Blog Action Day 2008: good underpants for a good cause

Posted by Doug on October 14, 2008

It’s a surprising and beautiful thing when entrepreneurship intersects with charitable causes and results in a win-win for everyone.  Several examples come to mind, including Ethos Water, which is sold in just about every Starbucks I’ve ever been in. The idea is that when you buy a bottle of Ethos Water, a portion of the purchase price goes toward grants for humanitarian water programs, helping children around the world get access to clean water.  To date, $6.2 million has been raised toward the goal of raising $10 million by 2010.

Another great example is Toms Shoes—for every pair of shoes you buy from Toms Shoes, another pair is given to a child in need somewhere in the world.

Both of these ideas are brilliant and enormously effective ways to take a meaningful shot at the many problems that accompany poverty around the world, and it is good to see this sort of thing bubble to the surface among this generation of young entrepreneurs.

My daughter recently informed me about another such company, one that is truly appropriate to mention on this blog on Blog Action Day 2008:  Pants to Poverty.  This company, which was started in the UK by some of the same people involved with Make Poverty History in 2005, has sold thousands of pairs of underpants with “MAKE POVERTY HISTORY” printed on the waistband, and they’ve done it using materials that are organic and sustainable, and using fair trade practices that help poor cotton farmers in India get better pay, better living and working conditions and health care benefits.

There’s a great article over on the Tonic News site about Pants to Poverty that you’ll want to check out.  (Just a word of caution: some of the photographs might be a bit PG-13 for some readers.)

Have you thought of any innovative ways you can integrate philanthropy with your business?