Fun You Can Feel Good About

It's as easy as one, two, three. Everywhere you turn, there's a new for profit business with a social agenda. TOMS Shoes is a great example. I heard Blake, founder of TOMS (tomorrow's shoes), speak a few years ago at Clinton Global Initiative U about the TOMS model. After traveling to Argentina, he saw a major need: kids were in desperate need of a good pair of shoes to simply play soccer in or to walk to school in, which could possibly be miles. At first, one would think about having a charity event to raise money to buy shoes or a place where people could donate shoes. Instead, Blake decided to start a for profit business because it would be a more sustainable model, rather than a nonprofit depending on sponsorships, etc. With this model of selling shoes at retail stores, TOMS is based on the program One for One, donating a pair for every one that is purchased.

Two businesses based on products that do social good have recently caught my eye: Give and Brilliant Earth.

Briefly, every time you purchase a bottle of Give, they donate .10 to a local nonprofit. That amount may seem little, but it adds up...think about how many bottles of water you drink in a day, or a week, and then multiply that by the number of your Facebook friends! I am in no way promoting plastic water bottles, I am a much bigger advocate for reusable products, but if you're going to buy a bottled water, definitely buy Give. Available at a number of locations including Whole Foods and Walton's. www.drinkgive.com

The name fits Brilliant Earth perfectly. As a person who likes nice things, jewelry included, I've always been against diamonds. It may be because my mom's wedding ring doesn't have a diamond, but very likely it has to do with the diamond and jewelry industry generally being harmful and unethical (not exactly something we want to be a part of!). The solution if you absolutely insist on a diamond: www.brilliantearth.com. Not only do they educate us on the issues of the diamond and jewelry industry, they donate 5% of sales to communities that have been ravaged by the unethical practices. And you can read all about their ethical practices online. Antique diamonds and jewelry are also available. One woman's trash, another woman's treasure.