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PathLight

Congratulations Rubi, the Latest PathLight Valedictorian!

Greetings from Belize. I’m here to attend the graduation ceremonies for the PathLight students, but most importantly you need to read about Rubi. She is an amazing young woman and we are proud to have her in the program.

Rubi continues the tradition of a PathLight student being at the top of the class academically. She is this year’s Valedictorian at Belmopan Baptist High School, which is one of the schools PathLight works with. Top academic honors is an amazing accomplishment for a young woman from the rural area of Belize, one of the poorest in all of Central America. …

Belize, Goble Properties, PathLight,

Social Enterprise Stories

Even after 33-years at Goble Properties, it is still fun to see others bewildered when I value people over profits, communities over growth, or the environment over margins. Of course I’ve failed many times on all counts. But when I do get it right, it often stands out as counter-cultural in the business world.

Which in turn triggers conversations about why I made a decision, which allows me to share how faith is central to my values.

Last week I wrote about social enterprise being a gateway to spiritual conversations with the wealthy. Within a few hours of posting those …

Belize, PathLight,

Must Read Story of the Year

Below is a letter I call the must read story of the year. The author, Franklin, is a young man in the PathLight Sponsorship+ Program. I’ve had the honor of knowing Franklin for several years now, and his letter is one of the most powerful you will read this year. I’m going to start pointing to this letter when people ask me why I do what I do.
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My name is Franklin. I was born in July 24th, 1993. A few months after I started life in this world, my biological father walked away on my mother and …

PathLight,

Unleashing Hope

PathLight has launched a year end campaign called Unleashing Hope, and I recently sent this letter to all the PathLight supporters. Thought I’d post it here to see what you thought!
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A generous donor has committed to match, dollar for dollar, every donation to the PathLight year end “Unleashing Hope” campaign before December 31st, up to $50,000. That means that if we raise $50,000 we’ll have $100,000 to help unleash hope in students, teachers and local communities in rural Belize.

Why are we calling this campaign “Unleash Hope”?

It is hope that inspires us. Hope encourages us to …

PathLight, The SOLD Project,

Shopping to Make a Difference

So the crazy shopping season is about to begin — or maybe it already has for some of you. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday and all the rest just around the corner, I wanted to share a few ways your shopping can have a more meaningful impact.

First, remember you can shop Amazon.com through this blog and a referral fee is sent back to me. I will then use that to fund PathLight. See the Amazon logo just to the left of this post? Use that and it tracks you for that one shopping visit. All of the …

Goble Properties, PathLight, The SOLD Project,

Goble Properties Giving Fund

We’re doing something new at Goble Properties this year. It should be fun to see how this works because it could be a dynamic way to engage people this holiday season. Below is the email we sent out. Let me know what you think!
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We’re excited to share with you a new endeavor to help increase the positive exposure of your business while helping you make a positive impact in your local – and global – community. We’re calling it the Goble Properties Giving Fund and we’ll be matching dollar for dollar any contribution you make to it before …

Belize, PathLight,

Rejoice

A recent letter for PathLight actually started as a post for this blog. Then it struck me as a good idea for PathLight’s monthly letters. But it remains a good blog post, and I thought you might enjoy it:

Did you hear about the comprehensive study featured in Christianity Today and the Stanford Social Innovation Review asking whether sponsorship programs actually work? The result was overwhelming – sponsorships are among the most effective tools available for combating poverty.

Do you know what I believe is the main reason why sponsorship works? Hope.

A student with a sponsorship has hope for …