Perspectives

We’ve been tracking over 250 major brands—including the NFL—on their reputation for being “inclusive of all different types of people.”  To date, the NFL has ranked well below average.  In our findings, only 26% of consumers strongly agree that the NFL is inclusive.  This is among the bottom one-third of the brands we’ve studied.  In fact, a full 13% of consumers in our research go so far as to strongly disagree that the NFL is inclusive of all different types of people.  Only a handful of major brands (Goop, Abercrombie & Fitch, Chick-fil-a, Gucci and Facebook) garner as much strong disagreement as the NFL regarding their inclusivity.

As the NFL grapples with becoming more inclusive, it may find some answers by looking to its halftime show headliner Dr. Dre for further inspiration.  We couldn’t help but notice that Dr. Dre’s iconic, fashionable headphone brand Beats by Dre is actually among the top rated brands for inclusivity in our research.  39% strongly agree that Beats by Dre is inclusive of all different types of people, ranking #8 on our overall list of 250+ brands:

Top brands in our rankings: % Strongly Agree that the brand “is inclusive of all different types of people”:

Bombas Socks (42%)

Etsy (41%)

Duolingo (41%)

Bare Minerals (41%)

Amazon (40%)

YouTube (40%)

Trader Joe’s (40%)

Beats by Dre (39%)

The NFL presumably made a very deliberate choice with Dr. Dre to demonstrate that they’re increasingly focusing on inclusivity.  Clearly the NFL sees the value of partnerships as a way to help move the brand in this direction.  However, we know from working with other brands focused on corporate social responsibility that partnerships are helpful but not sufficient.  To accomplish true change and gain people’s respect, organizations need to take ideals like inclusivity seriously and apply them consistently.  Through a deeper commitment that goes beyond partnerships, the NFL could raise its reputation for inclusivity—and actually become a more inclusive organization.

I wanted to learn how other people were staying on top of their game while working from home, so I took to the internet and started reading up on work life, remote work, and office culture during the Coronavirus era. I came across the concept of “productivity tax,” or the drop in productivity resulting from long-term remote work. While this concept seemed to validate what I was experiencing, the article chalked up this decline in motivation to remote environments significantly lagging behind professional offices on critical factors like technological capabilities. When I took this lens to my own work life, I saw that I already had all of the technology that I needed. This wasn’t the solution I was hoping to find; I kept digging.

As I read more, I learned that the productivity loss I had been experiencing largely comes down to a much more fundamental aspect of the human experience: we are creatures of habit. We rely on structure; we work best when we have a routine to follow. I—along with lots of other folks around the world—was simply more distracted at home because I had lost my daily routine.

Research into how to stay successful in this new work-from-home era points to routines and goal-setting as meaningful ways to curtail productivity loss. When I took this lens to my own work life, I saw that these were exactly what I was missing. And in my case, getting them back really only required small but intentional changes—getting out of bed at the same time each day, only working from my desk, eating meals at normal times, setting timeframes for specific tasks, etc. These little pieces of structure not only provide comfort in my daily schedule and give me things to work towards, but they also allow me to enjoy some of that luxury that I always imagined remote work would have. We may be creatures of habit, but if we’re mindful, we’re also pretty good at finding opportunity in change.  

As a people-first company, my experience has prompted us to be more intentional about how we can best support all of our employees during this challenging time. As the first step, I’ll be leading a roundtable discussion with a few colleagues to hear their stories and brainstorm practical solutions to try out. But my experience has also gotten us thinking beyond ourselves and about workers, parents, educators, caregivers, and other providers across the world who are also experiencing productivity loss due to any number of reasons—insufficient technology, loss of routine, loss of goals, increased stress, health concerns, etc. There’s no shortage of new problems for innovators and brand marketers to work on.

So, what do companies need to know about people to address these fast-growing unmet needs in the workforce?  How can brands meaningfully connect with people to demonstrate their empathy with workers’ new challenges in the face of the pandemic?  To help address these questions, we’re embarking on some new consumer research about “The New World of Work” with our friends at the USC Annenberg Communication School’s Center for the Digital Future.  Just like the research I found helped me address my productivity loss, we’re excited for this research to help brands and innovators develop new solutions for workers around the world. Again, if we’re mindful, we as humans are pretty good at finding opportunity in change.

Great music artists are incredible innovators.  But that ability to innovate doesn’t just come from their talent and creativity; it’s rooted in a deep-seated desire to create something unprecedented.  They aim to satisfy their own unmet need, and they become their own muse.  And it’s exactly those kinds of personal wants and needs that provide the most powerful inspiration for innovation—in art and in business alike.

In the case of the Beastie Boys, they innovated by creating music that they absolutely love.  And then they kept innovating; they were personally driven to continue to experiment and find new ways to delight themselves.  In the Beastie Boys Story documentary on Apple TV+, Ad-Rock and Mike D. explain that putting together their legendary debut album Licensed to Ill was about finding beats and tracks that truly spoke to them and then (with Rick Rubin’s help) making something of them for themselves.  This initial desire to innovate carried through the Beastie Boys’ career as they evolved into the unique rap + rock style unveiled in their 1992 studio album, Check Your Head.  This innovation mindset can even be seen in the Beastie Boys’ pursuits outside of music, like Ad-Rock’s partnership with exquisite NYC sandwich shop Num Pang, in which he reimagined his beloved pastrami-on-rye as a bahn mi sandwich: the “Ad-Rock Pang.”  It seems ingrained in him, and the other Beastie Boys, to create something they love and then share it with the world.    

Compare that mindset to that of brand managers at the world’s biggest companies.  Are they truly inspired by their innovation pipeline?  Are they creating something they personally love and then sharing it with the world?  That authenticity—or lack thereof—is easier to spot than brands might think, and personally, if a new innovation doesn’t excite the brand team or its muse in the way that the Beastie Boys’ music did for themselves, then it’s not interesting to me.  That’s my standard.  Mmm…drop!!!          

ION is all about connection.

 Whether they’re designing immersive marketing events, creating content, or managing social media platforms, their aim is to connect with people in a meaningful way—to reach hearts and minds with creativity, novelty, and ultimately, real value.

 At the core of every new initiative ION takes on is the simple but forceful question: What is this going to do for people? It’s not enough for their marketing programs to just be new, interesting, or cool to look at; they have to have something more. ION’s work has to start conversations, alter mindsets, inspire actions, create memories—leave any form of indelible impression on those who experience it.  It’s this higher motivation that speaks to us at Bovitz, Inc., where we do research not just to report facts and help clients sell more stuff, but to make people’s voices heard so that companies know how to bring more value to their lives.  

 So, if our vision at Bovitz is for the business world to see the only path to profit as one that requires truly addressing people’s needs, then naturally we want to help those businesses communicate effectively about what they have to offer.  ION is the perfect partner to help us do that.

 Ultimately, we’re better together—for our clients and for people.

 We couldn’t be more excited about the new opportunities that this partnership gives our clients. For us, this acquisition isn’t just about new services to sell; it’s about being able to offer a comprehensive and seamless process for bringing brands to life in ways that consumers care about. From initial insights & strategy, to creative concepting & campaign implementation, to effectiveness measurement, Bovitz and ION together cover all the bases for meaningful and impactful marketing communications. Which means you are covered for putting people first and creating a lasting bond between them and your brand.

 And isn’t that what real growth is all about?

So we asked ourselves:

Does CBD really address an unmet need in the beauty market, or are brands just jumping on the CBD bandwagon? Are brands really making their products consistent with consumer demands? Using a people-first lens, where is the win-win for consumers and businesses?

So we surveyed 300 beauty consumers to learn more about them.

Although many beauty brands are significantly investing in and vying for a foothold in the growing CBD cultural phenomenon, most beauty consumers are unaware. Their interest is high after hearing a description about it, but key hurdles to actual purchase consideration will need to be addressed to set up a beauty brand to succeed. Any beauty brand that launches a CBD product without addressing the questions of a broad swath of consumers risks jumping into the market unprepared.

 A few things we love about Jen (that you should love, too):

 She knows what she’s talking about.  With over 20 years of experience in social science research, both academic and in the industry, she’s developed an expertise in both human nature and research methods that allows her to make informed recommendations to her clients from beginning to end.

 She’s versatile.  Her specialties include strategic brand management & consultation, brand equity & positioning, ad & brand health tracking/monitoring, product & concept testing, A&U landscaping, advertising & media effectiveness, shopper insights, and innovation. Not to mention that she has a depth of experience in CPG/FMCG, Retail, Cosmetics, Spirits & Beer, Tobacco, Healthcare, Technology, and Financial Services, among others. That’s practically a whole world of knowledge right there.

 She’s cultured.  Over her career, Jen has held leadership positions at LRW (Lieberman Research Worldwide), Millward Brown, Ipsos ASI, Kantar Consulting (Added Value), GBH Insights, and Ocean Media. She’s seen what works when it comes to company culture and leadership, and she thinks she may have just landed at the home she’s been looking for. 

 She’s real.  Jen’s down-to-earth nature and authentic way of communicating are unique in today’s world. Whether she’s leading a team or consulting with a client, Jen is a partner you know you can trust—trust to tell you the truth, to have your back, and ultimately, to do the right thing. We think she’s going to fit in perfectly here.

The survey sampling industry was (and remains) prone to a bias for quantity over quality, and we were concerned about the data that some of our survey panel partners were delivering.  It was a race to the bottom, with speed and price being valued over data quality and panel representativeness. So, we took our notion of how real-life connections work to the digital space, and we are proud to say that it’s panned out.

We are fulfilling our mission for quality, and we have the results to prove it.

Fulcrum, the industry’s first programmatic marketplace for matching survey sample buyers and sellers, has just published the 2017 Q4 results of their Supplier Quality Program, an independent third-party sample quality measurement and ranking program, and Forthright finished in the top five for each of the key performance metrics:

To us, this is proof-positive that we’ve built something special, and it’s only going to get better.  The feedback we receive from our panelists is overwhelmingly positive, with their main wish being to participate in more research projects about different subject matter.  To that end, we regularly provide opportunities for our panelists to complete both quantitative and qualitative research projects, and we are always looking for new ways for their voices to be heard.

What does that mean for you?

If you’re a real person, get on board!  Join our panel so that we can amplify your voice and get brands to create products and services that YOU want.

If you’re a researcher, let’s talk about how Forthright can serve your needs, whether it’s through a full-service engagement with a Bovitz research team, or if you prefer to do things yourself and just need a high-quality data source.  No project is too big or small, so let’s learn together.

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 From our very own, Rick Konopka:

 Like so many people, my mornings revolve around a few things, and most importantly of those, is coffee. I am not a “don’t talk to me before I had my coffee” person, but I’ve made that joke before.

 Living in Brooklyn comes with its own set of challenges, and one of them is counterspace. I simply can’t have any of that precious real estate constantly occupied by a device used once per morning to make one cup of coffee. I have artisanal pickles and hot sauces that need to live there!

Enter the Aeropress by Aerobie (Yes, that Aerobie).

This conveniently hide-able-in-any-cabinet, tube-like device, produces some of the best coffee I’ve had, and does so on a regular basis. How? I have no idea. I know there’s some science to it—maybe something about vacuums, I don’t know. I’m no engineer or barista—just a coffee-drinking enthusiast.

Each time you brew, you’re basically making super concentrated coffee—almost a double espresso. Add some hot water for an Americano, or add it to some frothed milk for a latte. There are plenty of ways to brew your life-giving beverage, so experiment and find what you like most. Go down a YouTube rabbit hole, or stick to the standard.

The bottom line is that, after boiling water and grinding your beans, you can go from no coffee to relaxing on your sofa, sipping a visibly steaming beverage, within a minute or so. Or if an iced beverage is what you crave, that is just as easy. It’s a near perfect device for my always on-the-go New York lifestyle. Plus, it basically cleans itself just through normal use.

 TL;DR: Skip the daily coffee shop visits (but keep the special occasion trips, because treat yo’self) and brew your own café quality coffee at home.

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Not most people. What they really need is to feel comfortable and confident in how they present themselves to the world. There’s a hard way to do that, and there’s an easier way. Introducing this next recommendation—by a real person, for a real person. Just like you.

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 From our very own, Katherine Dorosk:

My new favorite thing is the clothing curating and delivery service, Stitch Fix. The service works by connecting you with a personal designer via a quiz that allows them to get a sense of your style and curate a box of select pieces to be sent to you. When you receive the designer’s selections, you can keep what you like, return what you don't, and send feedback so that the next delivery is an even closer approximation of your style.

I love Stitch Fix because it makes it easy for me to build my personal and professional wardrobes with great new pieces without wasting time at a mall or shopping online. My stylist sends me quality clothes that I love, and the $20 cost of the box even goes towards the pieces I decide to buy. Out of the dozens of subscription services popping up every day, Stitch Fix is definitely worth it.

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On Tuesday, Laurence Fink, CEO of behemoth investment firm BlackRock, made that difficult and daring—but utterly freeing and rewarding—trek with his declaration that from now on the companies his firm will invest in “…need to do more than make profits—they need to contribute to society as well if they want to receive the support of BlackRock.”

 Wow. Talk about having a partner in this epic adventure we’re on.

BlackRock’s message might be slightly different than ours—theirs placing more emphasis on corporate social responsibility and filling in gaps where governments are failing; ours primarily focusing on creating products and services that truly meet people’s needs—but the mountain we’ve climbed is the same: we’re putting our foot down and saying this is the bigger purpose we believe businesses should have in our society, and we’re going to operate in such a way that sees that purpose through.

 Fink goes on to explain his reasoning for the new requirement: 

“Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose. To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.”

 And that’s all we’re asking for, too—a positive contribution to society in addition to positive financial performance. Just in addition to—not instead of or ahead of, just value to real people’s lives along with value for executives and shareholders. Firms like us and BlackRock recognize that those two ideas can go hand-in-hand. They’re not mortal enemies; their partnership is not the death of capitalism. Rather, as Fink put it, they are the necessary requirements for a company to truly “prosper over time” in a society that demands its institutions have purpose.

Valuable. To people. To you.

This is a change to create more value for people. Even at the expense of the company’s stock price and presumably, future revenue, at least in the short-term. Halle-freaking-lujah.

This change certainly doesn’t address all of the social media company’s damage to people’s lives, but it’s a course-correction in the right direction. We’ll take it.

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 Now, for the downside (or is it?):

 What about all of those businesses and media outlets that are now going to have less exposure on Facebook?

 There’s no doubt that this shift in your place in the news feed might hurt a little (or a lot) if you’re a small business, a cash-strapped start-up, or a real-news crusader, and that’s unfortunate. But hey, life is unfortunate, and you’re still rolling with it, aren’t you? Facebook should have never been the end-all be-all of your promotional strategy anyway; now what you already knew has just become a forced reality. And that’s ok. Because these aren’t the interactions with your customers that matter anyway. These aren’t the interactions that deepen understanding, affection, and loyalty. Those are still out there for you to capitalize on.

 So, first, don’t fight it.

Don’t deny that the positives that this shift brings for society far outweigh the negatives it might bring for your company. Your need to promote is really not a good argument against people’s need to engage with friends and family.

Then, innovate.

Make this your time to do your own part in bringing more value to people’s lives. Whether it’s what you’re actually offering or just how you communicate about it, make it better. Be better than the mindless scroll, the thirst for ‘likes,’ the war in the attention economy. Because you are better than that, aren’t you?

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 From our very own, Lee Friedenthal:

A soothing, refreshing shower.  

A relaxing walk with my dog.  

An ice cold beer on my patio after a long day. 

 I’m all about the simple pleasures in life.

 The hustle and bustle of being a working professional with a commute in Los Angeles can be harrowing at times, and these little things help keep me sane.  But to me, the most important simple pleasure of all is a good night’s sleep.  

So, my wife and I recently purchased a king-size Casper mattress. And it has legitimately been life-changing.

Casper claims that its mattresses are made with “technology you can feel.”  When I lay down on my Casper, the way I feel is in no way comparable to how I felt on my old mattress.  Here’s the best way I can describe it: on my Casper, it feels like I’ve been caught by a baseball glove made entirely of clouds. I am now sleeping deeper than I ever have and having dreams so lucid I am practically living them.

A major gripe I had with my old mattress was its tendency to trap in heat.  I would frequently wake up in the middle of the night dripping sweat, no matter the temperature in my room.  Aware of this issue with traditional mattresses, Casper designs its mattresses with an “open-cell top layer” to promote airflow and keep the body cool. My overheating problem is now a relic of the past.

The purchase process is also quite literally a dream.  Gone are the days of going to an old, musty warehouse store that hasn’t been updated since the early 90’s and haggling with a salesman wearing a terrible toupee. Can I interest you instead in a service that ships your mattress within 24 hours, with the ability to arrange for it to be delivered as early as the same day?  They will even take your old mattress and recycle it for you, rather than have it end up in a landfill.  Not to mention you have 100 days to test it out, and if you don’t like it, they will pick it back up free of charge and with a full refund.

If you’re in the market for a mattress, do your mind and body a huge favor and get a Casper.

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 Whether you’re a social media company, a manufacturer, or a market research firm, the path to profit starts with a simple question:

 How are we going to get there?

 In other words, how are we actually going to generate that profit. The trick here is to think carefully before you answer. Because the answer is what defines you as a company. It is your purpose. It is your culture. It is the strategies you build and the steps you take, day in and day out. It is what you—as a company, as a brand, as an individual—decide as the means you are willing, or not willing, to take to make money.

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 Flashback to 2004 when Sean Parker, founder of Napster and first president of Facebook, joined the social media company. And joined its culture—one in which, in Parker’s own words in an interview with news website Axios, “the thought process that went into building these applications… was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’”

 So, there you have it.

 That was their answer.

 Facebook’s path to profit was going to consist of consuming as much of people’s time and conscious attention as possible. Forget rebuilding lost connections between people. Forget deepening relationships. Forget meaningful interactions. The goal that they would spend all of their energy on was hijacking your time and attention—and not letting go.

 So, embarking on that path, they created “a social-validation feedback loop ... exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you're exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology,” Parker says.

 And what’s more, he says, “the inventors, creators—it's me, it's Mark [Zuckerberg], it's Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it's all of these people—understood this consciously, and we did it anyway."

 Because that was the path they chose.

 And here we are today, with our addiction to social media being likened to that of gambling. In other words, here we are today with so much of our time and attention consumed by social media that it’s affecting our expression of human will, our sense of self-worth, the strength of our real-life relationships, and even our ability to make informed political decisions. In other words, here we are today with Facebook earning $4.7 billion in profit a quarter.

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 So, that’s one way to do it. Define your company as one who is willing to take advantage of people, build that mentality into your culture, operations, products, and services, make lots of money, feed the machine, watch it grow, and a decade later, sit with a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that you’ve adversely affected millions of real people’s lives, and in the process, created a beast that’s too powerful to change, so it’s going to keep exploiting people ad infinitum.

  That path starts with a familiar question—how do we get to profit—that gets answered like this:

 How can we get her to buy more from us?

How can we get more people in our stores?

How can we get advertisers to spend more money with us?

 It’s hard to miss the similarities in these answers, these paths. They all have the same tone, the same line of thinking—how can we get someone else to do something that benefits us?—without any mention of the value brought to the doer in the process.

 In Facebook’s path to profit of “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” where is the value for people? Where is the conscious recognition of the service, the benefit, the value that Facebook is going to provide in exchange for that time and attention? It’s not there. Because it didn’t matter. The path allowed for any means possible.

  The question you ask is the one you end up trying to answer.

 And when your company is built on a culture that prizes people’s well-being, it asks different questions. The initial question—how do we get to profit—is often the same, but the answers—those paths—look more like this:

 What are people’s most important needs in this space, and how can we address them better?

How can we make people happier, smarter, and more successful in this space?

How can we make people’s lives easier, more enjoyable, and more rewarding?

 And when you start down paths like those, you can’t possibly end up where social media companies and their ex-employees are today. They simply don’t lead to the same places.

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 From our very own, Steve Swanson:

 When the management of a company sets policies that put their customers first, it shows.

It could be as simple as picking up the phone when someone calls instead of an automated attendant telling you that your call is important, or that they are experiencing unusually high call volumes. It could be empowering their front-line employees to handle situations without hesitation. Or, maybe they hired and trained their employees so well, that each customer not only feels like their issue is important to the person on the other end of the line, but that they have a friend helping them get it resolved.

Charles Schwab is one company that seems to have put all of these pieces together, and has been my gold standard of customer service over the past decade. I use them for online banking, and no matter the issue, no matter the agent, empathy seems to be the common thread that ties it all together. Whether dealing with a fraudulent charge, identity theft, or just a question on my account, they listen, understand and have a solution for me in less time than it takes for other companies to pick up the phone. Instead of telling me why they can’t do something, every statement and action is geared toward what they can do to help resolve whatever issue is at hand.

I have commonly recommended Charles Schwab to all of my friends and family because I have no doubt that if they choose to use them, they will be very well taken care of. Even in conversations with acquaintances, if it turns to customer service, Charles Schwab will always be the example I share as the organization committed to their customers. In the electronic age of FAQ and blog customer service, automated responders, and off-shore call centers, Charles Schwab has opted out of the short-term financial gain that digital alienation appears to give. Instead, they focus on the long-term investment in customer service and retain their customers for a lifetime.

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 What is your gender? 

[SINGLE PUNCH]

Male

Female

  We’ve all seen this before. And at Bovitz, we’ve decided to do something about it.

Prompted by the recent California ruling to legally recognize a third gender (non-binary), we realized that there is an entire segment of the population that we’ve been misclassifying and mistreating. And to us, this was simply not ok. We operate on a strong belief that people—of all gender classifications—should come first in everything we do. We take that very seriously. So, for us, the question wasn’t about if we needed to address this shift in gender definitions, but rather how we would address it.  

The fact is, this binary gender question is ingrained in how our industry thinks about people, how it categorizes them, and how it analyzes them. There are all kinds of logistical barriers to disrupting that system. To even start breaking down those barriers is to be bombarded with a slew of questions:

How do we revise the question?

How do we approach gender as a screening criterion?

Can it even be in the screener, or should it come at the end?

How do we set quotas for a sampling plan?

How do we think about gender subgroup analysis?

And that’s just the beginning. These questions are tough, but they’re important. They’re so important that we figured we would be able to find some guidance on them from academia or published white papers, but it seems as though our industry—and the field of public opinion more broadly—is still sorting through all these questions themselves.

 Well, for us, this issue is too important to wait.

So, we’re tackling it question by question, starting with the actual question: What is your gender? By crowdsourcing this task internally and relying heavily on the empathetic perspectives of those in the LGBTQ community, we think we’ve come up with a solution:

What is your gender? 

[SINGLE PUNCH]

Male

Female

Non-binary

Other

  And implementing it starts today. There are still questions to be answered and issues to be resolved, but there’s no better day to start putting people first than today. Everything else will come.

And like we said, this can’t just be a change that our company alone makes. We all need to; from panel providers to research buyers to other firms like us, we all have an obligation to represent people for who they truly are. That is, fundamentally, our job. But even beyond the call of duty, it’s just the right thing to do.

So, let’s do it together. Let us know how you’re thinking about measuring gender in your research. Let us know what complications you’re grappling with; let us know what solutions you’re developing.

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 From our very own, Jenny Bremer:

Well folks, it’s happening: Starbucks PSLs have given way to Peppermint Lattes, the ice skating rink is open at Rockefeller Center, and “Sweater Weather” advertising is in full swing.

As any good Game of Thrones fan would tell you, winter is here.

And for me and many other poor souls, winter is synonymous with Dry Hand Season.  Every year it’s the same—no sooner do I bring my scarves out of storage, then my poor knuckles start to crack and my cuticles get as parched as the Sahara.  But all that’s about to change, because I’ve discovered the best kept secret of hand therapy: Trader Joe's A Midsummer Night's Cream!

Here I thought Trader Joe’s was just a place to stock up on delicious Chocolate Brooklyn Babka or mind-bogglingly refreshing Organic Moroccan Mint Green Tea; I’ve been naively passing by the personal care aisle on my way to raid the Syrah-Soaked Toscano Cheese.  But this summer I read about this moisturizing hand cream, and knew I had to try it.  Not only am I a fan of a good Bard-based pun, but the formula contains all the good stuff you’d expect in a moisturizer (aloe vera, avocado oil, jojoba oil), and it’s all-natural, vegan, and of course, never animal-tested. And at $3.99 for a 16oz. bottle, the price can’t be beat.  

Before I learned about the TJ’s cream, I had recently been swindled into buying a $100 bottle of luxury hand balm from a NY boutique.  Don’t ask me what came over me, but good news about this bad decision was that I had the opportunity to do a side-by-side comparison! Over-Priced Hand Balm smells nice and makes me feel like a Parisian princess when I lather it on, but Midsummer Night’s Cream leaves my hands feeling just as silky smooth with no oily residue.  It’s billed as “unscented,” but it actually has a very mild, fresh scent with no perfume-y odor.  All-in-all, Midsummer Night’s Cream is a great product for an incredible value, and it gives Over-Priced Hand Balm a run for its money.  I’ll be sticking with it long after the snow has melted and the Peppermint Lattes have cooled.  

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 From our very own, Mike Farkas:

“Dreams are universal. Opportunity is not.”

This simple, six-word truth is the first thing you read when you visit Kiva.org, and it’s the foundation of one of the most revolutionary ideas in modern charitable giving.  But that’s the thing—it’s not really charitable “giving;” it’s charitable “lending.”  Kiva’s mission is simple: “To connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.”  The company connects people like me and you with people around the world who have dreams of improving their lives through entrepreneurship or education but do not have the opportunity or capital to make those dreams come true.

The process is simple.  The borrower, an impoverished entrepreneur or student, applies for a zero-interest microloan through Kiva.  (Think $200 to buy fertilizer for a small family tea plantation in Uganda, or $1000 for supplies to set up a noodle cart in Myanmar.)  Once the loan is approved, it is posted on Kiva.org for crowdfunding. Lenders (me and you) can then give as little as $25 towards the loan, or any other opportunity of their choice.  If the loan gets fully funded (from one or several lenders), the borrower gets to use the funds to start or improve their business or education.  The borrower then repays the loan to the lender over time. Once repaid, the lender is encouraged to use the repayment to fund other microloans, continuing the cycle of economic advancement.

 Since 2005 over 97% of all Kiva microloans have been repaid at a value of over $1 billion dollars.  

That’s over $1 billion dollars into struggling economies—struggling people’s lives.

Over 2.5 million lives, 81% of which are women, in 86 countries.

 The microloans facilitated by Kiva.org bring true economic opportunity to impoverished people the world over.  The impact these microloans have on communities is seismic; they create opportunities not just for the recipient of the microloan, but also their family, friends, and community.  Next time you’re thinking about making charitable donation, I’d highly recommend you consider getting active on Kiva.org. It’s an amazing way to improve the lives of real people all over the world.

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