Businesses that Make Money & Meaning

I recently responded to a query on Andrea Lee’s Blog asking “What is the best example of a business that makes meaning AND money, that you have come across this year?”

My husband and I recently completed a design project for a new hotel in Lebanon, NH. Just Wednesday, we attended the “Sneak Preview” event showcasing the grantees from their interesting business model described below.

David Leatherwood, CEO of Norwich Partners, and Eric Sachsse, President, formed a partnership in 2003 with Jenny Williams, a local developer and philanthropist, to purchase the Residence Inn by Marriott and to build the Courtyard by Marriott, both at Centerra Park in Lebanon, NH. Leatherwood had a longtime ambition of dedicating a percentage of hotel profits to charity, so he and Williams established the Children’s Fund of the Upper Valley, a component fund of the Upper Valley Region of New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

Through revenue from their hotels, they are committed to contributing at least $1 million to the Fund over the next ten years. The fund was established with a preference for supporting organizations, such as CHaD (The Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth), and projects that improve the lives of children in the local community, through quality healthcare, childcare, arts, and educational initiatives.

The Children’s Fund is particularly interested in entrepreneurial philanthropy, which helps the grantees expand their own organizational or fundraising capacity; and in programs or projects that expose children and teens to the joys of volunteerism and giving.

Current grantees are: Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth (CHaD), Montshire Museum of Science, Vermont Institute of Natural Sciences (VINS), The Upper Valley Haven, The Family Place, Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF), Child Care Center in Norwich, Youth in Action (Hanover), and the Hopkins Center for Performing Arts at Dartmouth College.

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