Hi all,
here is a little story I wanted to share on how everybody can help good causes even without spending time or money.
Earlier this year a zoo in my hometown (free entry, running on donations only) posted on Facebook that they had to do some renovations and were looking for certain materials such as wood, paint etc. One specific thing they were looking for was about 25 gallons (100 liters) of paint. I considered donating that but quickly found that this would cost me over $1000 if I bought it as a normal consumer, not wholesale or anything. So I looked on Amazon for the producer of such paint with good ratings on their products. I found one, visited their website and left a message in the contact section, telling them about the zoo, what they were looking for etc. Two days later my phone rings and it's a lady from marketing in said company. She tells me that they received my message and would agree to sponsor the paint, even including the delivery (over 100 miles).
I called the zoo and let them know that I had found a way to get their paint for free and who they would have to get in touch with. A few weeks later the paint was delivered and they took some nice publicity photos while applying it and put a link on the zoo's homepage to the paint producer in the "thank you" section.
As I have a phone flat-rate all this took me was about an hour of my time and I provided $1000 worth of value to a good cause I care about. So if you find yourself in a situation where you would like to help an organization but can not personally do it, maybe you can just make the right connection instead :-)
Cheers,
Lordy
