friend and I were talking recently about our jobs and my friend shared with me an anecdote about his work that got us thinking. He was venting to me about a meeting he attended. The meeting was run poorly- it started late and people came late. It was a large recurring meeting where the facilitator is chosen from the staff- it is an exercise in growth and development. But the people running the meeting were ill-prepared, read straight from the slides verbatim, and did not have adequate answers to some fairly basic questions. In other words, the folks running the meeting mailed it in and probably were not challenged and did not grow as a result of the meeting.
I am certain that we all have similar experiences we can relate where we were part of a disappointing experience in our work or personal lives. This got me thinking: it should be a part of everyone’s daily routine to challenge ourselves, our peers, our friends and family to more and to be better at whatever is we do. More >
Four ideas for starting the GIVE on spring break
Mar 24th
It’s spring break time! When I was younger this meant something different than it means to me now. These days, I’m excited to see the crocuses blooming, pining to get my garden planted, and enjoying pretending that 57 degree weather makes me happy.
I have three kids. They are five, three, and 6 months old. Next year, my wife and I will have to schedule our vacation around SCHOOL. This blows my mind of course. But many of you already have kids in school and are used to waiting until spring break to vacation with your family. So we thought we would think about how you can spend your precious spring break time with your family but not lose track of the give while you’re out and about. More >
The Giving Consumer: Some thoughts on Compassionate Capitalism
Mar 22nd
Recently, we have been thinking about the notion of “compassionate capitalism”- that is, the idea that a business can or ought to seek profits responsibly or that people can decide to choose to do business with companies that meet some standard of philanthropy before they make a purchase from them.
This idea is not new, but is gaining mindshare. More >
Five Pay It Forward stories
Feb 15th
As you know, we love stories about people committing selfless acts of goodwill. Unfortunately not all of these stories ends up on our website, foyble.com. For your reading pleasure we have collected a few good ones from around the internet below. These will go over on the Start the GIVE resource page as well. Enjoy!
A feel for skiing, sight not necessary: Nancy Stevens, an Oregonian who has been blind since birth, teaches instructors to teach other blind people how to downhill ski.
Mystery couple starts ‘magical’ chain reaction: A couple bought another table breakfast in a Philly diner. This started a chain reaction that lasted for five hours! Sound familiar? More >
The foyble holiday gift giving guide for givers
Dec 16th
It is holiday time! We all know what the holidays are about- family, food, gifts. Many of you may know someone who is devoted to giving- this post is for those folks. Here are some ideas on what to give the giver in your life.
To begin, we think you first must recognize the human nature (character) of a giver. They are unselfish, empathetic, recognize the world is all sorts of shades of grey, prefer action over inaction, and holistic. Believe in the good and that they can make a difference. Even if none of our ideas seem like the one for you, remember these traits as you hunt for that perfect gift for the giver you know.
On to the list:
- Find our their favorite charity and make a modest donation. Better yet, try to get lots of your friends to donate with you.
- Offer to tag along the next time they go to volunteer. Even better, agree to recruit two people to bring along to the event on the day of their choosing.
- Make a donation in their honor to heifer international. Heifer.org offers the possibility to give a gift that keeps on giving!
- If the giver in your life does a lot of hard work volunteering (habitat for humanity, volunteering at races, etc) consider getting them a massage or some other rejuvenating service. When you do it make sure to acknowledge their hard work.
- If the person you know saves money in order to have more to give, consider getting them something that allows them to enjoy the finer things- a gift card to a coffee shop, some Belgian chocolate, a few days in that time share you’ve got.
- Make a coupon book with favors that help the recipient keep on giving. Our friend Dan told us about how his Mom used to participate in a 24-hour cancer walk-a-thon every year. What a great opportunity that would be- make a coupon book for a foot massage, or to get a pedicure, or to participate with her!
- Agree to participate in a charity walk/run with a race that is important to someone. This could be an even more meaningful gift if fitness is not something that you normally do as a hobby.
- Try a global giving gift card. Available in eco friendly and convenient e-card format.
- Don’t like our list? Try this one. <—click this link. The list is REALLY good.
- Want more inspiration? There are nearly 250 foybles over at foyble.com for you to browse!
The key is that you need to be mindful of what the person is passionate about and then ensure that you convey that you are willing to sacrifice on their behalf. You may not be as passionate as they are but that you support their commitment enough to sacrifice yourself.
Happy Holidays from foyble!
Posted by Brian
Four stories about paying it forward
Dec 12th
We often need to remind ourselves to stay positive and that being humble and paying it forward is worth it! One of the ways we do this is by looking for positive and uplifting stories. We scour twitter for tweets with hashtags like #inspiration and #payitforward. We search the internet for stories with those same terms. And we ask our friends to forward those stories to us when they see or hear about them. You might enjoying doing the same thing- we’d like you to keep us on your radar when you’re looking for stories like that! So once every week or two we’ll share a few stories with you that are positive and uplifting that involve folks being selfless and helping others with little or no concern for themselves.
Please note that you’ll always be able to see our most recent stories (along with other useful stuff) on our resources page!
On with the stories!
New Orleans Saints player Ben Hargrove committed a random act of kindness for a complete stranger
An actual elf shovels someone driveway in the middle of the night
St. Thomas More 1st graders help fill the gap in the ‘Backpack Buddies’ program.
A student will graduate from College after getting an anonymous gift of $16,000. Video below (the ads are from the news site not us!)
Please check these stories and organizations out. If you’re inspired, get involved. If you have ideas for us, send them to us! contact@foyble.com. Happy giving!
This post was written by Brian. To contact Brian, email him at bjfoy@foyble.com
Things we are thankful for
Nov 22nd
It feels like late September outside here in Chicago, but the calendar says it’s time again to give thanks. Here is our list of people and things we are thankful for. Please add yours in the comments. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
- As of this post 352 users have shared 228 foybles on foyble.com
- The act map- it allows you to see all those great foybles. It’s really neat!
- All of our friends and family who have contributed their ideas, energy, and money to helping us get the site going. We have not heard a discouraging word yet.
- Everyone at Cafe Del Mondo for helping us with the Cafe Experiment. That was really fun.
- Leo Babauta of Zen Habits for taking the time to give us feedback on this very blog.
- Our wives, for letting us all have two jobs, knowing the second one wouldn’t pay us a dime.
- The Wellington School in Upper Arlington, Ohio for encouraging your students to use our tools to post their acts of good will.
- Anyone who has sent us feedback on the site.
- Justin, TJ, and Poppy for getting the ‘What is foyble’ video made. Wow.
- Bill Nadvornik, a user on foyble who has submitted no less than 14 foybles to us, and who has provided some very clever feedback.
We launched the site in June of this year. In less than six months we’ve managed to get on the news, have two profiles written about in magazines and newspapers, and we’ve gotten nearly 400 people to sign up for our service. We are trying to create a social network, which is an extremely daunting prospect. The amount of time and resources it will take to achieve our vision is incalculable. But doing so will require us to inspire the world one person at a time, and even though our task is daunting, or vision is simple: start the GIVE. The people we’ve mentioned above are just a few of the folks who have inspired us this year with their selflessness and trust. We owe a debt to every single person who has signed up and shared their story with us. And we plan on repaying you by devoting ourselves to giving you the best tools we can think of to reach your network, your friends, or complete strangers to inspire the give.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by Brian
