Compassionate Consumerism…………. You deside!!

November 11th, 2007

15 years ago Rich DeVos wrote the book Compassionate Capitalism. What initially looked like an oxymoron took shape as a credo, a plan for people to enrich themselves, their community and the environment around them. I think this was really the first time I asked “What If…?”. In his book Rich DeVos explains how we must let compassion guide us as we use our wages, our profits, out time and our talents. That through Compassionate Capitalism we can have an enormous effect on poverty, homelessness and hunger. He states we must be compassionate not only with the world and the human resources within it but in the products we choose to develop and market.

Fast forward 13 years. Bono from U2 introduces us to The (RED) Maifesto. The manifesto states that consumers have a tremendous amount of leverage and collectively can change the course of life and of world history by choosing what and what not to buy. The idea of ( RED) is two fold. One, it is profitable for companies to introduce products specifically for the purpose of giving a portion of those profits to charity, and two, that consumers, when given a choice of products that meet their needs, would buy the product (in the case (RED)) that help keep people alive. Again I asked “What if…?”

Then I saw the quote……

“You Must Be the Change You Want to See in the World”.
Mahatma Gandhi

What if I did something like that?
What if I just did something?
What if I did nothing?

Elaine and I have decided to take advantage of the power of e-commerce to launch the retail portal Want Change?…Be Change!.

Look soon for the launch of www.wantchangebechange.com. Thru Want Change?… Be Change! people will be able to shop for products and services they buy anyway, but with 50% of the gross profits going to one of a couple existing charities we believe make a significant impact in the lives of others. It is not a charity. It doesn’t replace your charitable giving. It is a new way of doing business. We call it Compassionate Consumerism. You buy products, we take half the profits and give it away. WE touch others, YOU touch others.

You Decide!

Post comments here or email me @: joel@wantchangebechange.com