Note: It may help you to first read this article about Second Harvest Heartland and why they are the Value of Simple partner charity.
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So much has changed through Value of Simple since I wrote my first partner charity contribution check for $7.43 in January 2013. Some highlights include:
- Creating The Digital Launch Playbook.
- Publishing Experience Curating.
- Igniting SimpleREV with some amazing people.
- Publishing 50+ Smart and Simple Matters episodes.
- Building the Continuous Creation Challenge into a complete resource.
- Befriending personal heroes.
- Developing a cult of Excel fanatics (OK, probably not true, but the rest is).
Yet one thing has stayed constant: a trickle of income. That's because I still have money avoidance issues, don't properly market my offerings, and about 100 other reasons my friends, family, and personal coach could cite.
If you're new here, I donate 5% of all Value of Simple pretax income to help our hungry neighbors eat today, and to push for everyone to be fed tomorrow. Since VoS generated $1,781.16 in revenue last year for Personal Renaissance LLC (the legal name of my business), 5% is $89.06 … straight to Second Harvest Heartland.
Yet here I am again, for the third straight year, thinking, “Man, I wish this check was bigger!”
Our $89.06 contribution for 2014 might be 1,198% more than 2012's $7.43, but it barely moves the needle in helping our extended community have food. I'm not going to publicly flog myself over these small contributions – especially since 2015 is my year to better develop self-compassion – but I'm still disappointed.
However … things look up if we focus on the intention behind the contribution instead of its size.
And let's not forget this is hard-earned money that some of you passed along when you purchased what I created or bought an affiliate product I'm proud to support.
All I can say is that I'm more motivated than ever to work my booty off on behalf of Second Harvest Heartland.
It's a Slow Climb
2014 was my first cash flow positive year in business. So in the immortal words of Carl Spackler from Caddyshack (played by Bill Murray), “I got that goin' for me … which is nice.”
Granted, our mission to simplify, organize, and be money wise might be tilted toward simplify lately. But the by-product will always be purposeful contributions to people, organizations, and other living creatures. After all, the community we're building here – with an intentional, grateful, and diverse group of folks – can't be quantified in traditional ways.
However, we still have to remember that, every once in a while, our collective contributions – to each other, to our partner charities, and to everything on this abundant earth – have a number attached to them.
Let's make 2015 a banner year in impact, and for our friends at Second Harvest Heartland!