Give Forward

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” – Robin Sharma

Every month at Tenfold Australia we reflect on wisdom and learning from the previous month and a real highlight in the past month has been the fusion between our multinational and not for profit community to create real impact.

Sharing a few of the highlights below to help raise further awareness of some amazing causes:

• Take 3 for the Sea CEO Clean Up – We were honoured to be part of the Take 3 for the Sea CEO Beach Clean Up at Manly Cove Beach on the 7th May to help raise awareness and action in the highly topical and relevant area of ocean plastic pollution. We were staggered to see how much plastic had collated over one night and learn that in one hour, we collected 27,603 individual pieces of waste, weighing 87 kilograms which included more than 20,000 pieces of microplastic, film and polystyrene as well as some unique items, including a leather jacket and a parking pole and sign. Very eye opening! We love Sarah and the Take 3 team and their simple message that by taking three pieces of plastic whenever we’re at the beach we can be part of the solution. This picture on the day captures a special moment taken by our Tenfold CEO Rich when my team mate Tricky and I had a chat with Valerie Taylor OAM, in Rich’s words, the Jane Goodall of Australia. Valerie is a conservationist, photographer and filmmaker and has dedicated her life to preserve the ocean and our planet. Valerie is now 85 and seems in a very content place with her life which was wonderful to see.

• The Australian Himalayan Foundation’s (AHF) Biggest Curry Night – It’s been hard for many watching the Covid devastation in India from afar and it was great to see Angela and the AHF team turn empathy into action to raise much needed funds for the Himalayan families they support who have been hit incredibly hard on top of the health and education challenges they already face. We were grateful to DELL from the Tenfold Community for donating a laptop to help with their auction. The AHF had to pivot their Melbourne event at the last minute due to the COVID lockdown and still managed to get very close to their fundraising target of $65,000. Donations are still welcomed if you would like to support this truly purposeful cause: Australia's Biggest Curry Night (raisely.com)
• Cure Cancer Lab Tour – Just last week we partnered with Nikki and the Cure Cancer team to take a cohort of C-Suite leaders to the Lowy Cancer Research Centre at UNSW to experience the ground breaking cancer research of Dr Orazio Vittorio. It was humbling for us to learn more about the tragic current survival rates for both children and adults diagnosed with neuroblastoma and glioblastoma. Then inspiring to learn about Dr Orazio's novel breakthrough in relation to blocking copper uptake in tumours to boost immune response (funded by Cure Cancer). You can read more about Dr Orazio's global breakthrough here and donate to help support a clinical trial later this year. The team are over half way there with $44,000 to go with naming grants available to corporate partners.

I’m grateful that giving is in our DNA at Tenfold and am continually inspired by the generosity across our community. For anyone that is on this journey and unsure of where to start, some tips that have helped others:

1. Ask your people - Survey your team and ask them which causes are close to their hearts to serve in line with your people.
2. Open your network - If you are really time poor, think of some meaningful connections where you can add value to your network and the NFP community.
3. Donate your expertise - As well as raising funds for purposeful causes think about your expertise and how this may help a not-for-profit cause. As an example, we recently introduced an accounting partner to one of our NFP Foundations which was hugely helpful.
4. Beg for forgiveness rather than ask for permission – In the multinational context we sometimes here that local leaders want to take a stand on a particular issue (for example adding in leave for loss into their contracts) however they can be constricted by global HQ policies. We have some trailblazers in the group that proceed as it is the right thing to do and then beg for forgiveness if challenged.
5. Involve your family and friends - Find an experience to serve where you can involve your family and friends. A great example of this for me was taking part in the Smith Family Delivery Day and taking my youngest son Huw to deliver the gifts.

In Jay Shetty’s “Think Like a Monk” book he reveals his most important lesson since leaving the ashram is “The highest purpose is to live in service.” This really resonated for me and how he conveyed this including that most people want to help others yet on top of the responsibilities of our day-to-day life, “It’s hard to think about selflessness when we are struggling.”

He shared how monks live in service and when thinking in terms of a monk this is how we should think. I loved this quote in particular, “it follows that the only way to align properly with the universe is to serve because that’s what the universe does”. “Service fulfills us on many levels, beginning with my simple belief that we’re born wired to care for others so service does us good.”

The science shows that the act of giving activates the pleasure centre of our brain, in the words of Robin Sharma which this article started with, “Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.”

I hope this may have triggered some fresh ideas on adding extra service where we can. If anyone would like any ideas on ways to connect with the NFP ecosystem or who to connect with please send myself or colleague Tricky a direct message. We are grateful at Tenfold to have a growing NFP community (shown below) nominated by our corporate members opening up lots of opportunities to serve.

At the end of this week, I will be participating in Camp Quality’s ‘Camp In’ with my two little boys to raise funds for their services and programs to help children aged up to 15 years old who are dealing with their own diagnosis, or the diagnosis of a brother, sister, mum or dad. I have been humbled by the network support and if you’d like to contribute here is the link.

To finish with a final reflection, with the mental health impacts of Covid very real, I think community service and giving forward is more important than ever. In the words of Jay Shetty, “Service connects us, when you’re serving, you don’t have time to allow loneliness to creep in. In addition, service causes us to step out of ourselves, physically going out into the world to help others.”

Sending love and thanks to you all.