Something we've noticed here during our interviews and our first two HumanKind Challenges is that giving draws a crowd. Sometimes all it takes is one person to say, "Hey, I want to run for women in the Congo," or, "Let's raise money for ..." and before you know it, they've got friends and partners in their giving adventures. That happened to us when we asked people to participate in HumanKind Challenge #1, donating mosquito nets. Now we've got matching happening, and fund-raising in small groups, and monthly donations starting to roll like a snowball, thanks to you, our readers, our friends.
Cari Class and Stacey Boscoe started their giving adventure with dinner. California resident Cari heard about Dining for Women from a friend in Oregon. Founded by Marsha Wallace in 2003, Dining for Women is a can't lose situation for anyone who 1) has friends, 2) has friends who like to eat dinner with other friends, and 3) has friends who want to contribute to healing the world. Dining for Women chooses a grassroots organization every month (Women for Women this time around), prepares information packets, reading lists, and often a video from the featured organization and sends it to more than 170 chapters in the United States, Europe, and Australia.
During the day, Cari and Stacey combine their creative talents at their design firm, Design Source. They started their Dining for Women chapter with a dinner for 17 of their friends, associates, and clients. It started growing by word of mouth, and each time someone brings a few new friends, and then a few more. After four months, and with attendance in the mid-20s, Cari expects the dinners to grow beyond their ability to hold them in houses. They expect to be moving to a public venue soon.
It's not hard to imagine why. In addition to the allure of contributing to good causes for women around the world, guests are treated to a little of the culture in the food that Stacey prepares, or the music Carey finds (for Matrichaya, she found someone to perform Indian music at the dinner). Stacey says, "Dining for Women makes it easy. They screen and do the groundwork on the organizations. They send great support materials designed to connect us to the people who will be helped by our donations." And we're talking donations in any amount, no minimums, no recommended donation -- anyone can help, no matter what their donation. "When you're talking about giving to make a difference in the life of someone who gets $1 or less a day, everything counts," Cari explains.
What Cari has learned: "We get as much as we give. I'm learning culturally about the world, other women. I don't have a PhD, but any individual can step up and make a change."
If you're still looking for your way into HumanKind Challenge #2, Help a Woman, any woman, you can read about Cari and Stacey doing it their way here. If you've found your unique way to pull your friends, family, church, service organization, or company into your own giving project, we'd love to hear about it. E-mail us at editor[at]humankind media dot com. (Sorry, but we're on spam alert ... you know what to do.) Or leave us a comment below. We're all about sharing stories, and we'd love to share yours (we'll even do all the writing, if you like).
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