How to make next year brilliant
Lots of people make New Year's resolutions, but keeping...
Last month I wrote on the philanthropic aspect to franchising that was occurring in the medical industry. A nonprofit sprung up recently due to a medical reason.
Many of you know, but for those that do not know - I am the CEO of a nonprofit foundation named Raising A Nation Foundation.
It's design and creation was for the support of creating an outdoor adventure training ground and educational center in South Africa called the L.A.N.D. (Leadership for A New Direction)
The L.A.N.D.'s sole purpose is to empower young adults and high schooler’s to learn to overcome; to consider business ownership and entrepreneurship as opposed to depending upon the government to provide education for careers in governmental jobs that don't exist.
We will be teaching how to create a successful team, How to reveal your true skill sets, business and personal financial and accounting, development plans and marketing strategies, and business vehicles, amongst other topics.
And in visiting South Africa two years ago, we accidentally started an additional focus to our nonprofit foundation. You see one of the main teachers that was traveling with me Mrs. Candy Colson, a master teacher with IMD International heard that Maria, who is a housekeeper, had been battling a mysterious pain in her side for 2 1/2 years. Maria had spent untold dozens of hours at the hospitals and medical clinics waiting for free treatment to do testing to try to find out if it was cancer or something equally scary, that was causing her pain. The doctors and specialist had sent her from one clinic to the next ordering testing of every kind, including CAT scans MRIs upper GIs, etc. and no one could give her a diagnosis of what was causing this frequent but intermittent pain in her side.
Candy noticed that when she bent over to pick up something or to clean a shelf she would wince in pain. And that is when Candy discovered that it was actually Marie’s poor fitting bra that was causing more pain. You see it was so poor fitting because of the lack of access to properly size larger bras that it was so tight on her that it appeared to be bruising the muscle beneath her rib cage. All of us ladies took Sunday afternoon to go and try and find Maria a properly sized bra to end her pain, only to discover that none of the available stores whether lower-end, middle-class or even high-end stores did not have bras for well-developed, voluptuous women.
When we returned to the United States a few weeks later we shared the story with the women in our Bible study locally and then an outpouring of gently used and new bras started flowing in. This is how we created our accidental arm of our nonprofit foundation, now filed and trademarked as our beloved "Support Our Sisters™" (Yes, we realize it is a double-edged pun :-) )
Ladies Night Out Fundraiser
This year alone, we have received recognition from media agencies, radio stations, large casinos in Nevada, women's groups, and church organizations all spreading the word about the needs of women.
It has grown so large that now we are taking up offerings and special fundraising just to raise the shipping costs to send the bras to the ladies in need. And my response - "Oops, we started another arm to our non-profit - not only are we educating on entrepreneurship but also on how to properly determine what size bra you need.” This last month we took over 1,000 bras to South Africa for the underprivileged women there, which was over double what we had accomplished the year before. Below is one of my favorites. This lovely lady last year received a bra for the first time in her life, and she was so happy she wanted to model it for us (in the brochure photo), and this year at a weekend conference - she was there! And she wanted to model it for us again and say thank you.
Support Our Sisters Recipient
Originally my plan was to reach out to the franchise community to see if any systems would want to be involved in sponsoring (as part of their local marketing efforts or their national PR efforts) to support the L.A.N.D through it's education, kids, outdoor sports, and training aspects.
But now I see that there is also the availability for the medical franchises; the women's franchises, or franchises that provide services for women or health and wellness centers for both sexes that may want to be involved in helping women around the globe in some way.
As I mentioned in my last article Shelton Law and Associates provides free legal services to franchise systems to assist them in implementing and inserting a philanthropic aspect to their franchise system. If this is you as a franchise system, please contact us today (866-99-FRANCHISE or via email at: franchising@SLA.Law). Or if you want to become a franchisee that is involved with systems who have a built-in Philanthropic aspect, we can help connect you too.
And of course if you want to donate either Adventure Camp equipment or gear, or provide gently used bras or new bras (we are desperately in need of sizes 32 and smaller, and sizes 40 and up, all cup sizes), please coordinate via email sheryl@sherylsmith.net.
Whether it is to support entrepreneurship or individuals in a community - franchising has long since been a business model designed to grow a community and supports that communities inhabitants. Shelton Law and Associates is proud to continue that tradition, as many others do in the industry.
