In my post Super Bowl week, MVP series, I want to introduce John Hope Bryant. Bryant is on a mission to eradicate the world of poverty. To date his organization, Operation Hope has raised over 350 million dollars which has helped over 190,000 children learn about financial literacy, provide business and home loans for low wealth individuals, and serve as an economic Red Cross delivering economic aid to victims of disasters like 9/11 and hurricane Katrina. They have partnerships with 300 of the world’s largest financial company’s and major companies (including Toyota, Bank of America, ING, Citigroup, US Bank, FDIC, State Farm, E-Trade, Banco Popular, and H&R Block). They also work with over 200 non-profits, 700 schools, and 100 bipartisan governmental agencies. John says they are into the conversion business: converting check cashing customers into banking customers, converting renters into home owners, converting small business dreamers into small business owners and entrepreneurs, and converting minimum wage workers into living wage workers with new job skills. Operation Hope has resources in twenty five of the largest USA cities and will soon be in Africa.

The LA Riots in 1992 inspired John to start Operation Hope. Part of his motivation was guilt for not showing in his own community to help. Through watching the events unfold, he decided that his mission was to help eradicate poverty. With a strong financial background, everyone thought that he was talking about financial poverty but John meant spiritual poverty as well. Through Operation Hope, John desires to enrich the spirit of people, give them a hand up not a handout, use education as a ultimate poverty eradication tool (John says, “when you know better you tend to do better”), and to break the back of the psychology of poverty. He realized that people need a mechanism to help themselves so John coined the term the Silver Rights movement. He wants to help make capitalism and the free enterprise system work for the poor. It all started with a dream, a $61,000 loan from his company and a vision to change the world and eradicate poverty.

John says, “There is a difference between being broke and being poor. Being broke is a temporary economic condition, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind and a depressed condition of the spirit, and we must vow to never, ever be poor again.”

“Nobody wakes up in the morning and starts a cancer foundation. You either lost someone or had cancer yourself. There are rainbow after storms, Millions of lives were saved because a little girl gave her live to a drunk driver which resulted in the formation of MADD”.

While raising 350 million is out of reach for most of us, we can being that person who makes the life of someone else better today because of our kindness.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com