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Twenty nine years ago in early December I met for a quiet lunch with some of my partners to contemplate the usual, annual, empty ritual, namely the dreaded company Christmas party! Three of us, all Catholics, were depressed by the upcoming spectacle. That year had been a terrible year and we had no extra cash or enthusiasm for a hollow celebration. On the second glass of wine, we rebelled unanimously. The Christmas party was off! What would we do instead? Given our moods, it was decided that little, if anything, would make us feel better. Then the inevitable... “there are lots of people worse off than us”. Why not do something to help others? So who was worse off than us and what could we do to help them? While there were countless people who needed help and uplifting, we didn’t really know who they were and how to reach them. As we meditated on this, the conversation began to light up with all kinds of ideas. In fact, there were so many ideas to look into, and causes to investigate, that we completely forgot about our meager funds. It was as if the desire to do something had multiplied our resources.
How could we get the most value to the end user? Which charitable organizations really delivered? Which were bureaucracies? Who had a handle on the best answers to social problems? What causes were the most important? The next move was obvious. We would split up some cash amongst our employees and friends and ask them to seek out the best causes they could find and gather together for a dinner at which they would share the story behind what they did with the money. We agreed there would be no restraints on any basis - all religious and secular causes chosen by our friends were ‘in’. The education has been spectacular, the dinners have been inspirational, to
say the least, and we couldn’t have imagined how much could be done with so
little money when the right people chose to put it into the right hands. We now
call these efforts the Lazarus project.
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