Maybe it's just me, but everywhere I go these days, I seem to insp(IRE) heated discussion about Project (RED). As the owner of exactly one (RED) t-shirt and three (RED) nanos (one for me, and one for each of my daughters), I am the first to admit that the campaign initially spoke to all that I believe in and exactly what ROI Ventures is trying to say: doing well and doing good is a 1 + 1= 3 business model. Yet something just didn't sit right with me, which led to my cute (RED) t-shirt sitting in my closet. (The nanos meanwhile, being more function than form, continue to be put to use.) The massive PR effort and many editorials about the vices of the campaign certainly offered me many hooks on which to hang my hat of dissent (too much money invested in marketing which has yet to yield return for the businesses; too little money going to the actual cause itself; no ability to give directly to the cause other than purchasing a (RED) product; too little public awareness about what the money was actually supporting), and yet I still couldn't put my finger on exactly why I was increasingly so troubled by the campaign.  And then I saw it, and it was beautiful.

On page 24 of the July issue of GOOD magazine was an ad for the Buylesscrap campaign (www.buylesscrap.org). Oh, the joy of someone else putting resources into saying out loud just what I’ve been thinking!  In the words of the campaign: Shopping is Not a Soution: Buy less.  Give more.  I couldn't have said it better. For me, the "buy less, give more" mantra goes well beyond the somewhat obvious, problematic issue of people spending money on "stuff" they probably don't need in order to generate dollars for charitable causes (this is particularly true when it comes to buying "eco friendly" stuff, which is still after all, stuff).  My larger concern is actually one I raise more as a parent than the principal of a social venture firm. That concern is this: when we teach our children that the way to change the world is through buying things, the opportunity cost is more about human capital rather than financial capital. In order to truly change the world and solve its complex social ills, we need a massive influx of leadership capacity that must be built upon the real, hands-on experience of people who know what it feels like to roll up their sleeves and get busy solving messy, complicated, frustrating problems. Perhaps more importantly, we need to raise a generation of children that believes that it is possible to make a difference because they've experienced it first hand. Whether it is volunteering at a place like the Inspiration Cafe in Chicago, or delivering food packages to the needy during the holidays, or working one-on-one with children with disabilities, my experience is that these experiences matter because they connect the heart with the head -- the place where the desire to make a difference is born. I'll bet my three (RED) nanos that our world will be better off if it is populated with a few (LESS) kids who have had hands-on experience with social change, rather than a whole lot of kids with (RED) stuff bought with their pocket change.