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SOMETIMES COMPANIES CAN STRUGGLE with connecting up with the right kind of volunteering opportunities.
It’s not a matter of finding people in need – there are an overwhelming number of worthy organizations out there who need our help and support.
I was excited to find out that our very own City of Fort Collins has a Volunteer Services Program. So I sat down with Charlotte Boney this week to find out more.
J ANE NORTHRUP IS MY INSPIRATION. Because she’s living an amazing story with clarity and conviction.
Jane started Authority Staffing last year, as a way to bring ex-convicts to full employment. But that’s a tiny fraction of the story.
You see, she’s doing this because her deep Christian faith has given her concrete direction. Even including the name of the company itself and the fact that it’s for-profit.
USUALLY I PROFILE FOR-PROFIT COMPANIES but I was so fascinated by this story that I just had to share.
I was introduced to Lucy Wallace by Stephanie Heacox, who I talked about last week. Lucy heads up Alchemy of Movement, where she delivers extremely energetic dance classes in Boulder.
But Lucy discovered an opportunity to bring dance into women’s prisons. At first she thought this might just be an occasional class, but over the last year it’s become amazing.
YESTERDAY WE EXPERIENCED some great innovations in the business community.
At the Quid Novi Conference, I talked to all kinds of business leaders, all the way from startups to firms making billions of dollars. What a great environment for learning from the best!
I was also honored to have Small Fish and Quid Novi award three of the most amazing, incredible innovators in Colorado!
YOUR EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD comes through many filters and lenses.
So I was inspired by a discussion with my friend Joanna last week, where she explained her belief that TRUST is one of the major factors by which you interpret circumstances.
There’s a lot of wisdom in this.
Imagine that your experience with government regulation hasn’t been all that positive, either personally or in your business. Read the rest of this entry »
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION of Northern Colorado is a local organization which helps connects peoples’ (and companies’) charitable strategies to the causes they support.
I had never heard of such a thing, so when I talked with Ray Caraway, their President, it really opened my eyes.
Their business proposition is fairly simple:
Read the rest of this entry »
WHAT YOU’RE DOING IS WEIRD.
OK, so you’re in an ordinary industry. Delivering a product that’s great but not exactly … weird.
What I mean is that your values-based business is highly unusual and you’re getting all kinds of “advice” that you should be more ordinary. Color inside the lines. Even become a non-profit, if you’re trying to make the world a better place.
JILL VAN ORDEN heads up Arts Reach Center here in Fort Collins. It’s a fascinating concept, giving kids an outlet for creativity and inspiration.
This city has a fairly active arts scene, but most of that is targeted at adults. Sure, most venues also have special kids’ shows. But Arts Reach Center is different.
It’s targeted entirely at kids, and at their direct involvement in the performing arts. Jill described it to me as giving children a rich learning experience, joyful expression and friendships, and development of their artistic abilities.
A-MAIZE’N KETTLE CORN is a family-owned company that started up just this February by Ed and Jan Frumes.
After extensive backgrounds in the financial services industry, they decided to make a change and do something that was smaller, more fun, and would help the community.
They’ve ended up with a great family run business which sells a popular product, and is easily integrated into fundraising and charitable benefits.
THIS IS THE CRAZY SEASON 
for consumers and the companies which serve them. We’re less than a month away from Christmas, and in the US we just had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. It’s a time for family and brotherly love.
Then, OMG, we totally obliterate that goodwill with the worst bout of consumerism this planet has ever seen. It’s getting worse every year.
The Values-Based Business 