Since I work in advertising, my holiday planning has always started during the summery days of July and the months leading up to Christmas are measured daily by a moving quota target. Recently, I moved to New York to take on a new role specializing in developing strategy and brand within the PurePlay (online-born disruptors; think Casper, MM.LaFleur, Amazon) vertical at Google. A few years ago, when I interviewed for my previous role in California, I told the interview committee that I wanted to start my own business in the retail sector. They came back to me with everything I asked for: a wonderful new opportunity and the e-commerce and retail book of business to manage within the team. While there, I was simultaneously exposed to high growth disruptors making waves in their industries and O2O (online to offline) retailers that were on the verge of bankruptcy.

Recently, I joined the DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) Council at work. When we were discussing content for a holiday note to the wider team, I realized that amidst the increasingly ambitious targets, we rarely took time for pause to think about the most important thing during this season: giving to others and to those in need. I sent a holiday note to our teams centered around giving, but it left me reflecting as I continued to receive direct mail and email campaigns from organizations asking for donations this holiday season.

During my highschool years in Canada, I served on the student government each year. We’d run a phenomenal food bank drive every November and December. There was always a million causes to support and fight for.

Later in the mid 2000’s, when I served on the Vancouver District Students’ Council, I remember the contagious craze of the “Me To We” voluntourism trips that swept throughout Canada. Stadiums would be filled with students starry-eyed about the concept of going to an exotic country for a week to build a well. I remained skeptical. At 17, I remember asking,  “It’s $3,000 to send yourself to Kenya to build a school over the time span of a week? Why aren’t we using that large sum of money to build up the local economy by stretching in further in local resources and investing in local talent for labor?”

Then, the KONY 2012 documentary was released with a wildly successful social media marketing campaign that mobilized thousands of teenagers to talk about how to save Africa. Controversy ensued when fact checkers brought the organization under fire.

Greg Mortensen had his heyday with his captivating narratives about building schools in impoverished, rural regions of Aghanistan. “Three Cups of Tea,” and “Stones into Schools,” later turned out to have exaggerated or outright fabrications of Mortensen’s story of his work in Afghanistan. At 16, I loved these books and remember experiencing a moral dilemma about how one could best serve the world when all these campaigns and narratives around me were houses built on the sand.

I kept this sentiment with me throughout the years. These organizations used contemporary digital tools and branding to create a demand for something that didn’t previously exist. My job is to help my clients identify and reach their peak demand, market, and niche for products and business models that haven’t previously been tried and true. The parallel is uncanny. The power of marketing and advertising has tremendous ripple effects on consumer and user behavior and perceptions. How then, can all this energy be transformed for the better good?

Growing up during the age when socially conscious teens were all the rage, I wonder if this energy has dissipated due to the distrust of institutions and NGOs. Through technology, we have increased the capacity of our tools to give more effectively, more broadly, and more quickly. A quick search on Google will index thousands of reviews about an organization and its impact, organizational overhead and major initiatives. Does the paradox of choice about where to give make us feel constrained about where to give? Are people simply overwhelmed by the barrage of content and news that giving is a topic that we’ve developed a desensitization towards?

I’d love to know where you give and what compels you to give. 

Here are a few organizations that I’ve been bookmarking and following:

GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly is a nonprofit organization operating in East Africa that helps families living in extreme poverty by making unconditional cash transfers to them via mobile phone. GiveDirectly allows donors to send money directly to the poor with no strings attached. The proportion of total expenses that GiveDirectly has delivered directly to recipients is approximately 83% overall.

GiveWell

High impact giving opportunities that are supported by in-depth charity research. GiveWell is a nonprofit dedicated to finding outstanding giving opportunities through in-depth analysis. Thousands of hours of research have gone into finding our top-rated charities. They’re evidence-backed, thoroughly vetted, and underfunded.

Helen Keller International

I’m as blind as a bat without my contact lenses, so I have been looking into organizations that focus on vision care. Without sight, one’s mobility and ability to be self-sufficient can be limited. Children are inhibited from learning in the classroom. A truck driver can have difficulty navigating the roads. And what of the colors or the textures abundant in the world? If someone with impaired vision had access to corrective lenses, could they be an artist? A doctor? A skilled weaver?

Every year, I always earmark a donation to Bates College, my alma mater, and a local organization (the past two years have been Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, a local Bay Area organization focused on business planning classes for low-income residents who want to open their own businesses. I taught classes here and the team is phenomenal. The students have remarkable business ideas and are doing something about it. If you have a company gift match, don’t forget to request it before the year end!

Merry merry Christmas! If you have any books, articles, podcasts or thoughts about giving and causes – please send them my way.

Bis,

MP