This post is about how donating frequent flyer miles to charity keeps on giving back.
I was talking to my friend Molly on Facebook and I learned about something that inspired me and I wanted to share in it in the spirit of the new year and thinking differently. I posted about donating all the soaps I had gotten via my travels this past year to Chrysalis as part of my new year’s resolutions. They help put people back to work. If you are wondering how to give back or searching for New’s Resolutions– perhaps this blog post will inspire you and give you some new ideas….
Molly does amazing work in the world, but that takes money and there’s not always all the money required to do good work. She is the founder of Women With Drive: http://www.womenwithdrive.org/
Molly was able to attend the Business Innovation Factory (BIF7) conference in September, where she was able to connect with Willow Creek Ministries in Chicago. Their congregation of 20K has a cars ministry that helped Women With Drive to streamline their model of processing/intake of vehicles in order to provide not only cars to their applicants, and also revenue to fund the operations. Molly would have NEVER had a chance to meet with Willow Creek –at such high-level without the access to the conference. HERE’S THE POINT: Miles she used to get to the conference were donated by an executive of The HON Company in Muscatine http://www.hon.com/
Molly also attended the NextGen:Charity Conference in New York City. There she was able to facilitate a roundtable with some amazing women, among them Tiffany Dufu, the VP of The White House Project. She was also able to talk with Craig Newmark
Image via Wikipedia
about honing their “elevator pitch” and attracting funders (Craigslist and Craigconnects). Attending this conference she was able to talk to people that she probably would not have had the chance to and make the difference she makes in people’s lives. http://craigconnects.org/
HERE’S THE POINT: the miles for that trip were donated from two sources, Lou Imbriano, author of Winning the Customer and CEO of TrinityOne (@LouImbriano) and a board member of the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine. The board member is the mother of her first and best childhood friend. (Leah died of a brain aneurysm NOV2010 and her mother donated Leah’s miles gained through her extensive travel for Sylvan Learning Centers). Even in death, her childhood friend helped her reach her goals.
HERE’S THE POINT, both trips would not have been impossible for me without the donation of miles. Their budget simply could not accommodate it.
So business travelers, if you are wondering what to do this New Years… What resolutions or donations you can make, then give this post some thought. And then take some action. Reach out to Molly — You’ll be glad you made a difference!
- Frequent fliers’ donations help Make-A-Wish (newsok.com)
- Donate to earthquake relief, earn Northwest miles (orbitz.com)
- Some Good News If You Travel On American Airlines (businessinsider.com)
- Superfly Takes On Google And Kayak With Personalized Flight Search (techcrunch.com)
- United Airlines eyes big spending frequent fliers (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Frequent Flyers Urged To Check Their Miles So They Don’t Expire (philadelphia.cbslocal.com)
