Small-Scale Do-Gooders Help Others Give, Too

I'm generally a bit too jaded to effuse about cool new websites, but you'll have to bear with me this time because GetMilkshake.com is a tremendous idea. Basically, the eight-week-old site -- the brainchild of Connecticut boomers Pam Caffray (left) and Amy Jurkowitz (right) -- provides users with a daily guide to small-scale, affordable ways that you can do good, while getting some cool stuff or having an interesting experience as a bonus.

You can either visit the site for info or sign up for Milkshake's daily e-mail, which alerts readers to socially responsible shopping opportunities and hand-crafted goods such as bracelets made from used car tires by Masai women in Africa. (Proceeds go to financing schools and crafts training that will help the women become more self-sufficient.)

Jurkowitz, who is in her forties and runs an eponymous marketing and communications consulting firm in addition to raising five children, is no stranger to startups. "This one is my third," she says. When her friend Caffray, a fiftysomething advertising writer-producer and trend forecaster, came to her with the idea of starting a tip-sheet for small-scale do-gooders, the idea struck Jurkowitz as a perfect way to surf the zeitgeist.

"Doing good and helping other people is the new 'green,'" she says. "The whole world is moving this way; it's not just a fad. It's rapidly becoming a part of people's lives. So we saw a great opportunity to help them, to make it easier to connect."

At first, Jurkowitz and Caffray envisioned an occasional e-mail bulletin, but as they started to explore the world of small-scale philanthropy and cause marketing, they discovered so much potential content that they decided to do a full-blown website. "We just started writing articles," Jurkowitz says. "There was so much to tell people about."

The media-savvy pair also realized that they needed to find a way to stand out amid the information overload that afflicts the affluent, wired audience that they hoped to attract. Ergo, they devised a catchy, hip-sounding name and brought in design talent to create a site that has the same visually compelling, clever cachet as, say, ads for Target.

"We wanted something clean, appealing and fun," Jurkowitz says. "Not heavy, like, 'Oh my God, the orphans are dying.' I mean, we're trying to help the orphans, too, but we're appealing to people in a different way. It's consumer-driven."

Jurokwitz says she and her partner are "basically curating" the world of online good works. "We have to find all these things around the world, and check them out, so that we can say, not only do you help the Masai women, but these bracelets are really beautiful. Or these cookies to benefit pediatric cancer patients are really delicious, too. It's a full-time job."

The startup is self-financed on a shoestring, but Caffray and Jurkowitz's business plan is to sustain the site by attracting cause-related advertising from companies. "We're telling them, this site is a great way to let people know about the good that you're already doing," Jurkowitz says. "We think companies will understand this, that consumers care about what they do. Social responsibility is part of our popular culture now. A lot of college-age kids, for example, already base their purchasing decisions on what they know about the company's ethics."

Milkshake also gives readers tips to how they can incorporate doing good into their own lives, such as by helping out as an eco-volunteer. "If you're going on a vacation, why not go to Australia and spend a day watching leatherneck turtles hatch, along with going scuba diving?" Jurkowitz says.

In a sense, Milkshake's founders are practicing what they preach: They've found a way to do good while reinventing themselves, too. "There are so many great causes and people out there doing good things," Jurkowitz says. "We can't wait to write about them. I could do this 24/7."