Foot In The Door Consulting

The collapse of Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza factory on April 24 crushed 1,130 people to death and momentarily directed the world’s attention to the human cost of our addiction to cheap stuff. In an era of unprecedented access to information, when there’s even an app to track where your Domino’s Pizza is in the baking process, the Bangladesh disaster also showcased how difficult it is to get the information to shop ethically. Thankfully, there are people trying to make it easier by gathering direct information from workers, reporting on labor conditions and developing new apparel labeling that could change how we shop. GoodGuide.com, founded by UC Berkeley’s Dara O’Rourke, has for six years been scoring products in part on social impact, which factors in a company’s commitment to occupational safety. Oakland-based Fair Trade USA, hoping to “inspire the rise of the Conscious Consumer,” in January started offering a new label for apparel made in factories that don’t exploit workers and meet other rigorous standards. After last month’s building collapse, the world’s deadliest apparel industry disaster, eight U.S. senators wrote to Gap and other companies urging them to sign the Accord on Fire Safety in Bangladesh, an international safety pact under which companies would fund inspections and upgrades to Bangladeshi garment factories. The kids are adorable for sure,” Debbie Fletcher wrote on Gap’s Facebook page beneath a montage of smiling children in Baby Gap clothing, “but I am not buying one more thing from you until you sign the Safety Agreement in Bangladesh. Compare that, however, with the 74,000 people who signed an online petition against Abercrombie & Fitch to protest the company’s decision not to sell large sizes. “Money, that dollar sign, is what drives decisions, and if they see an impact it will change things there,” ABC News correspondent Rebecca Jarvis commented at the end of her segment last week about the teen apparel company’s public relations woes. Imagine if consumers mustered the same online outrage toward companies about young women dying while making our clothing as they did about the sizes offered in the store. The third-highest ranking U.S. State Department official, Wendy Sherman, was also in Bangladesh pledging to work with the Bangladeshi government, the private sector and labor groups to improve workplace safety.

In the wake of the Bangladeshi disaster, people are certainly striving to make better buying choices. Here’s why it’s important, and some tools to help you track down which companies have values like yours. 

Three things that funders can learn from Nonprofit Finance Fund’s 2013 State of the Sector Survey.

A short, to the point review on the state of nonprofit’s and what we can all do to help them help others. Concise, good thinking on some of the shortfalls of the system as it is! 

How are you inspiring awe? This week’s Healthcare Experience Design (HxD) conference found at #hxd2013 brings to mind the concept…

How do we get people to slow down and see something in a busybusygogo world? Use a little awe. As a totally unrelated note, hope your Wednesdays are just aweeeesome!

After a dizzying number of flights, meetings, and new experiences my first week as a MAC Young Professional (YP) has come to an eventful close.  In settling in Lusaka- and my third continent is in …

Mines Action Canada has some new Young Professionals in the field! Want a sneek peek inside the daily life of a nonprofiteer abroad? Follow their blog!