The “One Good Step” Journey
Today, after many months of work, challenges, hope and frustration, we are launching the One Good Step platform to the world. We do this with a surge of inspiration and a deep determination to run a whole honest course.
At this point, we would like to share with you how it all began.
There was no ‘flash-of-enlightenment’ while meditating under a tree, neither was there a ‘friends- who-got-inspired-over coffee’ moment. We were in fact leading a very normal existence in the corporate world. But a nagging voice in our head asked us, if were really making a difference with our life and skills. After a long period of random thoughts and conversation with many peers who voiced similar opinions, we decided we need to go beyond ourselves and do something positively inspiring for the society.
That was our little spark of inspiration, which led me to quit my job and start working in that direction, with undying support from a small, dedicated core team who shared the same thoughts.
A Reality Check
As we looked for avenues to channel our energies into the social space, we found that they are rather hard to find. Limited visibility into utilization of funds given to charity, unfulfilling volunteering experience and often being contacted by tele-marketeers from fraudulent organizations left us skeptical and cynical of the social impact of these activities.
But we also came across a few charitable organizations in the city, doing a phenomenal job in their respective areas of work. Some of them decidedly were worthy of support, but lacked the technical and networking skills to get it. We had to do something
The Concept of the One Good Step Platform
There clearly was a need for a platform that brings together the most genuine and credible causes in the city and provides credible choices to those wish to do their bit to make a difference. That is when we conceptualized One Good Step as a not-for-profit change enabling platform.
Here is our five point self-identity agenda and an image that we hope will look back at us every time we look in the mirror.
We are Enablers: While we have a larger philosophy and a thought on how we wish to re-define charity, (Read More) the identity of One Good Step always will be that of a bridge and of an enabler. We will strive to create as many efficient avenues of service as possible
We bring Trust: It is important to us that we experience the work and impact of the organizations, before we bring it forward to you. So a considerable amount of our time goes into being on the field with charitable organizations. One Good Step, commits to being a trusted advisor to you, on associating with charitable organizations
We have a Strong Bias for Action: What we do not want to be, is yet another fund-raising organization. So our effort will be to bring forward very specific, current and time-bound development initiatives and requests for help, which are not limited to funds alone.
We make Impact Visible: Selfless charity and karma points are good, but you need to know what happened with your efforts. We will try our level best to show you the impact that you created.
We are Evolving: One Good Step itself strives to evolve with feedback from our supporters and we wish to develop as many channels to serve as you need. So if you have feedback/motivation to improve this platform and keep us going; give us your comments (below). Or if you have some cool ideas about creating channels to serve; let us know (Mail us at getintouch@onegoodstep.org) or better still come and make it happen for us!
After working offline with considerable success and gaining a strong understanding of this field over the last year, we are now ready to put sure-footed steps out into the virtual world to reach out to a much larger audience.
Our vision is a socially responsible world;we exist to enable large positive social change through the power of collective, incremental individual efforts.
Every positive step makes world a better place in some small measure and each one of us is capable of it. We hope you will take your own few steps and participate in this journey with us.
Amitha Pai
Founder, One Good Step