Spotlights
Spotlight: Sevenly
Dale Partridge has a knack for building brands. By the age of 26, Partridge was overseeing one of the most popular pages on Facebook, running a successful advertising agency and spearheading a variety of other social media projects. It makes sense, then, that his most recent—and personal—campaign, Sevenly, has achieved big-league status in less than a year. Read more...
Gift Card Giver
How many times have you cleaned out the console in your car or the bottom of your bag and excitedly stumbled across random gift cards from previous birthdays? You set aside the $11.72 you have left to spend on coffee, swearing you’ll use it later, only to uncover it again on your next spring cleaning day. Read more...
RYFO
Nick Greenwood is the founder of the RYFO network, a community established to care for the unique physical, emotional and spiritual needs of touring musicians. By partnering with individuals, churches, companies and organizations across the country, RYFO is able to offer musicians a diverse range of services as they are away from their ordinary systems of support—at no cost to the artist. Through RYFO.org—a social networking site—fans can adopt bands and pray for the band members’ posted prayer needs, they can apply to host touring bands for free in their homes and offer their professional services (mechanics, chiropractors, restaurant owners, etc.) for free to bands. RYFO also provides tour chaplains, or “road pastors,” per the request of a band. According to Greenwood, “RYFO is able to come alongside some of the most influential voices of our culture (musicians), and encourage them to be sold-out disciples of Jesus on and off the road.” Read more...
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Mocha Club
People aren’t often motivated to fight poverty unless they have a personal encounter with it. For Barrett Ward, executive director of Mocha Club, this “cataclysmic” experience occurred on a trip to Peru, when he saw a little girl emerging from a tin shack. Read more...
Tanari Trust
In Kenya, the migration of people from rural villages to large cities has left a gap in the way children develop. The traditional way in which children are ushered into adulthood through tribal rites of passage is no longer a reality for many youths. Without proper role models and a clear path to adulthood, Kenya has seen a loss of identity among its youth, as well as increased Westernization and a lingering immaturity. The Tanari Trust, a Kenyan charitable organization formed by a partnership of five churches, is seeking to replace the tribal initiation rites for city children by introducing a program that ushers youth into adulthood and responsibility while instilling a sense of civic duty and Christian principles. Read more...
Trade as One
In the United States and other developed nations, we have the means and the freedoms to start our own businesses, put our skills to work and to expect that our ventures will reasonably succeed. In many other parts of the world, this opportunity is not available. Either locals don’t have access to the materials and finances to produce a product, or they are treated poorly while doing so. The fair trade movement has gained momentum by helping those in impoverished, suffering areas to produce, market and sell their goods and services. Trade as One is an online retailer that has adopted this ethical business model, attempting to make a change while making a profit. Read more...
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Project 7
Social consciousness is the latest successful sales pitch, prompting a number of companies to create products or alter business plans to appeal to the consumer’s inner humanitarian. Sometimes, it’s just business as usual. But other times, there is someone like Tyler Merrick behind a company with heart like Project 7. Read more...
Friends of Justice
In the summer of 1999, my little hometown of Tulia, Texas, was hit by a drug sting. An early-morning sweep arrested 16 percent of the black people in my town—more than 70 percent of the town’s young black men. My father, a Baptist minister, got involved when he became concerned that the defendants couldn’t get a fair trial in our small town. Read more...
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