Kindness Credit Card
Lorraine was a different kind of philanthropist. Slightly quirky and slightly goofy, she sought to achieve her philanthropic goals in creative new ways. She steered away from traditional philanthropic methods and sought to blaze new trails in the field of philanthropy. Her foundation attracted workers with a similar bold mindset.
One day, at a staff meeting, she issued the following challenge to her staff. "I want to hear new ideas of how to promote kindness in society. By the end of this week, I want each of you to list five new ways our foundation can promote kindness. The best ideas will have these qualities:
1. Use a relatively small amount of money to change the behavior of large numbers of people.
2. Be quirky enough to engender a lot of press and conversation.
3. Expand upon an existing, successful idea – but take the idea in a whole new direction.
4. Bring greater financial benefits to people who are kinder.
Her staff of eight buzzed with excitement at this challenge. Every waking minute of the coming week they would be weighing and considering new ideas. At the end of the week, the best ideas would float to the top.
When Friday rolled around, each staff member submitted their ideas and a process of discussion and voting began. Many of the ideas were excellent, but the search was on for an idea that was beyond excellent. It soon became clear that one of the submitted ideas rose above all others: The Kindness Credit Card.
This new credit card would offer cash back to persons who held the card. However, instead of a fixed rate of 1 percent cash back, the card would offer a flexible cash back rate, based upon a person's kindness. This flexible cash back rate would go from 2 percent all the way up to 8 percent.
People applying for the card would explain how acts of kindness were a part of their lives. The idea for this card emerged from one of the staffers who had volunteered for more than 25 years at the Washington Ear, a nonprofit that reads aloud news stories for the blind. 25 years of volunteer work – at two hours each week – adds up to about 2,500 hours of volunteer work – helping the blind. That level of kindness would allow this person to get a credit card with 8 percent cash back.
As the staffers were discussing this idea, it occurred to one of them that some of the most deserving persons – people with extraordinary kindness – might not be regular users of credit card. The 8 percent cash back would not have much benefit to someone who did not have much money to spend in the first place. So, a new "kindness category" was created with a 30 percent cash back for those persons living on a modest income.
There was some concern at the foundation that such a credit card could potentially be misused by the holder purchasing items for others. Lorraine, in her wisdom, exclaimed – "That's exactly what I want. I want persons with exceptional kindness to become valued by others – such that their friends could have some financial benefit by knowing them. This card, with the high cash back rate, won't be misused because we can easily set up a reasonable annual limit for total purchases for the card."
Lorraine went on, "I'm setting aside $50 million for this three year initiative. That's less than the amount I recently paid for a house I bought. What I would like next from my staff is an estimate of how many people this initiative might reach. Please explain your reasoning in the brief you hand me next week. I also need to find a quirky bank that would be a partner for this quirky idea." Lorraine ended up the meeting by saying, "And naturally, each one of my staff will be receiving a kindness credit card – which they can use to explain the concept to their family, friends, and neighbors. Also, I would like to elicit the involvement of some public librarians into this initiative. Do any of you know public librarians who might be interested in being involved?"
The following week, Lorraine's team gathered again, excited to present their projections for the Kindness Credit Card initiative. Each had spent days poring over numbers, reading studies on behavioral economics, and brainstorming quirky promotional ideas. One by one, the team members handed Lorraine their briefs.
Lorraine listened as Jamal, her data whiz, presented his predictions. "Based on our budget and current models, we're estimating that the card could reach around 500,000 users in three years, assuming we launch with a strong marketing push. But here's the interesting part: we expect an exponential increase in 'acts of kindness' if we couple it with incentives for referring friends."
Jamal continued, "Studies show that people are much more likely to participate in a behavior if they see it modeled by people they know. So, what if we give bonus cash-back points to anyone who refers a friend to the card? This could quickly multiply our reach."
Lorraine's eyes sparkled with intrigue. "Imagine the potential. If this works as intended, kindness could spread almost virally. Excellent work, Jamal."
Next, Yuki, one of the team's quieter but profoundly insightful members, stood up. "I've been thinking about how we could involve librarians as 'Kindness Ambassadors.' We know librarians are already trusted figures in the community. By giving them the card and setting up 'Kindness Kiosks' in libraries, they can help people sign up for the card while promoting kindness through community events. We could even create a 'Kindness Book Club' where people read about acts of kindness or volunteer projects around the world."
Lorraine clapped her hands in delight. "That's quirky, Yuki! And it's incredibly clever—getting people to sit down and think deeply about kindness and its ripple effects while being immersed in the community setting of a library."
But then one of the newer staff members, Eduardo, raised a cautious hand. "Lorraine, I love the Kindness Kiosks idea, but I have some concerns. If we're aiming to reach communities with limited financial access, how do we ensure we don't unintentionally exclude people who might struggle with digital applications? And what about people with limited literacy or those who might not trust institutions like credit card companies?"
Lorraine nodded, taking his question seriously. "You're right, Eduardo. Accessibility is key. This initiative won't be successful if it's only available to certain demographics. Here's what we'll do: let's assign funds specifically to set up workshops where librarians, community organizers, and our own staff can help people apply in person. We could even have a mobile 'Kindness Van' that travels to different neighborhoods. Imagine—'Kindness On Wheels!'"
The room buzzed with approval as Lorraine sketched out the logistics for the van idea. She then turned to the last item on the agenda: finding the right bank partner.
"I've reached out to a couple of potential partners, but I'm hoping for something a little unconventional. I want a bank that understands this vision and doesn't balk at the quirky side of it."
As luck would have it, Jamal had already done some research. "There's a small, employee-owned bank in Portland called Oddity Bank. They have a reputation for supporting quirky projects, and they just launched an app that includes financial education modules for low-income customers. I think they could be a perfect fit."
Lorraine smiled broadly. "That's exactly the sort of partner I was hoping for. Let's reach out and pitch the Kindness Credit Card idea to them. If they're interested, we'll move forward with our marketing plan and aim to get this rolled out by next summer."
The meeting ended with high energy, and Lorraine felt a sense of pride in her team. They had managed to make her wildest philanthropic dreams come closer to reality.
(This story is donated to the public domain.)
"Wisdom begins with wonder." - Socrates
"Learning happens thru gentleness."
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