I believe that the goal of life for many people is to find happiness and fulfilment. One of the secrets to living my best life is harnessing the power of giving because it generates happiness and fulfillment for both the giver and receiver. It only makes sense to create more ways to give! This idea is what inspired the creation of the Give Back Collective. My sister-in-law and fellow entrepreneur, Ivana Walker, and I founded the Give Back Collective because we wanted to contribute to a better world together through our businesses and designs. I have been working with many incredible charitable organizations over the years and have developed beautiful, trusted relationships and a deep understanding of the inner workings involved.
This process can be overwhelming for an entrepreneur, and that’s why Ivana and I decided to create a platform for designers to give back together as a collective. The pandemic pause gave us both the time to think big — the more conversations we had, the clearer we understood that the need was there. People want to give back, and the more ways to do so, the better. At that time, our commitment became clear: to live generously through bridging the gap between family, business, fashion and charitable work.
Despite many existing programs, there are still gaps that need addressing. Imagine creating a ripple effect of giving back. Visualize driving a car down a road and running into a brick barricade — it literally stops you in your tracks. If you were to remove the bricks independently, it would take countless hours. But if you had a group of people collaborating together to remove the bricks, your mission would be accomplished with greater efficiency and ease. That is the power of the collective: contributing to greater efficiency and ease to each individual and as a whole.
Three Reasons Why Collective Giving Is So Powerful
1) IMPACT. Giving fosters a sense of love, care and accomplishment. We say to give is to really feel alive and connected. When we give to another, we ultimately give to ourselves — it’s soul food and fuel for our hearts. Imagine giving on a greater scale, with more than one person. The larger the collective, the more you can give.
2) VALUE. By working collectively, you provide more people with a sense of their own personal value; ideas are enhanced, and the work is completed more efficiently than what would have been achieved independently. It has been proven that people feel a high sense of worth when contributing to a whole.
3) SUPPORT. To work collectively means to work together in a way that provides support to the collective, in all areas. When we form a collective, we form a bond. This bond creates an immeasurable trust that can weather the worst storms. Collaboration not only enhances the value of the service offered, but it also evolves the individual contributors. We are navigating new times right now — there are many people in need of assistance and support. This is the age of the creative mind. Individuals are looking for ways to help, so are small businesses. When we work together, we create new ideas, and new ideas lead to new actions. We are in the business of creating give-back actions. We need forward-thinking approaches right now with the realization that everything is connected and it is important to bring it all together. Wouldn’t it be grand to have an army of givers dismantling the heavy brick blockages within the world today? Let’s do this together and with imagination.