12 minute read
Raquel Miller
PGMAG interview with
Raquel Miller
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PGMAG: Raquel, welcome to today’s interview with Lady Anita.
RM: Lady Anita, thank you for your interest and for providing this forum for discussion.
PGMAG: Please briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
RM: My name is Raquel Miller, and in a sense, I’m another soul on my journey to self-fulfilment, a seeker, looking to understand myself and my place in the world. I’m the founder of Bunchful, a social enterprise that aims to enhance the work of the giving community and to inspire the growth of generosity as a global way of life. I’m also a Caribbean American. I was born in Jamaica, but I cut my teeth in New York, where I now reside, and have, since the 90’s, after I took my passport and left my small island home, one weekend, while my father was away. I had pooled all the money I received from my high school graduation and after ticket and other travel expenses, I landed at JFK with $75, which I thought was just glorious.
PGMAG: It was a great privilege to have spent some time with you at the recently concluded Powerhouse Global Leadership Summit/Awards event. What where some of your take from the event?
RM: Having been to many leadership conferences, I have a context, a perspective and an expectation which I bring with me, when I attend such events, but the Powerhouse Global Leadership Summit & Awards surpassed any expectations I had - for never had I been at a conference that provided both global perspectives and an opportunity for deep intimacy amongst attendees. It had a kind of rawness and vulnerability that allowed the very spirit of the human soul to shine, like beacons on a hill, each of us spreading our own light, dancing, literally and figuratively, to the beats of our favourite drums. This event was inspired and inspiring, and it was so, because of your leadership, Lady Anita. You have provided a forum for those of us who are answering the call of our life, a call for service to others, and at the event, you shepherded the fulfilment of our greatest promise for that week. I left the Powerhouse Global Leadership Summit & Awards with some very strong bonds; I found kinship and support, and I was overjoyed to provide the same to others.
PGMAG: Would you agree that the way forward for business growth is ‘collaboration?’
RM: Yes, in fact, I was recently asked this question, and the answer I provided is that there are many ways in which collaboration and partnerships can provide support for communities, while profiting for businesses. Long term and enduring partnerships with peer organizations, where participants engage in skill sharing and other outcomes can help generate big picture ideas and innovation that a business may not have achieved in isolation. There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when companies only responsibility was to their shareholders, and they were allowed to pillage and plunder for profits and care nothing about the communities that supported them or their people in service. It was a time when we, in a sense, were complicit with these actions, and we would close our eyes and go to sleep at night, but we have now been called, been roused from slumber. That encroaching noise we hear in the background, those small voices that say, ‘something is not right’, can no longer be ignored, because the dawning realization is that we must work together, and together, through collaborations, we can help build businesses that earn profits for owners and grow benefits for communities.
In fact, I’m thinking of a story a friend told me of a client she had who worked for (Singer) - a sewing machine company. Her client wanted to find a way to give back to the community, but as a busy executive with precious little time outside of work, she realized that her way of giving back would need to be within the context of her job, so she created a company initiative to teach women in the local area how to sew professionally. She found a space and outfitted it with sewing machines and invited the locals, including women who sewed piecemeal work for a living, and through the initiative, she provided the sewing classes free of cost. What resulted was that the students vastly improved the professional quality of their sewing and were able to create greater income for themselves to support their families, and because they had come to know the quality of the Singer sewing machines, they bought those machines for use and recommended them to friends. This word of mouth spread through to larger neighbourhoods and helped promote the growth of Singer worldwide, as they became a household name, which vastly added to their bottom line and reputation.
Now, more than ever, we are beginning to understand that the only way forward is together, and when a firm places genuine collaboration at its root, it permeates throughout the organization, and its people lead from that source and find creative ways for the business to thrive, while fulfilling its other aspirational goals. Many enterprises are now giving shape and meaning to initiatives that are for the greater good. Just a few examples are Vista Equity Partners’ commitment to net zero emissions by 2050, across its product portfolio, Amazon employees packing over 200,000 hygiene kits for Ukrainian refugees, Bank of America’s focus on economic recovery and its partnerships that help address economic and social conditions and crisis prevention. We have also seen internal shifts within corporations like M&T Bank, which has grown its resource groups to further a push for diversity, equity and inclusion for its employees, an initiative I learned about through its local branch in the Forest Hills neighbourhood of Queens, New York.
We are all on a continuum, some ahead and some behind, and when we share the resources we have with those behind us, and ourselves are helped by those ahead, we have an opportunity to realize the great promise of our lives, together. As the song writer, Peter Schickele, wrote:
“No man is an island,
No man stands alone,
Each man's joy is joy to me,
Each man's grief is my own.
We need one another,
So, I will defend,
Each man as my brother,
Each man as my friend.”
PGMAG: Please tell us more about your organisation, Bunchful.
RM: Bunchful is a social enterprise organization that is all about giving. Our mandate is to shine the spotlight on those who give, and we’ve coined the term “bunchful” to mean sharing your wealth and your abundance with others.
Our suite of services currently includes the BE BUNCHFUL technology platform, the Bunchful Awards and the Bunchful Summit, as well as the Bunchful Podcast, which I’ll detail below. We also have a technology, called EnsomCity, which we recently launched to hundreds of Amazon employees for them share their gifts with each other through a talent showcase. We were surprised by its impact and near 100% engagement by the participants, until we realized how it positively impacted their mental health. EnsomCity is an opportunity for self-expression, to give to ourselves and let our talents shine. We’ve taken the platform and placed under redevelopment, adding new feature sets based on user requests and will be relaunching it due course. As to our organization’s main services at present:
The BE BUNCHFUL platform was built exclusively for brands to showcase their portfolio of philanthropy stories and showcase the social good they do, all on one platform, helping to lead through philanthropy. Presently, a brand may apply for access to the Bunchul Badge, by demonstrating how they give back to support causes in their community or the world at large.
Our two main events, the Bunchful Awards and the Bunchful Summit, are focussed on delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, UNSDG’s.
The Bunchful Awards’ was inspired by by grandmother’s generosity to others and nominations are open to the public and for anyone to apply or to nominate others for an award. The criteria for an award were developed by an independent, diverse and inclusive body of persons from around the globe.
The Bunchful Summit accompanies the Bunchful Awards with engaging panels that tackle questions around local and international needs, as well as technological solutions and how all of this can enable even more effective philanthropy in the future. We are proud that our organization’s charitable beneficiary for our events is the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which has boots on the ground in areas of crises around the globe.
Listeners also hear from expert guests and innovators who are leading through philanthropy, tackling questions and devising solutions around local and international needs.
PGMAG: What is your message for world leaders?
RM: At the recent gathering of world leaders at the COP 26 conference, there was much discussion and energy around climate action, which is an issue at the forefront of the global crisis in our world.
No issue stands alone, and we must look to provide support and sustenance, not only for ourselves, but for the wellbeing of others, particularly those in great need, so that some of the issues that contributed to the growing devastation of our planet can be addressed, and people aren’t forced to make devastatingly impactful decisions simply to survive, that programs that are so easily available to large organizations with seemingly limitless resources are also made available at a scale that smaller entities can manage and consume, so that neighbourhoods can truly flourish.
PGMAG: Please tell us more about your business and how it impacts the world.
RM: At Bunchful, we believe that giving is more than just a single act of writing a check. It is the continuous action of caring and supporting those who need it most, and by supporting those who support others, providing solutions to challenges people are facing now and into the future, we can impact and bring about the change we want to see in the world, such as helping to bolster neighbourhoods, facilitating continued education and upskilling, creating opportunities for social mobilization, championing rehabilitation and infrastructure. That is the mark we want to leave in the world. This is the service we are asking of ourselves and others. There is a quote from Shakespeare that says: “The evil that men do lives after them, and the good is oft interred with their bones”, but I believe the opposite can also be true and that the good that we do can live after us and not be interred with our bones.
PGMAG: If you knew what you know now, what would you do differently?
RM:
I would have asked for what I wanted, I would have lived authentically and let all my gifts shine through, and I would, most certainly, much sooner, have forgiven myself and others, forgiven the “thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to”, to quote Shakespeare, again.
Most recently, upon a diagnosis of cancer, when the night was darkest, and deep stasis had set in, a light came shining into my body, flooding my very soul, rousing me to action, and I thought about when Bunchful really began, back in Jamaica, as I held onto my grandmother’s skirts and she taught me that when we give, it is not for the expectation of return, but to give because giving is its own end, its own joy and peace, the very essence of life, and that through giving of our gifts, our talents and our resources, we are in fact fulfilling our own purpose. It was this belief that drove her and so many others in our small village community and helped us thrive together. Later, I also learned this from my dad, and though I often say that my dad was many things, one of those things was a contagious giver, who gave continuously, never asking for anything in return, but in his turn, also accepted graciously, and so, to answer your question more fully, I, too, would have accepted the help of others much sooner in order to fulfil my greater purpose, but the day is still young, and:
“I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep,
miles to go, before I sleep.”
- from a Robert Frost poem.
PGMAG: Finally, what would you say to your younger self?
RM: What I do say to myself now and would to my younger self is that “I do not know if life is long or if life is short, but I know that life’s a gift, and what a magnificent gift it is to have received.”
PGMAG: Thank you for sharing your brilliance with us.
RM: Thank you, Lady Anita and the Powerhouse Global network. I see in you and your organization, a fellow leader and great philanthropist, leading and empowering others to do the same, so a big bunchful of thanks for this invitation to our discussion and for the important and impactful work you are doing.
PGMAG: Please share your website/links with us:
RM: https://bunchful.com
Social handles: @bunchful @bebunchful @ensomcities
