It may be hard to believe, but in some places, people survive solely through the charitable efforts of others. People living in these places rely on the generosity of others to meet their needs; food, clothing, medical care and even education are all provided free of charge. Some of these charitable recipients have been relying on such gifts for years, and yet, instead of seeing increased growth and opportunity, their communities stay very much the same. While it is admirable that so many people are willing to give their time and knowledge and resources to provide for those in need, the question must be asked, “Is this the best way to help these people?”

In one such a community, a man saw that his family’s survival depended entirely on the charity of others. He realized the time might come when his family would not be provided free food or granted free education, and he resolved to change his community for the better. And so, with the hope of simultaneously providing jobs and food for his neighbors, he drew up a business plan for a community garden. Many in the community embraced his vision as they too dreamt of lasting change, but, even when they gutted the plan to a skeleton of what it had been, the startup costs were still too high. Their idea seemed doomed to fail. However, after an exhaustive search, he found a company that was willing to loan him the small sum of money to cover the costs of the original plan for the garden. Within one year, complete with a fully-functioning greenhouse, the community garden was providing both jobs and food at an incredible rate. By the time he paid off the loan, a second greenhouse was added and he was providing jobs to 24 orphans while funding the educational costs for an additional 48 orphans every year. Effectively, and most importantly, he had created a change in the mindset of his community. The dependency on charity was no more.

The Giving Gifts is a non-profit organization founded with the goal of creating more stories like this one. Using micro-loans, which are small sums of money loaned at low interest, our aim is to enable the self-starters in these communities to fulfill their dream of creating a stable and sufficient society.

Our entire organization began with this story and, after experiencing first-hand the often-unforeseen dangers of charity, we quickly concluded that we could do something much more impactful. People need an opportunity to change their communities on their own. Micro-loans, we believe, are the most efficient and plausible vehicle with which to provide such opportunities. But, as we began putting pen to paper, turning idealistic ideas into tangible dreams, we were met with a surprising barrage of doubt. Someone else could do that. Someone else could provide the funds and manage the work. We could simply volunteer for that organization every so often, or make a one-time donation, and faithfully check that dream off our “to-do” list. What could we truly accomplish on our own, anyway? It’s not like we could actually build a business from the ground up, somehow convince people to help us, create and sustain meaningful change in communities across the globe and maintain our sanity throughout the entire process. But, true to ourselves and despite the seemingly insurmountable objections, we decided (possible insanely) to create a business with the sole purpose of providing people with opportunities in places where that word (and the hope that comes along with it) doesn’t exist. And so, in the spring of 2016, as Cassidy and I sat in a Global Perspectives class, she single-handedly altered the course of my entire life, for better or for worse, with one statement. “So, I have an idea.” Sixty seconds later, like the man and his community garden, the vision had been cast and I was absolutely hooked. I’ve had a few moments since then where reality hits me and I’m reminded that The Giving Gifts is real, it’s amazing, and it’s happening. The strongest of these moments, perhaps, was after we selected our potential advisory board candidates and met with all of them to officially request their presence on our board. After sharing our ideas and our vision with all eight of this elite squad, and after their subsequent commitment to advising the Giving Gifts, we finally had our first official board meeting. As that first discussion began, and as the evening slowly passed, we witnessed our ideas and our dreams transition from hopeful ideologies into actual, practical plans. As the passionate discussion and lively conversation came to an end, The Giving Gifts finally felt real. We’ve come a long way from that very first discussion, and I’m sure we will continue to grow. For now, I’m thrilled just to have a story to tell, and I’m thankful to have an audience, like you, to share it with. Thank you for being interested in investing in global communities. Thank you for supporting us. And thank you for caring. This, my friends, is The Giving Gifts.