Jim Toole's looks can be deceiving. Behind the calm (often described as "Jedi-like") exterior lurks the heart of an entrepreneur who wants to change the world. Watch him hold a cup of coffee (usually made from beans he roasted himself after having them shipped from his favorite fair-trade co-op) and listen to the 41 year old pastor say, "I am often asked when I am going to write a book. I'm not. I'm going to come up with the next idea like 'child sponsorship', the next idea to change the way Christians can be part of changing the world."
And this is his first shot at it. Jim and Pati Toole are colleagues and partners of mine at San Clemente Presbyterian Church. Using their own money, the incredible business savvy Jim inherited from his successful father, and a passion for mission that he and Pati (an Associate Pastor of Global Mission Partnerships) have cultivated through travel, reading and a theological education, (you should hear the stories of their "romantic" honeymoon in the jungles of the Rainforest), the Tooles have launched CauseDepot.org , a one-stop online repository of stories, videos, blogs and a store all dedicated to exploring the intersection of Christian faith and globalization (and to think some other pastors do triathlons in their spare time!)
CauseDepot's purpose statement is "bringing global awareness through everyday living."
At the faith and globalization blog (to which I will be a sometimes contributor), Jim will moderate a discussion on how globalization is both an opportunity and a challenge that takes some careful, prayerful consideration if we Christians want to truly make a difference for good in the world (think Thomas Friedman meets Thomas Merton).
On the website you can learn about individuals and organizations that are trying to use the ingenuity of entrepreneurial thinking to bring fresh experiments of hope to the painful places in the world. You can see videos (like the Rwanda Bike Coffee Project) or read stories of individuals who are offfering small creative responses to needs in the world that could make a big difference (like Rosa Loves), or at the Ideas for Change: Entrepreneurs Against Poverty blog you can post your own brainstorming for combating poverty and injustice in the world (see the posts on Kiva or the young abolitionist Zach Hunter).
But perhaps most exciting is that Jim has created an online store that only features non-profit and cause-related goods. His partners are small organizations, communities and ministries who are using their businesses to do good in hurting places in the world. Jim and Pati take a small markup from the products from the organizations to keep the site running and and then donating 60% of any profits to other causes near to their hearts. So, the indigenous organizations make a profit, and Jim and Pati generate resources so they can keep giving to even more causes.
I have already bought two pounds of coffee that will be sent to my door that will help fund two partnerships seeking to make a difference in their communities through coffee production (one in Africa, one in Mexico), as well as bought my brother a birthday gift that I KNOW he won't be getting from anyone else (but which I won't tell you because it will ruin the surprise if he reads this.) But go browse for yourself. This could be the only place you shop for Christmas.
Perhaps most exciting about this venture is that it is a venture. Jim is not just sitting back and writing articles, but has personally jumped into the intersection of the challenge of poverty and the opportunity of globalization through technology by offering this site as a forum for discovery AND doing something.
Jim and I have talked many times about the number of young business-savvy entrepreneurial minds that we have living in a place like south Orange County, California and the huge impact that all that intellectual capital could make for further the Kingdom of God if it was only inspired and focused. Jim is being the perfect pastor and "practicing what he preaches." Through CauseDepot we can all hear the stories of entrepreneur around the world who are making a difference and in some small way, become one ourselves.
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