How Can You Pay It Forward?

Although he would not want the spotlight shined on him, we wanted to take a break from our usual tone on this blog to tell you just how lucky we at Harbinger Partners are to have such an awesome leader like Scott Grausnick.

Two years ago, Scott implemented a program to help people pay it forward by giving every salaried employee $100. Our third year of this program is currently underway, and we wanted to look back at some of the incredible stories.

“I don’t want to be preachy, but this is one of my passions — right up there with golf,” said Scott. “Big acts of kindness are fun, but we don’t have to do elaborate or expensive things to change the course of someone’s day.”

The terms of the program are simple. It’s up to each employee to decide how to spend their $100. They can choose to surprise someone, serve an individual or family in need or brainstorm a totally unique way to pay it forward. Those who want can then share what they did at the annual company meeting in August.

Here are some of our favorite stories:

A 36-year-old father of two lost his life after a long battle with cancer. He was diagnosed as a teen in 1999 and it resurfaced twice. He thought it had it beat… until he didn’t. He left behind a wife and two daughters, ages six and two. Thinking about leaving behind my family created such empathy and concern for me, I knew this was the right place to donate my $100. A fundraising campaign was started to help raise money for the girls’ education – today that fund has nearly $200,000. I hope they grow up knowing what a wonderful father they had and can appreciate the legacy he created.

With my $100, I ordered travel toiletry bags, toothbrushes, toothpaste, tissues, disposable razors, bar soap, shampoo, and hand sanitizer to put care packages together to deliver to local shelters for distribution to those who have lost everything. I was able to put together 100 packages for delivery using my $100 pay it forward money and some additional monetary donations from some of my amazing co-workers. After a few orders from Amazon, a couple of trips to stores, and just a little bit of time putting things together, I know that I made a difference in at least 100 peoples’ lives.

I combined the $100 from Harbinger with a personal donation and gave it to Special Spaces, Omaha/Lincoln. Special Spaces is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that creates dream bedrooms for children with life-threatening medical conditions. A bedroom to most kids is a personal space—a place that represents his or her unique personality. For a child with a critical illness who spends a lot of time at home in his or her room, Special Spaces believes that room should be a very personal environment. They create rooms that are designed and dreamed up by the child so they can become a place that is unique and loved by him or her.

“Not only can we practice these gestures in our personal life, but they are the most basic building blocks of business relationships as well,” said Scott.

Now, does this sound like a company you’d like to work for? Check out our latest career opportunities and come see how Harbinger Partners “Delivers Delight.”