Live to Give Foundation (L2G) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that is rebuilding the state of Michigan in a personal way. The organization’s goal is to make the charitable experience more personal by showing the path of each donation from an initial fundraiser to the final recipient it actually benefits. I first learned about L2G about a year ago when I attended a charity Tweetup that raised money for the organization. I researched it a bit more and was immediately impressed by the founders’ creative vision toward running and raising awareness about a nonprofit.
I reached out to Ryan Doyle, founder and inspiration director, to learn a little more about L2G.
How did you and the other L2G team members come up with the idea for the company?
During my junior year at the University of Michigan, I was watching a 60 Minutes special in my apartment and it dissected American economic classes as they relate to giving to charity. To my surprise, the lower class gave the more charitable contributions as a percentage of their total paycheck, followed by the middle and upper classes respectively. I thought it was so honorable that the poorest group in our country was giving more of what they had than the richest. It forced me to look in the mirror and ask myself why I hadn’t given more considering the fortunate lifestyle I was blessed with. So, I opened a Word document, starting writing and I ended up starting my own nonprofit.
I love that L2G is all about making the charitable experience more personal by making donations come “full circle”. What tactics do you employ to show the path of donations so people know exactly how their money is benefiting someone?
Our number one tool for making our charitable experience “full circle” is through our exciting and emotional mini-movies that show the path of the donations from the initial fundraiser to the final recipient it actually benefits. The idea is to not just show the final destination two months after you donate, but rather to show every major step we take, therefore giving our donors three to five opportunities to “stop by” and see where we are in the process. We did this very well with our last partnership, The Bottomless Toy Chest.
More than that, we are always looking for ways to customize the experience for as many groups, demographics, ages and economic classes as we can. If we can offer opportunities for young people to engage at zero to no cost while also offering professionals and local companies a chance to contribute with relative minimal cost, all while offering options for everyone to personally get involved, then we believe we have done our job.
How do you find the families/individuals who need help?
Over the last six months, we have chosen to partner with other nonprofits, organizations and businesses that are doing amazing things in Michigan and spotlight their efforts, but in the “L2G way” (full circle). We wanted to keep the expertise in their hands, but connect our network and their network to the efforts. We are very intentional on choosing causes that provide sustainability, growth, empowerment and hope for the state of Michigan. As far as finding them, they find us, but we do wish very soon to open a nomination process that the community can vote on so that we can directly help the causes that YOU want us to help. Stay tuned!
Is there one person or family L2G helped who really sticks out in your mind?
Absolutely! Bruce Scharfenberg and his family were the perfect match for our first ever effort back in November of 2007. My partner Kevin and I wanted to make our first effort a special one that exemplified our passion and seriousness for L2G, so we drove 12 hours to the northern most point in Michigan (practically Copper Harbor) to hand this family a check for their medical bills. Bruce suffers from Primary Cardiac Amyloidosis, which effects one in every 8.5 million people, and he is the longest living survivor with the illness in the United States. It was not hard to see why—his spirit was through the roof and his perspective on life was so appreciative. We stayed with his family for one day and two nights, but he stopped to smell the roses the entire time. He will be a friend of ours for a lifetime.
I think every nonprofit should utilize social media to connect with volunteers/donors and raise awareness about its initiatives. How has social media benefited L2G?
Social media has been our number one outreach tool. It truly has been instrumental in growing our nonprofit out of run down apartments and parents’ basements; it has made local…global. Quite simply, it has allowed us to inform, engage and connect to our communities every single day. A big reason we chose to focus L2G on this idea of “full circle” is because of this social media/viral/technology boom that started with the release of Facebook back in 2004. These tools allow us so much more opportunity to personalize the charitable experience. With respects to larger impacts it has had, we have won several online contests that require community voting and we were able to compete with companies like Beaumont Hospital, Girl Scouts of America and The Salvation Army. We also partnered with a PR wiz Brandon Chesnutt and his Detroit Twitter group (#Detroittu) to host their first ever Charitweetup to raise money. That is the true power of social media.
What is the most rewarding thing for you as a team member of L2G?
I am most rewarded by my team. I am humbled every day that people trust my vision and volunteer the little extra time they have while they finish college, go to graduate school and work full-time jobs. The best part about the team is that no one is here to build their resume or boost their portfolio. Every single team member genuinely wants to help people and grow their communities. My dream would still be a dream if I didn’t have this young group of social entrepreneurs making it reality with me. They are my Dream Team!
What do you have in the works for 2010? Any upcoming events, L2G tweetups, etc.?
We have started to put our next cause in motion as we have begun a partnership with an outstanding nonprofit run by young professionals that helps rebuild Detroit called Summer in the City. We plan on hosting a few fundraisers in Oakland County and Ann Arbor and using the money raised to paint, plant and clean up a large piece of Detroit. It is too soon for details, but expect our greatest successes to come this spring and early summer.
If you’d like to get in touch with Ryan to see how you can support L2G, or just to tell him how awesome he and his team are, e-mail him at ryan.doyle@livetogivefoundation.org.