I have found that if I am involved in a charitable effort that most people will help out if I follow the following guidelines:
- it is a well-organized effort. Nobody wants to try to help if there is chaos. Nobody wants to waste their valuable time for nothing.
- the venture has to be able to make a difference and you need to be able to articulate how it will help.
- you need to ask people to help in a way that they can use their abilities or ask them to donate what is available to them and maybe doesn’t cost them much, but is very valuable to the effort.

An example:

We printed the following design after Katrina hit New Orleans.

Bent Not Broken. A shirt to be worn in solidarity with New Orleans, sold to benefit the New Orleans Musician's Clinic

We organized the screenprinting industry to print thousands of shirts and get them sold and the money went to the New Orleans’ Musician’s Clinic.

We were well-organized - we had a recored store chain willing to sell the finished shirts and pass the entire sale price to the charity.

We asked for what people had to give - OLEC donated an exposure lamp, KIWO donated emulsion, Rutland donated ink and Hanes donated shirts. OLEC, Rutland and KIWO donated something that they had a manufactured price, but my printing company would have had to buy at a retail price. This helped pay for us to print thousands of shirts. Hanes provided the shirts which of course was the big part of the donation, but again their manufactured price on a shirt was probably under $2 and the charity would in the end be getting $20.

We were making a difference - the New Orleans Musicians Clinic (NOMC) was a leader in the sustainable rebuilding of New Orleans. Instead of directors riding around in fancy cars, they had volunteer directors and they were turning small amounts of money into medical care worth thousands of dollars. Keeping the musician’s alive is a good way to keep New Orleans alive.

I was just in New Orleans and saw a musician named Washboard Chaz wearing a Bent Not Broken shirt. He had worn it so many times that it was starting to fade. I found out that he has been a beneficiary of the clinic as well encouraging other musicians to get preventive care.

His band The Tin Men is awesome. I’m glad our industry could turn ink, printing, emulsion, exposure lamps and shirts into such a beautiful thing.