Got in very late last night after my drive home from Bedford. Not too bright this morning as a result. And, distracted. And, have start a 2 week business trip this weekend (so a little self-absorbed).

In any case, I followed an older man using a walker into the elevator. He was accompanied by his wife who still moved gracefully, if slowly.

As we hit the ground floor, he immediately shooed me through the door, as if to say “you’re faster than we are, go.” But there was more too. I could “see”.

I patiently waited for the lady to leave the elevator first, as is appropriate. Stubbornly ignoring his “shooing me” with my body language.

Once she was out, and without saying a word he shooed me again. I saw the same thing in his eyes as before. So, I deliberately turned and pushed the “hold door” button, and without a word told him “you’re not in the way because your old or slow”.

Got that awesome smile in return that you only get from babies and old people. You know which one I’m talking about? The one that is pure delight.

Now, I’m better equipped for today.

In my last post, I mentioned that I disagreed with a recent post by Sandra Simms titled, “7 Reasons NOT to Start a New Nonprofit Organization“.

Unfortunately, I ran at the mouth about why I created Where’s Your Heart? as a non-profit, so never really shared my thoughts about Sandra’s article.

Let’s just take a look at Sandra’s 7 points in order:

1. There is already an organization filling that need.

Yeah. I’d tell Steve Jobs the same thing. There were already other companies making MP3 players. Or smartphones. No need for another one. Go do something no-one else is doing. Sorry about the sarcasm, but no one organization will fill every market’s needs… whether for-profit or not. Do you have the passion and energy to run your own company? Want to have that excitement and feel good about what you’re doing? Think you might even (gasp!) be able to do it better than the establishment? Go for it! Competition is good. And, you’ll feel great.

2. You do not have other people “on board” yet.

Uh, so get them on board? It takes one person to start. Ideas, they’re easy. Execution. Making something happen. That’s hard. And, one person alone can make a huge difference. Show some results, and you’ll have all the people “on board” (what’s with those quotes?) that you want.

There’s even a nonprofit who helps other nonprofits that can’t afford help and don’t have people “on board”. It’s called Grassroots.org. Check them out.

3. Your idea is better suited for a for-profit enterprise.

This is definitely one to think about, but take a look at what I’m doing. There’s a business model (and that includes things I’ve not shared, because I believe in competition and don’t want to give it all away just yet) for my organization. I made an explicit choice, perhaps against the advice of others, to make Where’s Your Heart? nonprofit to emphasis my focus.

Maybe you should do the same? What is your organization’s purpose? Will it be charitable first, then it deserves a nonprofit heading… otherwise it’ll be commercial. There’s nothing wrong with that, but either one can suit your purposes equally well. Remember, it’s your company!

4. Starting up takes time.

You bet. Almost a year for me, and I’ve not yet run an event.

No one said it’d be easy.

If you want to do something quick and easy, read a book. Watch TV.

Want to do something fulfilling? Something that will make a difference? That takes commitment. Be decided and do it. If you believe in your cause, it’s worth your time.

Of course, as Sandra points out, if you want to react to an immediate need (like disaster response) you’re much better off working through an existing organization… Maybe you’ll find your wish to help transcends a single disaster, and you want to start your own organization to help provide rapid response to disaster relief around the world? (Actually, that’s not a bad idea! I can see building infrastructure and using modern technology to enable grassroots rapid-response efforts around disaster relief. Of course, it could be commercial, but possible to be nonprofit.)

5. OK – Sandra accidentally missed this one. I do that all the time.

6. You’d like to plan a one-time fundraiser.

With all my nonprofit experience (tongue in cheek there, I’m a newbie) I agree with Sandra on this one. For a one-time thing, no reason to start up a company and go through the expense and effort. Better to work within another organization. Even if you want to have a yearly event, you could always do it through one (or more) existing nonprofits. And, you’d probably get some help working with another organization as well. Much easier not to have to figure it out on your own (though, that’s not a reason not to start!).

7. Your type of cause makes it difficult to secure long term funding.

Sure. I can re-write this one as “don’t start your business before you figure out how it’s not going to fail.” It might be difficult or impossible to do certain things under the nonprofit umbrella or IRS restrictions. I’ve run into some real serious limitations myself. In my case, I’ve just shelved certain plans/ideas until I get more experience and funding to handle the challenges.

Another suggestion is to rethink your approach, to see if taking a different perspective might make it less difficult to secure funding. In my case, I’m funding it myself, and my approach includes staying at my “real job” so that I can keep doing so. It means my work at Where’s Your Heart? sometimes is slower than I’d like, but the tradeoff is that I can keep at it.

And, with that, I’ll just add that I don’t know Sandra, but I’ve been enjoying her thoughts on twitter and her blog, because she offers good advice on fundraising and other topics of interest to the non-profit community.

About a month ago, I scribbled some notes on a piece of paper that were the outline of this post. Needless to say, I’ve forgotten how the flow went… And, I apologize for not having the time to rewrite this important post.

Then, this evening I saw a post titled “7 Reasons Not to Start a NEW Non Profit Organization” posted by Step-by-Step Fundraising and I new I had to write this post. Now.

I disagree with their post. In fact, I disagree strongly.

Now, perhaps I don’t know enough about non-profits or philanthropy to be deterred. You see, a year ago I knew nothing about non-profits. I had no idea that by April 15th 2009 I’d have this business plan busting from my brain and that a compulsion like my heart was going to explode would compel me to create Where’s Your Heart? Foundation. Alone.

That’s right. I’ve the help of my friends. But, it’s my vision, my heart, and to date, my effort. I’m grateful for the support of some very wonderful people who’ve provided me advice, and contacts. I’ve paid lawyers and accountants and artists. But, I’m a team of one.

Wait a minute… I think I lost you. Let me back up.

That’s right. I said “business plan” and non-profit in the same paragraph. Of course. If we want to be a going concern (and we do), we need a plan. And so we have one.

I’m impressed by all the companies who are getting on the socially conscious bandwagon. There are many and they’re making a difference. I visited a customer (in my day job) and they no longer used paper cups for coffee or water (and thankfully, no individual bottles for drinking water!).

Look at what Starbucks is doing and you start to get the idea that being socially conscious is good business.

But, what happens when it’s not?

These companies, noble as their efforts are, have a mission. Their mission is to make money. Believe me, I support their efforts. And, I’m grateful they’re trying to be responsible about it. But in the end, their purpose is to make money. When being socially conscious is no longer good for business, many will regress (hopefully not fully revert) to old behaviors.

Where’s Your Heart?’s purpose is to improve people’s lives through altruistic living. The only way to protect that purpose was to incorporate as a non-profit organization. Any other way would risk the slide towards a shared purpose of “making money”.

By the laws of the United States of America, nothing can ever deter us from that mission. Being a non-profit company means I can never raise money by selling shares in the company. It limits how I can exit “the business”. These laws protect people who donate money and time to make sure the time and money go to our charitable purpose. It means my books are a matter of public record; and anyone reading this is meant to be allowed to see them (not much to them right now, but in the future, I plan to post our financial results on our website).

Our charitable mission comes first, and the only way to make sure it stays that way is to form the company as a non-profit organization. Period.

That said, we need to survive. And, to do so, we’ll need to raise money. We’ll raise money through our events, and over time hope to have a variety of events. We’re starting with Cleanse for Your Cause™, but stay tuned.

When I first approached lawyers to get incorporated and file for non-profit status I heard the same thing over and over… Sounds like a good idea, but… so many people have a good idea but forget that they need money to keep a company going. You need to make sure you think past your ideas to change the world, and make sure you have a plan to keep the company funded.

In general, I let these lawyers know that I’ve got an MBA in International Business & Technology (very appropriate for our mission), but that I’ve also worked for startups most of my career. I know the importance of cash flow. It doesn’t matter how good  your product, or your mission, is. Fact is, you’ve gotta survive first.

Then I approached some of my friends in the technology world. To an individual, they gave me suggestions on how to meet my charitable goals, but keep the technology separate and for-profit. I get it, they think about how to make money. I see that. But, in my own brand of bull-headedness I wanted to make sure that we didn’t lose focus. Two companies would require that I split my time. Frankly, I also felt that doing it that way would appear like the Foundation would be a front for the commercial enterprise.

That’s not what we’re about. Laser focus baby… on our charitable mission. My dream is to create a community where people value and relate to altruistic activities. Where those activities create this positive energy in our lives, which then gets nurtured through our online community (integrated with Facebook), and then shared with others to set that energy free. Sounds wacky, I know. But, I’m going to live that dream, and not risk failure by living two dreams at the same time.

That said, we’re an internet company. No question. We’re about the online-social community. We have unique-differentiators from others out there, and just like many technology companies, we’re incorporated in Delaware because they have a lot of legal prior-art that will protect our “business”.

I like to think I’m setting an example of a new type of socially conscious organization. Perhaps, I’m a little extreme. I’m doing so to make a point. I think things need to change, and I’m putting my skills & professional experience behind Where’s Your Heart? to make the change I wish to happen. By creating the company as a non-profit, we get some benefits and have some restrictions. I think they’ll balance in our favor in the end; and we’ll also protect our charitable purpose and set an example for others.

This post is already long enough, so I’m going to save my rebuttal of the post mentioned above for my next post. In the meantime, if you are intrigued by my passion, or the way I’m setting this company up to set an example, I’d love it if you became our fan on Facebook, tell us what you think (by commenting below, or writing on our wall), and share us with your friends!

This post could easily be called “how I continue to make my life difficult” and is meant to be a fun look on how a simple thing like having punctuation in a company name can lead to some funny situations.

The question mark in Where’s Your Heart? is significant. It’s meant to cause you to stop (or at least pause!) and ask yourself the question. To really stop, feel it, drop down into your heart…. that’s our mission. To help people find their hearts in their daily lives. So, about that question mark…

I wanted the name “Where’s Your Heart?” to get people to ask themselves the question. The first laugh was when my lawyer called and asked what word I wanted to end the company name with. What? Well, turns out the IRS wants non-profits to be called Foundation, or Club, or something out of about 10 or so choices. And, by the way, that something doesn’t include “Project” (which I would have liked). So, I picked Foundation.

So, you’ll often see me calling the company Where’s Your Heart? or WYH?, and even on twitter/facebook wyheart, but the real company name is Where’s Your Heart? Foundation.

And, please. For the non-Americans out there… we love you, but it’s not “Where is Your Heart?.” I know the contraction used in English is not common in all languages, but it sets the rhythm. Work with me on this, ok? Thanks.

Of course, WYH? is corrected by most spell-checkers to WHY?. Why? More like “why me?” But, funny. Until you retrain your spell checkers. And, while you’re in there fussing with the spell checkers, unset auto-cap after punctuation, or it’ll capitalize every word after the company name!

And, being a common misspelling of a common word, wyh.org wasn’t available as a web site name, so you’ll have to type out the full name until you bookmark it at http://wheresyourheart.org. I love the details like this though, in some weird way it keeps my mind thinking of the possibilities.

I never expected a URL with a question mark… but I would have liked an ATM card with one. Nope. As a techie, the bank process of opening the account with a company name that contained punctuation was fascinating. Clearly, not a use case they thought about when designing the banker’s interface. They couldn’t create the account with punctuation, but… a quick call determined that there was no reason the company name couldn’t contain the punctuation. So, we entered it wrong, and then opened a work request to change it on the back-end.

Of course, when you setup the account, it must populate other systems with the company information… I’ve been chasing down systems with the original non-punctuated name since I opened the account (the link goes to a previous blog post about my adventures with this from a technology perspective which I hope technology product managers out there can learn from). And, my first batch of checks was wrong, as was the ATM card. Though, the ATM’s a permanent thing, they don’t like punctuation on plastic I guess.

Those of you who know me, know I’m thorough. Back last June or so, I connected (via LinkedIn – very useful to find people you know who know people somewhere) with Yahoo! to ask how they dealt with the punctuation in their name. I found every time the sentence ended with the company name, it read like a question mark! They said, you have to double punctuate. Something like, “I would like to tell you about Where’s Your Heart?.” should have the period following the question mark.

Though, just because I’m neurotic, doesn’t mean those around me are. So, I’ve had to politely remind people to put the ? in there! Funny, really.

Finally, the question mark is so important, it’s become the centerpiece of our logo… along with the heart. I hope over time to drop the letters from the logo and only use the graphic (they’re both being trademarked). For now, I want to build some awareness of “the question.”

Well, I think this will be my last post for two weeks. I’m off to the Amazon and total disconnect from the modern world. If you’ve stumbled on this post, find out what I’m talking about at the Where’s Your Heart? Foundation web site, and become a fan on Facebook if you’re curious about our mission. While I’m away, ask yourself this different question…

Stop what you’re doing, and ask yourself the question. Drop into your heart, and feel it. Get present. Then, ask yourself where you were if you weren’t in your heart? What are you doing there?

Peace.

PS I’ve sketched out another post, not sure I’ll have time to write it up. But, our next post will be about the decision to do this as a non-profit and the statement I hope I’m making by doing so. Stay tuned.

In my last post, I promised an introduction to juicing as a way to entice you into participating into Where’s Your Heart?‘s first event – Cleanse for Your Cause™.

This post is both a practical approach AND my personal experience.

In December 2008 I was bored with food. I was never hungry, but always hungry. You know that feeling? Intuitively, I knew/realized I wasn’t eating properly. Specifically, I knew I needed to eat more fruits and veggies. I just didn’t know how to work them into my diet, without too much fuss. And, I don’t have the brain to study something new just so I can learn to eat right. If I had to figure out how much protien, starch, etc. I was eating I’d be doomed.

Coincidentally, the week I started exploring and talking to friends I went to dinner with my friend Keith (the award-winning film-maker), and he announced “I just bought a juicer and it’s awesome.”

I went home, did some research on my own, and the next night was creating my own juice. I’ll tell you what I bought, why, and how I got started… but first, the punchline.

Aside from being “bored with food”, I also had a weak immune system. I’d always get sick, and when I did it went straight to my chest. It would often take weeks to shake something once I got it, and that was after spending days in bed. I was totally overdoing the antibiotics (a separate but related problem). In the winter of ’07/08 instead of my chest it became throat infections, which meant more antibiotics, and once steroids to keep my throat open, and more down time.

I’m athletic, and very active. Always have been. But as a result of business travel and a fantastic metabolism my diet was horrible. And, my cholesterol was starting to show the results. It was only in the 2-teens (meaning about 215 or so), so technically not high, but not at 126 anymore like when I was in my 20′s!

I started juicing by replacing one meal a day (breakfast) with juice. I focused mostly on vegetable juicing. After about six months or so I had the following incredible results:

1. I hadn’t gotten sick the rest of that winter.
2. My cholesterol dropped over 10%.
3. I had enough energy to kick a very bad red-bull dependency.
4. I felt trim. Like my body liked it.

In fact, my doctor (Dr. Daryl Isaacs of “Super Size Me” fame) said something along the lines of “your cholesterol is great… I don’t know what you’re doing, just keep doing it.” (He’s like that.) I hadn’t changed anything in my diet other than replacing breakfast with juice.

Just recently (about 14 months later) I caught a cold. The type that would have taken me out for weeks. 6 days later I’m totally over it… and in those 6 days I did a round trip to California (from NY).

There’s a dramatic difference in my health.

So, how did I go about getting started?

Again, punchline first.

Just do it. Sounds obvious, but don’t worry. Just put stuff in the juicer, and drink what comes out.

Seriously, variety rocks. Mix it up. Your body will love the variety, and you won’t get bored with the same tastes over and over.

The juicer I have is the Breville JE95XL. I got it from J&R in NYC which had a good price. Keith had gotten the BJE200XL and really liked it. Both are top ranked by consumer reports. I went with the 95XL because I always break things, and wanted something that was sturdier. I haven’t been disappointed. After about a year of daily use I had to get a replacement cutting disk piece / mesh screen but that was an easy order off the Breville web site.

It’s very easy to clean – I mention that because it’s the most common objection to juicing. It also seems to make a lot of juice out of what I put in. About $5-6 of (NYC priced) veggies makes about 40-50 oz of juice very quickly. Though, it’s the only juicer I’ve ever used, so none of these statements are comparative. You can find more about Breville on Twitter and Facebook.

Another alternative is the Vitamixer. A different friend has it, and she loves it. The vitamixer is a different type of machine, in that it just takes whatever you put in, and liquifies it. That’s “better” if you want to add things like mint or parsley, etc. that don’t juice as well. You can find Vitamixer on Facebook too.

I can also recommend some books. The two that I’d highly recommend are:

1. The Juice Fasting Bible.
2. The Complete Book of Juicing.

Both have great lists of recipes, with the former focusing more on why/how to juice fast and the latter discussing why juicing is so nutritious and the nutritional value of various ingredients.

With regard to vegetable vs fruit… A good book to read on this topic is Alkalize or Die. It’s best to eat fruit on an empty stomach because of the way we process those sugars. Otherwise… I would recommend more vegetables than fruits based on my personal experience (less sugar, less calories, and more variety of vitamins and other good stuff). However, fruits are good and tasty, and the sugar is a good energy. I often juice fruits as well. In particular, one that comes to mind is 2 oranges, 3 kiwis, and a 10oz bag of spinach. (That juice gives me good energy as a pick-me-up in the afternoon.)

I started by juicing a lot of beets because I felt that they really cleaned me out well. OK, maybe too much information! I’m just trying to be helpful.

All that said, I’m not a nutritionist and this all seems like one of those things where everyone disagrees. My advice… do what feels right. Try a few different things, it’s not like any of it’ll kill you.

Slight tangent and interesting comment made by Mark Bittman on his TED video. I don’t necessarily agree with the conspiracy theory angle, but early on he says (something like) “your body doesn’t like the beta carotene, it likes the carrot.” I feel in my cells that he’s spot on with that comment.

Summary

There you have it. Simple. Go for it.

Seriously, if you have any questions… the comments below are a good place for some discussion. I’ll try to answer, and better yet, I’ve got some friends that I’ll get to answer with respect to nutritional information too. A few people have emailed me, and that’s awesome too if you want some privacy. (By the way, I’ll be away first two weeks of March and won’t be able to answer questions until I return.)

A few take-aways if you will:

1. If you’ve stumbled across this post as an  intro to juicing/juice-fasting, please check out our event, Cleanse for Your Cause and consider participating.
2. If you’re intrigued, even if you have no interest in juicing, keep track of Where’s Your Heart? by becoming a fan on Facebook.
3. Cleanse for Your Cause participants can also do a master cleanse. I’ve never done one myself, but I’ll share some information on that in the future.
4. Please re-post (link to it) this introduction to juicing on twitter, facebook, or where-ever if you found it helpful (on Facebook, click share just below; to retweet just click “retweet” up at the top of the article).

Next post will be a little light humor on the challenges of having punctuation in the company name as my last post before a two week adventure in the Amazon. Stay tuned.

Oh yeah!

In my last post I introduced Where’s Your Heart? Foundation (“Where’s Your Heart?” to our friends) a charitable organization I’ve setup to improve people’s lives through altruistic living. I discussed our mission, and I’d like to make all that fancy talk a little more practical by announcing our first event… “Cleanse for Your Cause™“

It’s a participatory event that is both personal (and therefore more meaningful) and set in a group context (to bring us together and show us how we can have a big impact by working together).

There will be two ways to participate. First way, complete a juice cleanse/fast (or a master cleanse).

This person will decide how long they want to fast, and will pick a charity that they want to support. Let me say that again, because it’s important:

1. Everyone starts at the same time, but each person decides how long they’ll go. We’re all participating together, but we participate equally. Personally, my longest cleanse is 3 days, but I know people who’ve gone much longer. I have some friends new to juicing (that’s fruit/veggie juicing, not steroids!) and I’m hoping they’ll participate for a day or two.
2. Everyone picks their own charity. Here’s where it gets exciting… what’s meaningful to me may not be as meaningful to you. So, as long as it’s a registered US charity, you can bring it to the event. I’ll be blogging more about the import of this concept in the future, but suffice it to say for now… you can raise money for a cause you care about, even as you participate in this group (hopefully global) event.

I like to think that this personal relevance is something that magnifies the good feeling you get by participating. For example, I might walk to support Breast Cancer Research as a favor to a friend (and be happy to do so). But, if I can walk to support a charity that is close to me, I’ll create a more positive feeling for myself but not take anything away from the walk itself.

This is why it’s called Cleanse for Your Cause, in contrast to something like Cleansing for Peace (…and for the economic success of the sponsor – they charge a lot to participate in this event!).

Remember, we want to create, nurture and share that feeling™. We create it with the structure of the event, we nurture that feeling with the magnifier of personal relevance, and we’ll share it with our friends…

That leads us to the next way to participate, as a donor. Maybe juice cleansing isn’t your thing. Maybe you hate fresh vegetables packed with nutrition. Hey, no judgment here! Through our site (the one still being built) people who cleanse can recruit their friends to support their effort by donating money to the charity the cleanser has selected. This adds a bit of an edge, and hopefully makes it a bit more fun. Donors make a pledge based on how long their friend will cleanse. It doesn’t have to be a lot – say $1/day. Participation is the key.

Hopefully through our site (and this is where my experience as a software product guy will come to play) we’ll have an easy to use dashboard that helps people communicate around our event, tell their friends what they’re doing, and raise money for their cause. Hopefully people will share their experiences… maybe why they’ve picked a particular charity, or what they’re going through as they cleanse.

This sounds complicated. Of course, it wouldn’t be fun if it weren’t! Let me give you an example…

I’m going to participate in the cleanse. Let’s say I choose to raise money for the Red Cross. And, I think I’ll do a 10 day cleanse. I tell my brother, who’s not interested in juice, and he pledges $1/day to my cause. In fact, turns out my friends are really cool, and all 50 people I know decide to donate various amounts to my effort. In total, let’s say I get pledges for $150/day. If I cleanse for 10 days, as I hope, I raise $1,500 for the Red Cross. If I last an 11th day, it’s $1,650.

Let’s say you want to participate too. You want to raise money for Grassroots.org, because they’re just cool people doing good stuff. You get your friends to pledge money to your effort, but you’re less ambitious than I am and only think you can do a two day cleanse. Perhaps your 100 friends chip in a little more per day though, and you raise pledges of $450/day.

So here we are. You and I cleanse at the same time, share the experience (via our site and it’s integration with Facebook). Our friends cheer us on and give us the support we need to get over the hard minutes/hours/days during the cleanse because they’re vested (participating) through their pledges. Maybe, someone even stumbles across our Fan Page or our web site and reads about the experiences and feels something of the good energy we’re generating because we’re doing something good and having fun. (Sure beats complaining, or hanging around negative people, right?)

Hopefully we get a few people to cleanse at the same time. Frankly, and here I’m sharing my personal hope, I’m hoping to find 5o people who want to join us in the cleanse. Remember, even a one day cleanse is awesome. We’ll even start on the weekend, so people who want to do 1 or 2 day cleanses don’t have to deal with logistics of getting juice at work (I figure people who cleanse longer have probably done this before, and have all that worked out).

Wait, there’s more. (Of course!)

But, for now, that’s all I’ll share. I have too much technology start-up guy in me to give away the whole game before I’m ready to show it. I will add a few things:

1. None of the money raised comes to me personally. I don’t take a salary, and I am fully funding the organization myself (for now… I hope to accept some donations eventually, but not until I can prove some success). If you participate as a Donor, you’ll fulfill your pledge to Where’s Your Heart? and that pledge will be fully tax deductible (for US residents). Where’s Your Heart? will distribute the money to the charities themselves (and that’s why we can’t work with international charities right now… in short, US tax law has very strict compliance with how money crosses boarders when used for charity – and it’s too complex for us/me right now as a start-up organization).
2. I will be choosing Where’s Your Heart? as my charity though! So, I’ll be quite motivated to cleanse myself out nice and clean.
3. There’s no minimum donation required. In fact, if you just want to be a part by cleansing we’re happy to have you as part of the event.
4. I really really hope that even though we’re focused on US charities right now, we get some people in other countries to participate in the cleanse. It was a real disappointment to me that I couldn’t work globally, and believe me when I tell you… I know how to bend rules. Give me a year or two, and we’ll have the IRS writing rules into the tax code because of that “Bressler guy”.

Until our site (and the application to deliver this event) is done, I’m not going to pick a date for the event. I hope it’ll be in July. We will start on a Saturday so that people doing a 1 or 2 day cleanse don’t interfere with work.

In the meantime, what can you do to help? Plenty!

• Become our fan on Facebook, so you know when we run the event.
• Share this post with friends (email, twitter, Facebook), especially if they make/drink fresh juice regularly.
• Know any juice bars near you? How about asking them to put our event on their event calendar and/or promote it in their store? Please introduce me, and I’ll have a chat with them.

What if you’ve never done a cleanse before? What if you’ve never even heard of such a thing… or of the health benefits of juicing in general? Stay tuned for my next post. I’ll share my personal experience, and how I got started juicing.

Where’s Your Heart? Foundation is a US non-profit organization I founded to improve people’s lives through altruistic living.

Big words, but what’s it mean?

You know that feeling you get when you do something good (something altruistic)? At Where’s Your Heart? we believe that feeling is important. It turns a bad day into a good one, or at least makes a tough day a little easier. We’ve all felt it, right?

Well, a problem is that the feeling is fleeting. No, not the right word. It’s not the feeling that’s fleeting, but the experience. There are a bunch of reasons this happens, but we can summarize:

1. Charities don’t focus on the experience of their donors, they rightfully focus on their charitable missions;
2. That feeling is pretty hard to measure, and so the benefits we get from that feeling are even further “out-there”.

So, what are we going to do? We’re going to focus on that feeling. Then, we’re going to use social media to nurture and share it. In short…

Where’s Your Heart? will create, nurture, and share that feeling ™

Why?

Well, to improve people’s lives (weren’t you paying attention in paragraph 1?!?). In fact, I think it might do more. A lot more.

Why now?

I believe there is an interesting confluence of social media, charitable awareness, and a valuing of the “group experience”. Consider Where’s Your Heart? my contribution to this new culture. A culture that could elect Barack Obama president, and make people (at least for one day) feel like they changed the world. A culture that is turning away from the 9-5 materialistic lifestyle, and looking for something different. A culture where we can break down global borders and come together around something bigger. Pick your favorite disaster. Katrina. Haiti. Indonesia’s tsunami. People rallied, and for a moment we were connected around coming together. And we felt better for it. We’re learning to have a different impact on the world around us, and Where’s Your Heart? is going to be a part of it.

I want to keep this short and readable. So, I’m going to stop here for now with one request. If I’ve caught your attention please become a fan on Facebook. Facebook is going to be our primary web site and media outlet for the time being.

I’m sure you’re dying to know “how” we’ll do this. Stay tuned. That’s the next post.

Was talking to a friend the other day, and a great metaphor popped into my head. It was a metaphor appropriate to what she was experiencing, but also to what we’re doing here at Where’s Your Heart?.

Where’s Your Heart? is about the change occurring in our culture. About our priorities, our relationships, and importantly how we relate to the world around us. You might say, it’s more of a feminine energy. You might be right. It’s actually more about the shared experience of life and the energy it manifests. Once you connect to this energy, you realize it conspires for us. It supports us, and it’s right there where we need it to be. All we need to do is trust it.

I say “all we need to do” like it’s easy or something! Bottom line is, the game’s rigged… in our favor. As I was talking with this friend, a great analogy popped into my head. I want to share it.

Have you ever watched a new baby learn to walk? Your first reaction is to cheer them on. No one ever wants the baby to fall. Or worse, to never be able to walk. I suspect, you can’t even imagine a person who might think jeer a baby who takes their first step, right?

We know we can’t just walk for the baby. And, there’s not a lot we can do to ease the pain that comes with the process of learning to walk; the constant falling, mentally experiencing the 100% failure rate RIGHT UP UNTIL THEY LEARN TO WALK.

Even as I write this, I’m a bit overwhelmed with how perfect this analogy is to any of us who are trying to get more out of life than a bigger paycheck. I find myself falling time and again, and to the point of not wanting to even face the next item on my todo list with Where’s Your Heart?. But, I know, I trust that in spite of my best efforts to fall, the universe is cheering me on. Things lead to things. And, right now, things are conspiring to help us along the way as definitively as any adult would do anything to be there when a baby takes their first steps.

Last bit of sagely advice before I head back up my mountain for the day.

When you’re having a hard one, think about that baby when they fall. Look up, look around. Find a friend, and they’ll be sure to cheer you on. And, like a parent for their child, they’ll totally get when you’ve had enough falling for the day and just want to eat and sleep until trying again tomorrow.

Hi everyone.

I’ve just made a few cosmetic changes, and I thought I’d explain them because they’re quite important.

Look to the right and you’ll see two new logos I’ve linked in. They represent two important relationships in my life.

Grassroots.org. is an organization whose mission is to serve as a catalyst for positive social change by leveraging modern technologies and best business practices. In other words, they provide volunteer services to non-profit’s like Where’s Your Heart? for free. They’re goal is to adopt 10,000 nonprofit members and provide them each with an average of $10,000 of services per year at no charge (for a total savings of $100 million per year!). In exchange for this service, they just ask that members promote them on our sites. Here you go and TIA.

Mad Mimi is an email marketing service that I’ve liked from the moment I laid eyes on Mimi. Their competitors are the likes of Constant Contact. What I liked about them so much was their focus on the customer experience, and brilliant support. I’ve yet to produce a newsletter, but I’ve gotten a support email back at 2AM on a Saturday night, and their email support might as well be an IM chat it’s so responsive. I’m getting closer to being a more active marketer for Where’s Your Heart? and I’m hoping some of my friends that might need this service could use them as well, so we can figure out some best practices together. Any takers?

I hope these links aren’t too intrusive.

It's missing the question mark!

Every physical manifestation of even a baby-step forward is fun. When I saw the package from Chase with my charitable foundation’s checks, I couldn’t help but tear it open.

You’d think it was pretty easy to get a bank account setup. It wasn’t. Laugh with me when as you read the following bit of conversation I had with Citibank on the phone before I went to Chase.

Citi business banker (I use that title loosely) “OK, what’s your company name?”

Me: “Where’s Your Heart? Foundation”

Citi: “OK, [clearly typing while repeating it back to me in a foreign accent] Where Is Your Heart? Foundation”

Me: “No. Not Where IS Your Heart? Where’s Your Heart?.”

Citi: “That’s what I said [talking slower and typing again] Where Is Your Heart? Foundation”

And so on…

So, when I setup the account with Chase, and we go to put the Foundation name in the appropriate field on the web-based form, it won’t accept the “?”. Hmmm. But, Yahoo! has an exclamation mark? Why can’t I have a question mark? Let’s call support, I suggest.

Sure enough, by asking the right questions (me, not my “banker”) I determine that the application itself supports the punctuation in the company name, but the form to access the application does not. So, we setup my account, and my “banker” will followup with operations to get the question mark in there. It should take about a week.

It took two.

OK, no rush, right? Well, once the question mark is in the company name, I can order checks and an ATM/Visa card. I’m neurotic about stuff (it works for me, trust me), so I’m very clear… I ask very simply: “The checks will have the company name on them, with the question mark, right?” “Absolutely” my “banker” reassures me.

So, which is it? People, process or technology? I’d say all three, as it should be because they’re all related.

At least they’re failing on all cylinders.