The Multiplication of Impact
I had lunch with my friend Rob yesterday. Rob is equal parts intense, passionate, and servant-hearted. He's the kind of guy that will empty his entire life savings to help a stranger on the street.
In addition to his day job, Rob runs an organization in Zambia called Shoulder 2 Shoulder. Food insecurity is one of the most significant issues in Zambia, and his organization tries to attack it in two ways. First, by providing food (to 1,500 households per month). Second, by training sustainable farming techniques. Their model is pretty cool. They teach people how to farm their land, provide them with the necessary inputs to farm it, then buy back a portion of their crop (to give away to other hungry people). With the proceeds from selling their crops back to Shoulder 2 Shoulder, the local farmers can afford to care for themselves and buy next year's farming inputs....and repeat.
Rob and I periodically have lunch to catch up on life/work/family, discuss all things generosity, and for him to update me on his ministry work. These discussions always come with a handout. Rob knows I like tables, data, and charts.....so he never lets me down! As I was scanning the page, something caught my eye. "Rob, what's this?," I asked as I pointed to the text: "Shoulder Water." Rob explained that one of the components of his ministry is to drill freshwater wells in villages so people can have clean water to drink. They've drilled 13 wells in the past few years.
Naive, I asked Rob what people do in villages without these wells. They either walk to a different village and carry back the water, or they simply don't have access to clean water.
Progressively curious, I asked how much these wells cost. $2,000. Wait, for $2,000, all in, hundreds of people will go from having no clean water to having clean water, just like that?!?! Rob, so you're telling me that one $2,000 investment changes hundreds of lives for years to come!?!? Talk about a strong return on investment......holy cow!
I gotta be honest. I'm glad I didn't have my checkbook at lunch yesterday. There's a possibility I would have handed my life savings to him. If $2,000 can permanently change hundreds of lives for years to come, is there actually anything better we could do with our resources?
Impact multiplies. It always does. In this case, however, I can't even wrap my head around the possible multiplication consequences. I immediately told Rob I'd fund one well this month. I'd be dumb not to.
Speaking of multiplication, I have an idea. If my $2,000 gift can help change hundreds of lives by giving people easy access to fresh, clean water, what would happen if others got involved? The nifty little handout Rob gave me yesterday indicated their plan is to fund five more wells by this time next year.
What if we funded all five this month? I just claimed one. Do you want one? Two? Or maybe a partial? What if a handful of us, connected by this silly little blog, banded together to multiply impact for thousands of people on the other side of the world for years to come? What if?
Please hit "reply" to this e-mail if you're interested. It's happening....