Collective One Good Thing / In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Summary

We Are For Good Podcast: "Collective One Good Thing / In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day" Summary

Release Date: January 20, 2025
Host: We Are For Good (Jon McCoy, CFRE and Becky Endicott, CFRE)
Podcast Description:
Nonprofit professionals face increasing challenges in fulfilling their missions. "We Are For Good" is dedicated to equipping these leaders with innovative ideas, inspiration, and stories to amplify their impact. Join host Jon McCoy and Becky Endicott as they foster a community of nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, and world changers aiming to bring more goodness into the world.

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Episode Overview

In this special episode commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, hosts Jon McCoy and Becky Endicott pivot from their usual interview format to engage listeners in a collective action initiative titled "One Good Thing." The episode emphasizes the enduring legacy of Dr. King’s messages of love, hope, and collective action, urging the community to partake in meaningful acts of kindness.

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Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

The episode opens with Jon McCoy introducing the theme centered around honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He sets the tone by encouraging listeners to reflect on the power of love, hope, and collective action in driving social change.

Jon McCoy highlights Dr. King’s enduring wisdom:

“Life's most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?”
[00:17]

This quote serves as a foundational prompt, urging each individual to consider their role in fostering positive change within their communities.

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The "One Good Thing" Challenge

Transitioning from reflection to action, Becky Endicott introduces the "One Good Thing" challenge. This initiative invites listeners to perform a single act of kindness, emphasizing that even small gestures can have significant ripple effects.

Becky Endicott encourages simple acts:

“It could just be as simple as checking in on a friend or maybe volunteering your time, maybe buying the coffee for the person behind you in line, or just smiling and saying hello to someone across your path.”
[00:55]

Jon McCoy further elaborates on the philosophy behind the challenge, asserting that good deeds are the foundation of progress and the fuel for movements. He underscores that choosing love over hate and action over indifference are deliberate choices that drive meaningful change.

Jon McCoy emphasizes the active choice of goodness:

“Good is not passive. It's a choice. And in choosing love over hate, injustice over complacency, and action over indifference.”
[01:45]

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Community Impact and Collective Action

Becky and Jon stress the importance of community in magnifying individual actions. By participating collectively, the impact of each good deed is exponentially increased, creating a formidable force for positive change.

Becky Endicott highlights community resources and collective power:

“Through community, our actions are multiplied and together this community is a force for good.”
[02:56]

She provides practical suggestions for listeners unsure of where to begin, such as engaging with local environmental efforts or addressing immediate community needs like the LA wildfires, directing listeners to curated resources in the show notes.

Jon McCoy introduces an upcoming event, Impact Up Multiply, designed to further harness the power of community through virtual gatherings and local meetups across multiple continents.

Jon McCoy invites listeners to join the community-driven event:

“Community really is everything. It is bomb to this world to get in connection with other like-minded, value-aligned peers.”
[02:56]

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Upcoming Events and Resources

The hosts conclude by promoting their upcoming event and highlighting additional resources available to listeners:

• Impact Up Multiply: A day-long virtual event featuring influential speakers on the power of community, alongside local meetups in over 25 cities across five continents. Registration details can be found at weareforgood.com/impactup.

• Curated Resources: Including ways to give, volunteer opportunities, reading material, and a motivational video titled "3 and a Half Minutes of Joy" by Kid President, which narrates Dr. King’s story.

Becky Endicott wraps up with an uplifting message:

“Watch is a three and a half minutes of joy from the story of Martin Luther King as told by Kid President. So go get some joy into your life. Go do something for others. I promise you it will heal something inside you as well as the other person.”
[03:41]

Jon McCoy reinforces the message of unity and collective effort, reminding listeners that they are not alone in their endeavors.

Jon McCoy affirms community solidarity:

“We're in this together, friends.”
[04:14]

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Conclusion

This episode of "We Are For Good" serves as a heartfelt tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., inspiring nonprofit professionals and community members alike to engage in meaningful acts of kindness. By fostering a sense of collective responsibility and providing actionable steps, Jon McCoy and Becky Endicott empower listeners to contribute to an ongoing legacy of love, hope, and transformative social change.

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Join the Movement:
Embrace the "One Good Thing" challenge today and share your acts of kindness using the hashtag #OneGoodThing on LinkedIn or Instagram. Connect with the "We Are For Good" community to amplify your impact and be part of the Impact Uprising.

For more information and to access resources mentioned in this episode, visit www.weareforgood.com.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, friends. Welcome to the podcast. Today, we're doing something a little different. So instead of a typical interview, we wanted to take a pause and to invite you into something that we're calling a collective One good thing.

[B]

Of course, you already know that today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And in honoring him, we really wanted to pass the baton and encourage you to pause to remember the power of love, hope, and collective action. Dr. King has this really powerful quote, and he said that life's most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others? It's just a reminder to us that change starts within, within each of us in those small but really meaningful ways, just in the way that we show up for others in our community. And this is such a perfect day where we really want to activate that service.

[A]

Yeah. In this activating community, we wanted to, you know, instead of dropping a regular podcast episode, we just want to encourage you to join us with a simple challenge to do one good thing today for someone. It doesn't have to be grand or complicated. It could just be as simple as checking in on a friend or maybe volunteering your time, maybe buying the coffee for the person behind you in line, or just smiling and saying hello to someone across your path. Today, small acts of kindness have the power to ripple outward and create waves of change. And we really believe this because we see it in our community every single day. So good is the foundation of progress, but we also have seen that it's the fuel of movements. And so, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we are reminded that good is not passive. It's a choice. And in choosing love over hate, injustice over complacency, and action over indifference.

[B]

So if you're listening to this episode in real time, you might want to just go take that action toward a cause that's really stirring at your heart or maybe your mind recently. And if you're not sure where to start, we'd say, look within your own community. What can you do? Today, John gave some great suggestions. I can tell you that my girls and I are going to go out and we are going to pick up trash at our local park because we love the environment and that jives with our values and our belief systems. But we want you to do something that really connects with who you are as an individual. If you don't know where else to start, we have curated a lot of resources around how we can activate around the LA wildfires that have really devastated that part of the country. So we'll drop that in the show notes. And this is really the magic in the collective that's gathered here within the we are for good community. Because it's not just one of us. Through community, our actions are multiplied and together this community is a force for good. So we're just asking, will you join us and if you feel so inclined, help us spread this ripple of good. You can tag us and share your hashtag One Good Thing on LinkedIn or Instagram today and we would love to amplify it alongside you.

[A]

And I'd be remiss not to invite you to really, the manifestation of community is everything and community is multiplied. We are coming together on Thursday for Impact Up Multiply and it starts virtual like it's a day packed with incredible speakers. We're talking about the superpower of community. And then by night, more than 25 cities are hosting local meetups, local impact ups happening on five different continents. So there's hopefully one near you. And if not, hop into the virtual gathering because y'all, community really is everything. It is bomb to this world to get in connection with other like minded, value aligned peers. And we want to create that space for you. So we hope you will find it here with us. You can go to weareforgood.com impactup and make sure that you're registered. We'd love to see you this Thursday.

[B]

And we've also rounded out this conversation with a couple resources that you can find in the show notes and in this description. We've got a way to give, we've got ways for you to volunteer, we've got something for you to read and we have something for you to watch. And then let me just tell you that watch is a three and a half minutes of joy from the story of Martin Luther King as told by Kid President. So go get some joy into your life. Go do something for others. I promise you it will heal something inside you as well as the other person. We are so glad you're here. Let's go do some good. Impact Uprising.

[A]

We're in this together, friends.