Mutual help comes from mutual assistance

I want to help promote awesome non-profits. Can I do a ton? Maybe not...yet. But it's something. You know, like the old starfish on the beach story. "Made a difference for that one."

So let me help you! For a while now, our outreach has included calls for the social media information to local non-profits. Are we looking to spam them, solicit them to "buy our stuff", or otherwise harass the administrators of those systems? Of course not!

We are working to build a movement rooted in passion. Those non-profits are where the peoples' passions lie. So let us help connect them with what they likely don't even know exists in their own backyard!

The response has been...ok. Not great, but not dismal. However, I know there are many more great organizations in the Broward and South Florida region not represented! Our research identified over 2,000 of them in Broward County alone. Non-profits: We need your help to begin to help expose you to more people.

Why do we want social media information for non-profits? To feature them, what they are doing in our community, and to tell their story to those who may be interested in listening. Not to solicit donations, but to build the passion, so donations and volunteer time come naturally.

So if you know of great causes that are not represented by us, leave their information in a comment, or post on any of our social media pages (GreenProfit Solutions or Greater Good Alliance, on Facebook or Twitter).

You've got the passion. Help us help you spread it far and wide.

It feels a bit like a (shuttle) launch

You got me. It's been too long since my last post. Do I have an awesome excuse? Sure, I was battling reanimated dinosaurs on a remote island and just finally was able to escape. Good thing no one ever made a book, film, or theme park with that premise. Otherwise, no one would ever believe me!

In truth, we have been hard at work getting set for the soft launch of the Greater Good Alliance. What? Never heard of it? Time for you to get following and Join the GGA Movement! We offer Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for your status update addiction. Be among the first to sign up (it's free, really) and we'll give you $5 to use upon launch towards a discount or straight as a donation to a participating non-profit. Help a worthwhile cause with only your e-mail.

Anyway, that's what we have all been up to here at GreenProfit Solutions. One piece at a time. Like a shuttle. Millions of individual systems that not only need to work properly themselves, but also must work together with each other equally so. Yesterday, Space Shuttle Endeavour launched on her final journey into orbit. But it wasn't without delays and challenges. This time, an important power unit that helps keep hydraulic fluid from freezing while in orbit broke. Can't fly safely without those in good shape! So, the team made sure all was well before wishing the crew 'bon voyage'. While you can see the shuttle pass over you while in orbit, the Greater Good Alliance will be landing in South Florida in just a few weeks!

The message in all this? Make sure all the operations and strategies in your business or non-profit work properly. Then, ensure they work properly together. Silo thinking can be dangerous for the Shuttle. It can be costly for you.

Learning from Strange Places

Obviously, if you're reading this, then you have heard about the largest story on the planet. No, not the royal wedding, or that two Girl Scouts are appealing to stop the use of environmentally-destructive palm oil in their cookies, or even that a meteor shower (from Halley's Comet trail!) is coming this Friday.

You know what I'm talking about. Osama. Usama. However you spell it in your culture.

But the spelling is not the important part. Nor was his death, in a sense.

It was the way various parts of the world reacted to that news. In Washington, DC, there were thousands of people celebrating in the streets. Other areas were more muted in their acceptance of the information. Nearly as fast, blogs and other writers began commenting on the morality of celebrating a death, even if that person were responsible for the death and suffering of so many.

But that morality question is not the point of this post.

It all comes down to the fact that different people, from a variety of cultures, respond to the same information in sometimes completely opposite ways.

And we sometimes forget that in the environmental field.

"A big, bad company is destroying an important place! You should care and do something about it!" we say. Who responds? Only those we already had "on our side". So how do we generate the response we want (action, activism, passion) in a group that is not receptive to the general message as written?

Make it fit them. Learn what drives these varying groups of people. What are their concerns? When we can scale and frame an issue into the world view they possess, then support will simply follow. It is suddenly in their best interest to speak out.

One size message does not fit all. For some, that previous example is all you need. Another community may respond better with, "Jobs, health impacts likely from specific damaging action. Work with others in your town hall to send a message supporting your children's future."

Dancing in the streets. A solemn, candlelit talk. Two ways of expressing the same emotion.