Whenever a new crisis threatens the survival of local businesses, my appreciation for what the CCC Team has created at Buylocali reaches new heights. And now we have made it easier then ever for people wishing to help local businesses do so.

For me, focusing on helping small businesses is nearly compulsory. Thousands of businesses over the years have contributed to the success of my advertiser supported print and digital publications.

These publications have enjoyed support from dozens of Fortune 500 companies. But, greater than ninety eight percent of the more than five thousand advertisers have been small, local businesses.

It would be unconscionable for me to just “sit out” this crisis without doing everything I can to help.

If I had the resources of a Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates,or Warren Buffett I could single-handedly save a whole bunch of small businesses.

I’m not them, but that does not mean I cannot do anything. My great CCC Team can certainly make it easy for you and countless others to help save our local businesses.

We are all in this crisis together and have to help any way possible. If you can contribute any amount it will make a difference, in some cases between survival and collapse of a business.

If you are not able to contribute money you could help by signing up to help vet and select the eventual recipients of funds contributed.

If you are not a member of the Chronicles Community Creations staff or affiliated with us in any way you could join a local Save Our Business Committee (SOBC), see below.

Only the local SOBC decides what businesses receive funds. After all, who knows the importance of saving a local business better then the local folks the business has been serving during the lifetime of the business?

To be a SOBC member you must first take the Golden Rule Pledge (see “Join a SOBC” link below).

SOBC’s are made up of registered Golden Rule Advocates who live in the same geographic area as the recipient business.

Establishment of these committees follows guidelines of the World Community Bylaws (see link below).

Guidelines for granting funds to worthy recipients include the Committee’s overall sense of the business’s importance  to the local community.

In a nutshell, committees are responsible for giving the funds to those who have the best, most deserving SOB Story. “SOB Story” meaning “Save Our Business” story.

To help underwrite the costs associated with our ongoing efforts to mitigate the impact of a human crisis we will add a handling fee of $1 to every amount given by a donor and every amount disbursed to a recipient. Amounts received by us in this manner that exceed our basic operational needs will be contributed to the General Fund.

Whenever embarking on a new journey, we do well to remember what James Watson said. You might remember Watson received a Nobel Prize for his part in mapping the human genome.

Paraphrasing Watson: “If you’re gonna make a big jump, by definition you’re unqualified.”

Since these are uncharted waters, what we are doing qualifies as a “big jump”. We can anticipate, with a high level of certainty there will be problems, false starts and missteps.

All we can do is earnestly try our best to create a system that does the most good we fallible, imperfect humans can call into existence.

As the need for adjustments materializes, we will make appropriate course corrections.

If all the work the CCC team has put into creating this space, the community is only able to save just one worthy business from extinction, I will consider it a success. With your help I believe we can do much, much more.

Please join us now in this fight to save our local businesses. How do you choose to help?