Do it.

I’m not a fan of mandating charity.

However, if you are taking advantage of the opportunity to run your own business, then you should be supporting a charity,  a cause, or something.

Why? Because we small businesses are quite often either the loudest voices for a cause or among the largest contributors to charities, and we kinda owe that to society in a “pay it forward” kind of way.

It’s as simple as posting once in a while about a cause you believe in. It doesn’t have to involve money. The only rule in play is that when you talk about a charity or a cause, it is all about the charity or the cause. The point is to help the charity and to raise awareness… it is not about “hey look at me!”

Once it becomes “hey look at me,” then you lose all credibility, or worse, become offensive… and being offensive is a real hard label to shake off once someone has applied it to you.

We are businesspeople. There are things we can do for charities that people who do not own businesses simply cannot do… or do as well.

What can you do?

Become a drop-off location.
Lots of charities are looking for collection points for items like canned foods, blankets, diapers and other necessities.

Be a mouthpiece for them.
Raise awareness through your blog. Don’t make it a beg-a-thon, but if you have information to share, the blog can be a great place to share it. The same “don’t sell through the blog” rules apply, but there’s a little leniency if you are telling your readers to go to a certain event or something along hose lines. It’s great to raise funds, just don’t make them feel all bad to do so.

Put an icon on your blog that leads to their website, if they have one.

It’s not about “here let me give them money” or about “look at me.” It’s about getting these groups the help and/or awareness that they need.

One charity started by two young ladies in downtown Atlanta provided hundreds of blankets for homeless people in Atlanta. It took only a few weeks to gather everything and with the help of a few folks, the operation was a success.

They are not looking for money. They’re looking for blankets. They plan to keep finding other ways to distribute blankets to Atlanta’s homeless, not only during the winter, but all year long. Keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities to help them, or log on to their website.

Avondale High School is one of the causes I support and the past couple weeks have been amazing.

Today, Fox5 is coming out to film practice. They are featuring the team on Saturday morning, and the website and internet marketing have been described by those involved as “essential to the team’s success.”

We have raised over $15,000 to fund the kids through the website and other means. The Blue Devils’ newsletter goes out to nearly 1,300 people, highlighting what’s happening with the team, telling readers what’s coming up, and also raising funds for a severely underfunded team.

The approach was to start revitalizing the school with football… football involves a whole lot of kids and energizes the school body early. When I attended Avondale, the football team had probably 40-50 guys dressed on the field. Our marching band sent 140 kids on the field. The cheerleaders had a dozen or so kids involved, and both the footall team and cheerleaders had Varsity, Junior Varsity (or B-Team) and eighth grade squads (our school was 8th-12th grade at the time.

I won’t go into all the details of the hardships the kids face nowadays, but the school is being treated like an old poor school that the county wishes would just go away.

- The School of Performing Arts has returned to Avondale, and their facilities are getting a full renovation, and about 1/3 of the school is being dedicated to them as a separate student body (we were intermingled with the Avondale kids when I was there).

- The weight room has been moved from where it had been for decades and all the equipment moved into a storage container across the street. When the kids work out, they have to haul the equipment out and exercise in a parking lot.

- Economics were so bad that when I went to photograph a practice, some kids had socks, and some did not (I’ve heard that the year before, cleats were passed in between students because they couldn’t afford to buy more).

The Return to Excellence

When I built their website, I hadn’t planned on getting involved with the program – I live about 45 minutes away. However, when I saw what they had to work with and how hard they were working despite the situation, I knew that these kids deserved much more.

I ramped up the website to include the ability for people to donate online, started a newsletter through Constant Contact for them, got a Facebook page going and recently began a twitter campaign for them.

The newsletter currently has about 1300 subscribers, mostly alumni. We are starting to promote to the faculty and student body.

The facebook page has nearly 600 fans – and actively works with the other Avondale Alumni groups – and photos from the games and practices are passed along there, including newsworthy items.

The Twitter page has got all kinds of potential once we get that list up and running.

Marketing online is a lot more than just a website… it takes work… just like any other marketing.

The team has won 3 games so far, including one preseason game. They are officially 2-0 (as of this writing) and they only won two games last year. They’re ramping up into a run of games with Georgia powerhouses Blessed Trinity, Buford, Westminster, Greater Atlanta Christian, Decatur and Lovett all in a row with no bye weeks in between them (their bye week is right before this run).

This is an improved team, and while this will be a tough year, they will not be pushed around like they have been over the past 20 years.

…and the student body is energized!

We raised over $18,000 for the kids that year.

The were able to eat a pre-game meal together before each game (and have energy to finish the game), and had their first winning season in 20 years.

They went to the playoffs for the first time in 20 years, and came within a touchdown of upsetting the team that eventually won the state championship.

Nine kids who would not have been able to go to college otherwise received scholarships due to their athletic and academic performance.

The principal at the school felt upstaged and had the coach dismissed from the school, and he has moved on to another school in the area and his having great success there with his teams.

Sadly, times change and Avondale High School is being closed later this year. It will probably be converted into a facility completely dedicated to the performing arts.

But for that one year, the kids had something to be excited about, spirits were high, and a bunch of them got their first taste of success in life.

As much as I was honored to be a part of it, it is a true testimonial of what the Internet can do to raise funds to help kids.

Most business owners that I know support at least a couple charities. Mine include a women’s shelter and a high school football team. I wasn’t planning on ever posting this, but it’s on my heart to put it out there in case there are others who would like to help or to find charities that they would like to help support.

The women’s shelter takes in ladies from all sorts of bad situations (abuse, drugs, on the streets and more) and helps them get back on their feet. Some of the ladies’ children become straight A (or near straight A) students, and the ladies become self-sufficient and regain their confidence and dignity. They have done all this for years with volunteers of people’s time, skills and money. There are many things we take for granted in life that the people being rescued by this operation are just now discovering or haven’t had for so long in their lives.

If you would like to help with this shelter, send me an email at dave@websitedave.com and I will get y’all connected.

…that’s just something that’s on my heart to share this morning… doesn’t have much to do with websites as much as it does with the entrepreneurial heart.