Honors for Every Little Drop

After participating in Blog Action Day last week it's time to come down to earth. There was something special about being part of a worldwide effort where 37,000 blogs, some famous like "The Official Google Blog" and not so famous like my own, all participating in a movement to effect social change. Indeed my small effort felt like a drop, yet it was part of a huge ripple that became a wave.

So too, can every effort that support local and global causes, whether the efforts are large or small, can add up to create change. And so-Business That Cares will be announcing monthly "Every Little Drop" honors to local San Francisco Bay Area businesses that engage in community supported philanthropy,in the hope that these efforts can serve as examples to others and can create a movement that will impact local communities positively.

Milana C.is one of the many shops and restaurants in Menlo Park that partnered with Village Enterprise Fund, which helps finance and educate microentrepreneurs in East Africa.In honor of World Anti-Poverty Day on Oct.17th, shops and restaurants helped support VEF by donating a portion of their customers’ purchases.

Milana C also carries designer jeans, by Privacy Premier Denim that supports breast cancer and hand painted t-shirts by Signorelli that feature a variety of charities for each of their t-shirts.

Martha's Pastries also in Menlo Park, donates all leftover pastries twice a week to local homeless shelters. Martha's Pastries is well known to locals for her Challah breads on Fri and for her famous cinnamon bread, but her honors here go to her community charity.

Heather Lussier Photography in Los Altos has announced October as Family Portrait Month where 5% of proceeds from every portrait order will be donated to the local CSA (Community Services Agency).

DownTime Healing Arts Center, of Los Altos, CA Supports Second Harvest Food Bank and Fund Drive! They have posted the announcement of Second Harvest Food Bank's Drive in their monthly newsletter. Downtime has also offered customers a $10.00 discount off massages with a donation of groceries to Second Harvest.

Downtime Healing Arts Center, has formed a "Giving and Growing" networking group to begin on Oct.21st. Here is their announcement of this initiative.

"We have all heard that what goes around comes around. We also all know how good it feels when we are able to help others. We all have been in networking groups. Wouldn't it be great to be able to take all of these experiences and join a networking group that has a primary focus of giving back to our community. As we are giving for the benefit of all we have the opportunity to grow our business. This is a new networking group that was created from the "How Business Can Do Well By Doing Good Workshop". (Oct 4. 2009) We learned through the sharing of many examples that businesses grow better by helping others and non- profit organizations. Please join us the third Wednesday of every month to start giving and growing. As the group grows we can discuss what day of the week works best for all."

I look forward to posting more stories about our local community philanthropy efforts. Soon, once a month will not be enough, the drops will flowing.