Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Good Works

I just read that Dolly Parton gave 2 million books to 215,000 kids under 5 last year. I love Dolly Parton.

Rick Warren's "PEACE" plan is pretty kickass, as well. The author of The Purpose Driven Life has organized small groups of church goers who pick an impoverished village, travel there, take care of whatever they need (water sterilization, mosquito nets), make sure the village leaders can replicate their work, and leave.

I also read about a nurse named Ruby Jones who whispered words of comfort to dying patients during Katrina. And it turns out that one of my favorite retailers, Target, actually contributes something positive to the world. And it's not just PR -- they donate 5% of their pre-tax profits (more than twice the coprorate American average) to charity, which amounts to about $2 million EACH WEEK -- $101 million last year. Their employees dedicaterd more than 315,000 hours to good works last year. And they even built the Target House in 1999 to house St. Jude patients and their families.

Bank Of America even gets an honorable mention. They gave $130 million to charity in 2005, spreading out $200,000 a piece to 80 different non-profit organizations.

Good stuff. Ha... Literally.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

it's good to know this stuff. i learn something new everyday, and it's good to know there's really rich people out there putting their money to good cause. that's a trip about dolly parton and target's employees man!