From time to time, I’d like to profile different folks that are active participants in the Durham Community. Jeff Lloyd is a very good friend of mine, on the board of Trinity School in Durham and Chapel Hill, elder at the Church of the Good Shepherd on Garrett Road, and in charge of Apple’s Computer sales to the Education field in the Southeast. He started at Apple in 1987, and I don’t know of anyone (who doesn’t work at Bandwidth.com!) that is more excited about the company he works for and believes more in its business mission. Most importantly, Jeff is an awesome man who has done much for me and so many here in Durham as we have come to faith and seek to grow in it. Growing up the son of a missionary in West Africa will give a man a maturity and a remarkable perspective.

This blog isn’t however about Jeff (though I could go on), it’s about the company that he works for, its new CEO, and a succinct and powerful address that he gave to shareholders on a call this past January. I know about it because Jeff handmade a laminated copy that is in his wallet. (I told you he was excited about the company!) When you read it below, I think you’ll know why. And here is the lesson for Durham and all the organizations in it: charities, not-for-profits, and yes, of course, commercial companies as well.

In this time of hundreds of inputs from the internet/tv/facebook and twitter, we must at all times be ready to tell our employees, our funders, our partners and those that we seek to serve what it is that we do, what we value and what we believe. We need to do this crisply and succinctly to an audience that has an increasingly short attention span. With respect to that fact, and without further adieu:

Tim Cook’s address to Apple shareholders on January 22, 2009:

We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing.

We are constantly focusing on innovating.

We believe in the simple not the complex.

We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.

We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us.

We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.

And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.

And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so imbedded in the company that Apple will do extremely well. I strongly believe that Apple is doing the best work in its history

Tim Cook, January 22, 2009

There has been much made recently of the Success Grant* initiative and we've had more emphasis on this than other programs in the early going since the relaunch of the site, BUT long term the program that I'd like us to be most known for isn't the Success Grant or the DurhamCares trips program it's Volunteer Matching.

You've probably heard from us before that we've been inspired to create DurhamCares due to the two applications that we take away from the Parable of the Good Samaritan** : the broader definition of neighbor AND the physical love that the Samaritan provided for the Jewish traveller on the side of the road.

But, for a more contemporary take on the importance of being engaged in a community and the offering up of physical love, we take some inspiration from Marvin Olasky's book, "The Tragedy of American Compassion" too. This book and its author are well known as being the basis for George Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism."  Whether you liked George Bush or not (and if late opinion polls are an indicator, you probably didn't), Olasky's work should be interesting to us all for his ability, as an historian, to chronicle the application of caring for those in need by looking back over 400 years of history. I found this history to be absolutely fascinating. He argues, and I'm inclined to agree, that the time in our history in which we did the best job of caring for the poor and the sick was when we took them in to our homes. From families in Upstate New York taking in orphans, to neighbors going door to door to take care of the hungry and sick, we were experts in providing mercy ministry. Our predecessors didn't require any translation or illustration on applying Christ's commands to take care of the least of these from the pulpit on Sunday.  They knew it, practiced it and lived it. Some quick thoughts that struck me:

1. They were much more in tune with the needs of those worse off because they saw their troubles first hand. They knew which initiatives should be funded and which ones shouldn't......with this type of intimate buy-in, they undoubtedly gave more than 1% of their incomes to charity (as our DurhamCares survey shows that we do).
2. Mercy limited mercy. There wasn't welfare free-loading (or living off the system). When the person being helped was equipped to take care of themselves, they were sent off to do so.
3. They learned first hand that it is truly more blessed to give than receive.
4. In being physically involved with those they helped (as opposed to a government agency or charity intermediary) they more fully lived out commands of Christ to take care of those in need.

So, with all of this said, and knowing that we do really think that the Success Grant IS a good way to help fund charities, we'd MUCH RATHER help those in Durham to be actively engaged in Durham with their TIME, not just their MONEY. Please help us to help you through the Volunteer Match service on the website. Tell us what special talents or interests that you have. Let us work with you to find a sustained, committed volunteering relationship. It doesn't cost you a thing, but it just might change your life and your city.

Thank you for loving (not just funding) your neighbor!

*The reason for this is primarily due to the more public way in which we inventory results of those pledging to the Success Grant and that we want to create a sense of momentum and "critical mass" as we seek to offer up a way to reward charities for planning and making their goals.

**for a 3rd click here for Mike Schneider's blog.

It's just too much fun!  So, we're extended the hair shaving deadline to May 20th!  We're up to 115 people and since we're extending it the new goal is 350 and Chris Garrett, Executive Director, Samaritan Health Center is throwing his hair in the ring too and will submit to the clippers if we reach 350 as well, and we'll invite you all to join us for an event in Durham to watch the hair come off!

A series of events have made a big impression on me recently about the value of being able to tell a story well.

Last Monday night I attended a presentation by Scott Harrison of Charity: Water. It was the best presentation I've ever sat through regardless of venue or subject matter. For those of you who don't know, Charity Water raises money to drill wells around the world so that people have clean water to drink. It only takes a few videos of kids/moms/hospitals using and drinking muddy water to let you know that it's a worthy cause, but Scott has a gift of making you feel compelled to get involved and then to tell everyone you know. He has enlisted Oscar winning actresses to donate their time to the cause, convinced Saks 5th Avenue to donate their window space along 5th avenue, and convinced people of all ages across the country to donate their September birthdays to raising money for clean water. I bet he's done more for raising awareness and money for clean water in the 3 years that he's been doing this, than anyone else combined in the prior 30 years. Charity: Water is that good. You've got to check them out: www.charitywater.org.

Now, for my money, I'd rather give money directly to one of Charity: Water's partners, LivingWater (www.water.cc), as I think that they do a great job in spreading the Gospel message while they deliver fresh water, but that's not the point of this blog.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have a group like the Mailbox Club. We visited one of their installations in India during our recent DurhamCares trip to Chennai. The Mailbox Club is amazingly effective at spreading the Gospel message to kids all around the world. They do so through a series of lessons that they give to kids who then take them back to their villages and returning with them completed in one month's time. The lessons are often the only printed material that these kids have. Most importantly, they've reached millions of kids by working strategically with local churches and volunteers rallying indigenous support for this incredibly effective (less than $1 per kid per year) ministry. The problem, VERY few people know about them. Want to know why? Look no further than their website (www.mailboxclub.org). They don't have a Facebook group or a Twitter account.....they don't know how to tell their story.

In a day and age when there are thousands of charities vying for the public's attention and the general noise has resulted in a donor base that is confused, overwhelmed and disinterested (note the mention of a previous blog of giving level of households making more than $100,000 of less than 1% to Durham charities) not for profits need to be better than ever at telling their stories and engaging their donors and public.

In our experience at DurhamCares, we've found that those charities most effective at delivering service to the needy are those that are the worst at fundraising and telling their story. That's part of the reason that we were founded as we aim to help charities like PSS and the Durham Eagles get the word out. There's no one better than Mimi Every at counseling a young woman who is newly pregnant, and there is no one better than Don Jones at teaching at-risk kids how to play football and excel at school.......but they are downright lousy at building community through marketing (websites, facebook, twitter, blogs, videos etc.)

We can help out these charities, but they are in desperate need of more help. Do you have any marketing skills? Do you know branding and positioning? Do you know how to set up a Facebook Group? Can you help a charity tell it's story? Do you want to help these charities scale and engage their community? Well, please let us know! Through our volunteering matching service, we'll hook you up with an opportunity either locally or internationally that can greatly use your help.

I went on a vision trip to South Africa two and a half years ago. It was an incredible experience in several ways. First, it's absolutely amazing to get on a plane here in the States at the end of Fall when the leaves are falling off the trees and it's getting dark at 5:30 at night and then arrive 20 hours later in a land where Spring in full bloom with jacaranda trees and their beautiful purple colors decorating a scenery where it doesn't get dark until 8:30 or so. I've travelled all over the world, but that seasonal change was the closest thing I've ever felt to time travel. Second, the trip was full of visits to incredible missions. We saw an AIDS clinic, orphanages, two seminaries, a school and met with local entrepreneurs in 3 different areas of the country, mostly with the accompaniment of Michael Cassidy (a man who has been referred to as the South African Billy Graham). It's in the third way that the trip impacted me though, that is the inspiration for this blog.

South Africa is a land of incredible contrasts, mountains and oceans, lush beauty and dry deserts, but no where is the contrast stronger than in the differences between rich and poor. When I mean rich, I mean very, very rich. Johannesburg has the nicest residential neighborhoods that I've seen anywhere. Huge mansions look like they've been plucked from the English countryside and put into a lush garden that unlike Britain, in in bloom 9 months out of the year. We stayed in one of these incredible homes during several nights from our trip. During the day we went into the townships and saw squalor that would shock most and deplorable living conditions that have only since been matched by what we saw in India recently. At night we'd come back to our host families and have dinner.

I'll never forget one of the hosts asking me what we had done during the day and I replied by telling them that we had been to Alex Township. They replied "oh, and what's it like there" I couldn't believe that they had never been. They shared the same faith as I, and I had thought were moved to take care of the poor, but they had never been to a township which was two miles away from where there own house stood, and I had travelled across the world just to see it! I didn't say anything at the time, but I couldn't believe it.

Fast forward to 1 year later. I'm in Durham and someone says to me something about a new project at the corner of Angier and Driver. Where's that I ask?  Then boom, just like that I'm hit with a bolt of sudden awareness of my own hypocrisy. The only thing worse, of course, would have been being told this from visitors from half a world away who had come to serve in my own backyard. Alas, this has, of course, happened. Ever see that great brick fence around the Good Samaritan Inn? It was built by a church that sent a group from Michigan -- a group that now knows what some of our downtrodden neighborhoods look like and how to serve them and frankly in some (and many) cases more so than we do.

At DurhamCares, we're hoping that the new DurhamCares trips initiative will help to serve as a way for Durham residents to learn about how they might serve together in the world through 12 trips going to places like Guatemala, India, Uganda, and yes, South Africa, as we think it's very important to live out the broader definition of neighbor as taught to us in the Parable of the Good Samaritan where a stranger from a foreign (and hated) land came to the aid of the wounded traveller, but it's the initiative to take DurhamCares trips to DURHAM that has us most excited. We'd ultimately like to scale these up to 1 a week and give Durham citizens an opportunity to learn more about the city in their backyard. Through these trips led by local leaders like Elaine Bushfan (Durham's Chief District Court Judge), we'll see what's going great in our neighborhoods, who's transforming the city, and what still needs fixing. Most of all, we're hoping that this trip might serve as a catalyst for groups of folks to get involved in encouraging and supporting the initiatives that are building momentum, and working hard to start yet new movements to come alongside other people to fix what hasn't yet been tackled.

Please check out the Trips section of the site at: http://www.durhamcares.org/index.php/trips and please tell a friend.

Thank you for loving your neighbor!

Last Thursday night, some young Durham football players got a little extra motivation to do well in school and go to college.

The Pop Warner football Durham Eagles League gave out 27 scholarships. Most of the boys were in their young teens. Some were even younger. The boys will get the $1,000 scholarships once they get accepted to a post-secondary school like a technical college or university.

"Football teaches so many things about life," said Durham Eagles founder Don Jones. "Discipline, teamwork, focus ... it's just a world of things that are going to serve you outside of the football field."

Scott Stankavage , who was a professional football player and whose son played with the organization, made the scholarships possible.

"It gives you a lot of motivation," said Christopher Howard, a Hillside High student and Durham Eagle. "It gives something to look back on and something that will make you go forward and want to go to college and make something out of your life."

These Pop Warner football Durham Eagles players are now called the "Elite Eagles." The founders say their coaches selected them because they demonstrated outstanding performance and potential, either academically or altruistically.

Reposted from: http://durham.mync.com/site/durham/news%7CSports%7CLifestyles/story/32782/young-durham-football-players-get-1000-scholarships

That's right! We're going to do it! We have the opportunity to get the word out about the DurhamCares Success Grant program that's revolutionizing the way people give money to non-profits in the community, and if we're successful Henry's hair will be sacrificed for the cause and our entertainment.

Next Friday, May 8th, at 3pm we will shave Henry's hair down to almost nothing, and if you have seen how long it is lately you'll know this is no small undertaking!! We'll video the whole thing and post it shortly after the deed is done.

However, the clippers only start clipping if by Thursday May 7th we mobilize and get 300 people to make one or more Success Grant pledges at www.durhamcares.org/index.php/grant

No money or credit card is required now, and any pledge amount is great but there have to be 300 new people participating by the end of the day next Thursday 5/7. This is all about getting the word out about the Success Grant program and the new way to give money locally and connect its impact in the community. Henry has a video blog explaining Success Grants that you can check out.

So, game on. Tell your friends, neighbors, loved ones, and anyone with access to the internet and let's get at least 300 people pledging so that Henry needs a little extra SPF on his noggin this summer. 

Some quick updates from Samaritan Health Center as they are getting their clinic up and running and working towards their goals of providing high quality, compassionate and efficient care to the underinsured and uninsured in Durham.

Just last week they reached some milestones and firsts:

• They received their official IRS approval of their 501(c)3 Non-Profit status
• They held a full clinic with 13 patients last Thursday evening, many of them "repeat customers" who were following up on intricate problems
• The first ECG was taken and interpreted
• The first use of the new wall mounted otoscopes / opthalmoscopes
• The first use of the new Dinamp auto BP / temperature machine
• The first official hymn-sing with the patients after the clinic was over
• The first time electricity was available in all exam rooms
• The first visit from a kidney specialist, Dr. Pat Pun

This Thursday will be another first for the dental clinic as the nurses will be able to screen the patients before being seen by Dr. Eaker.