I signed up today to walk in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Denver this coming Sunday, October 4th. I have participated many times before and I am always amazed how many people are involved in Denver – more on one day than all the people in Bangor, Maine, the small city near where I grew up!

“The Denver Metropolitan Affiliate of Susan G Komen for the Cure was founded in 1994, the year after the first Komen Denver Race for the Cure, to carry out the promise of our National organization — to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. The Affiliate continually strives to meet this promise through three core activities — education, fundraising and grant making.”

It is inspiring to see the level of support and all the pink ribbons displayed during October by so many businesses.  The growth has been amazing and really has raised the awareness and resources available to address breast cancer in ways that could never have happened otherwise.  What can you do?

Ran across the link for this promotion today from Lani Lyons, called Blog for a Cure, and thought it was a great idea that I should share with you!  ”Welcome to Blog For A Cure, a blog party that will connect new bloggers from all walks of life, while offering up some great prizes, and most importantly, raising money to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.”  The site gives directions on how to participate: “the minumum donation to participate is only $1.00! If you are able to donate more, please do so, and accept my extremely heartfelt gratitude.  And what will you get in return for this dollar, you ask?

1- The opportunity to gain new followers for your blog.

2- The chance to win one of MANY prizes that will be given away to randomly drawn participants.

3- The chance to prove that you CAN and DO make a difference.

OK- on to the Party! Here’s how it works: First, A ONE dollar donation will earn you one entry into every single prize giveaway, but you MUST leave a comment on the post of each item that you want to win. If you would like extra entries for particular items, each dollar donated will equal an extra entry. To use an extra entry, leave separate comments for each one. I’ll double check each participants donations to make sure they get all the entries they have earned.”

So I made my $20 donation on Lani’s Team in Training Leukemia and Lymphoma Society page and then registered my blog – I was the 51st to sign up so far.  Then she asked participants to spread the word using social media and whatever else.  My next step is to register for whatever giveaways by leaving blog posts.  It is fun and a great concept.  I like it!!

Check it out!

There was an article in the Denver Post’s YourHub section on 9/24/2009 titled, “Annual fundraiser just takes some cents” that caught my eye.  The article by Amber Gerding (program coordinator at the Young Philanthropists Foundation) was about the Penny Harvest, a service learning program of the Young Philanthropists Foundation, a Denver-based nonprofit whose mission is to “give kids the power to change our world through philanthropy and volunteerism.”  The Penny Harvest program is “designed to teach kids about their value as contributers to society and after the “harvest,” students identify community issues, interview local community leaders and make big decisions of where to grant all of that money.”

From their website, I learned “In the 2008-2009 year, the students have officially harvested 3.8 million pennies, or $38,996.96, for local charities through the Young Philanthropists Foundation’s 2008-2009 Penny Harvest.” In its second year, the Penny Harvest was in 31 elementary and middle schools in Colorado and resulted in over 90 grants of both service hours and money.

From the website I learned, “The Penny Harvest was born more than 17 years ago out of one child’s desire to help the homeless. Since its inception it has grown to include more than 500,000 students in 900 schools in New York City, Albany, Seattle, Nashville, Florida and Colorado. In the past 17 years, Penny Harvest students have given away more than $6 Million to nonprofits and contributed more than half a million service hours to their local communities.”

What a cool and worthwhile program to show the next generation of citizens how to make a difference.  I am going to give them a call to see how my company can support their efforts.  If there is no existing program like this in your community, how can your business help develop one?  Clearly this is a best practice ripe for replication!

Check them out at: http://www.pennyharvest.org or call at 720-221-9218.

Some time back, a new women’s fitness clothing store, Lucy, opened in Cherry Creek here in Denver.  I have enjoyed shopping there as I like their often unusual yet functional sporty apparel designs.  As part of their commitment to being green, they switched in the past year from sending mailers to sending emails.  A recent email newsletter caught my eye as I had not been aware previously of their commitment to community involvement.  So after some research on their website and re-reading past newsletters, I now like Portland, OR-based Lucy even better!

At Lucy, “our passion is to inspire women to achieve their personal athletic goals, despite obstacles both large and small. We support charitable organizations that advocate these same values. With every lucy store grand opening, we donate 10% of the event’s sales to a designated non-profit organization from that store’s community. We also donate clothing to organizations in need and participate in charity race events throughout the year.”

In early September, the emailer about Hatha Yoga pants had the following:

Lucy is clearly dedicated to partnering with their employees and customers to take action in their communities – through donating a percentage of purchases and other activities and events in which they participate.

How can you let your customers see what you stand for?  How can you invite them to join forces with you for positive change and to show caring in the community? Doing something to give back and be supportive, no matter how small it may seem, is great — AND so much more can be accomplished by connecting with people inside and outside your company walls to work together in pursuit of a common goal.  What can you do? How can your company be an agent of change?

USA Today recently did one of the “SNAPSHOTS” on the value of volunteer time using data from the Corporation for National and Community Service and the Independent Sector. The generic hourly value of volunteer time is now $20.25. This is a useful figure to use to calculate the approximate value of the time your company’s employees contributed to the nonprofits where they volunteered. However, if your employees are providing specialized services, to calculate the value you should use whatever figure you would use if you were charging the nonprofit as a paying client.

The CNCS study reported that nearly 62 million Americans do volunteer work providing approximately 8 billion hours of volunteer time annually values at $162 billion dollars.  For the full report, click here.

Especially in tough economic times, think of the added value the time you and your employees provide in the community over and above any dollars or in kind donations you make.  It all makes a difference!!