In 2011 North American Power teamed up with the National MS Society, Connecticut Chapter, to become presenting sponsor and the power for change for the chapter’s biggest event, Walk MS. North American Power is one of the most charity-focused corporations in the state, donating significant funds to charities statewide. The National MS Society, Connecticut Chapter, is honored to be among those North American Power supports with not only funds, but also through a team of individuals, like you, who step out in the fight against MS.

We created this video so that our supporters can learn a bit more about the benefits of switching to North American Power and to spread the word about signing up for Walk MS.

If you haven’t signed up to step out with North American Power and more than 9,000 others from across the state, please register TODAY! The Travelers Walk MS, presented by North American Power will take place Sunday, April 22, at 12 sites, including Cheshire High School, in Cheshire; Western Connecticut State University, in Danbury; Joel Elementary School,  in Clinton; JFK Middle School, in Enfield; Litchfield Town Green, in Litchfield; Manchester Community College, in Manchester; Mitchell College, in New London;  Westminster School, in Simsbury; Cove Island Park, in Stamford; Sherwood Island State Park, in Westport; University of Connecticut at Hartford, in West Hartford; and West Haven High School, in West Haven. Each site features lots of activities and includes complimentary lunch courtesy or Subway® Restaurants and Coca-Cola.®

Like, North American Power, you, too, can be the power for change. Help us help people in our state living with MS. Join the NAPower Walk MS team or start your very own team. Join thousands of other Connecticut residents raising funds to support loved ones, friends or neighbors battling multiple sclerosis. We are the power for change. Together, we can create a world free of MS. To learn more or to register, visit www.ctfightsMS.org.

Karen E. Butler

Vice President of Communications

National MS Society, Connecticut Chapter

Did you know that by paying your electricity bill, you can help end poverty? It’s true – thanks to an alliance between North American Power and Heifer International.

Poverty has many faces. From Nepal to the Arkansas Delta, millions of people around the world are challenged with food insecurity every single day. Faced with the choice of paying the energy bill or buying groceries, some go without lights or heating to make sure their children are fed. If faced with the same dilemma, what would you do?

Heifer International is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. Heifer’s proven approach to helping people obtain sustainable sources of food and income ensure that fewer mothers and fathers have to make the decision between the necessities of life like electricity and nourishment.

Families who for generations knew only poverty and oppression are building new homes, starting new businesses, and providing for their families, allowing them the dignity and empowerment to lift themselves out of poverty. Children who once headed out to the fields to perform backbreaking work will be heading into schoolrooms to learn how to read and write.

How is this possible? Heifer’s model is pretty simple: We provide farm animals like goats, cows, chickens or pigs. We also provide lots of intense training on animal health and well-being, sustainable farming practices, and community empowerment. Only after a community has received rigorous training on how to properly feed and take care of their animals does it receive the livestock, which in turn provide them with nourishment, materials and the ability to sell excess products at market—wool, milk, yogurt, cheese, meat… By starting these mini-businesses, many families find they are finally able to afford to send their children to school, pay for medical care or improve their homes, perpetuating a new cycle of hope and opportunity.

For every North American Power customer who selects Heifer International as their charity of choice, Heifer will receive a $1 donation to help families in countries that desperately need your help. You can do it. You can make a world of difference. Select Heifer International every month when you pay your bill, and pretty soon, that goat will be on its way to a family in need, and you’ve just saved a life.

Malaria is a preventable and treatable disease. Yet, it takes the life of a child every minute. And by supporting our work, you’ll also be helping moms like Soda protect their babies from malaria.

Courtesy: Laura Hajar

Soda is in her third trimester of pregnancy and was instructed that, since she’s pregnant, she’s more at risk of contracting malaria – which could be deadly for her and her unborn child. Here, her hand is outstretched as she reaches for her new mosquito net: a promise of protection against malaria for her future family.

Please “Like” North American Power now to help ensure generations are free from malaria in the future.

Thank you and happy holidays!

Malaria No More

As you enter the final days of holiday shopping, consider giving a gift that has an even more meaningful impact through charities like these:

• Organizations such as Oxfam America, Heifer Project International, and Care allow you to uniquely purchase gifts that will benefit those in need.  Visit Heifer’s gift catalog where you can purchase chickens, llamas or other livestock that will give impoverished families the resources they need to become self-sufficient.  Support Care, an international relief organization by sending a “CAREpackage” to loved ones this holiday season to help women and girls escape poverty around the world.

•  By donating to Save the Children your one gift can be matched up to four times – bringing essential programs such as healthcare, education, and disaster assistance to children and families in need.

• Ever wonder what happens to all of the letters written by children to Santa each year?  Well the USPS has established a program where you can help grant the wishes of these children in deserving families by playing the role of Santa.  Beanelf.org allows volunteers to pick up a letter at a participating post office, purchase a toy, pair of shoes, game, etc. for an underprivileged family, and then have it sent to their doorstep by Christmas day.

• Macy’s has also come up with a great way to engage children in the holiday spirit with “a million reasons to believe”. They will donate $1 for ever letter to Santa that children drop off at a Macy’s store, up to $1 million, to the Make-A-Wish Foundation which makes the dreams of children with terminal illnesses come true – such as meeting their favorite rock star or going to Disney world.

There are so many ways that we can spread the holiday spirit to those who need it most.  This time of year it is easy to get caught up with a busy schedule and family coming to town, but it’s important to remind ourselves of those who are less fortunate and SHARE what we can with them during the holidays.

Here at North American Power we are proud to be giving to charitable organizations that are providing hope and inspiration to those in need all year round.  Our customers and representatives have helped us to develop a socially responsible business model and we believe that our desire to “do well while doing good” will continue to afford us the opportunity to power change around the world.

Thank you and Happy Holidays!

how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

George Bernard Shaw

This holiday season is, for many, filled with uncertainty about the future. Even a casual student of history can take odd comfort in George Bernard Shaw’s thoughtful quote.

Yes, we do, as a country, and as a world, repeat our mistakes, often in much grander and far more complex ways than in the past. This is certainly not the first recession in America or the world and this is not the first time in history that there has been high unemployment.

I believe that, in fact, we can and do learn from experience. But learning does not easily pass from generation to generation. Perhaps I am less cynical than I was earlier in my life. Every day, I am delighted to see people, from all walks of life, make a difference in their lives with the help of North American Power.

To be at the helm of a company that provides real unencumbered opportunity for those who want to take the reins, provides me with real hope.

My hope for all of you is a healthy happy and prosperous new year. You can do well and do good at the same time. We’re proving it every day.

Best Wishes,

Kerry Breitbart

CEO North American Power

But, why is this a life-saving gift?

Every 45 seconds a child dies of Malaria.  This seems like a staggering statistic to many Americans considering the disease was eradicated in the United States in 1951.  How is it then that this disease is still on our radar?

Well 91% of all malaria deaths occur in Africa, with almost 2,000 deaths daily from this disease.  Imagine that.  Malaria is entirely preventable and treatable yet it is still affecting the lives of millions of individuals and families – with 85% of these deaths coming from children under the age of five.  This is a health crisis that is moving into the spotlight as organizations like Malaria No More are taking the lead and recognizing the impact that our fight against Malaria can have on the world.

Fighting Malaria is key to the future of Africa, its people, and global development as a whole.  While Malaria has passed on from modern nations who have the resources to fight this disease, the developing world has seen this epidemic put villages at the brink of collapse.  Families are getting smaller, lives are shorter, productivity declines, and the economy struggles to recover.  In fact, Malaria costs Africa nearly $12 billion annually – a statistic, that while staggering, still doesn’t put a face to the millions of men, women, and children that see malaria as an everyday bleak reality.

The good news is that we can have a stake in bringing an end to deaths caused by Malaria.  Malaria No More, an international non-profit and Mission to Millions partner, has taken a comprehensive approach – introducing a number of methods to fight malaria such as early diagnosis, treatment, vaccines, insecticide spraying, and community education.  The most basic approach of which is the distribution of insecticide treated bed nets.  This simple strategy can protect an individual from Malaria for up to five years as they can sleep safely and fully shielded from the infected mosquitoes outside.  Through the distribution of nearly 2.7 million nets, Malaria No More and its supporters have been able to cover millions of individuals to keep them safe and free of malaria.

North American Power has joined forces in Malaria No More’s commitment to end deaths caused by Malaria in Africa by 2015 because we believe that together we can have a significant impact on those in need.  It costs $10 to purchase a mosquito net to protect a child from Malaria – imagine how many nets could be purchased because of our Mission to Millions program, more importantly, imagine how many lives we could save!  We could not be more excited about our partnership and throughout the month of December you can show your support as well by “liking” us on Facebook and generating a donation to the life-saving work of Malaria No More.

Happy Holidays,

North American Power

It’s a great day over at North American Power – We’re thrilled to announce that we have been chosen as one of America’s Most Promising Companies by Forbes! Read the entire article and list HERE

This is a major accomplishment for a new and rapidly growing company such as ours and we are so proud of what we have achieved in such a short amount of time. This honor serves as proof that we continue to power change and redefine the way consumers think about ENERGY.

Here at North American Power, we pride ourselves on being a company that consistently places community at the center of our mission by helping consumers make smarter energy choices, giving back to non-profits through fundraising programs including Mission to Millions, creating sustainable income opportunities through our customer referral program and offering customers a variety of energy choices that positively impact the environment.

We’re doing our part.

How are you powering change?

About eight years ago, after selling my interest in a highly successful wholesale energy brokerage firm, I retired. For five years, I lived a life that would be the aspirational crown for many people.

Eventually I began to re-visit the news, but in an emotionally disconnected way. Over time, though, after watching a series of huge investment scandals unfold in-between billionaire sports franchise owners fighting with multi-millionaire players; all against a background of the rapid shrinking of the middle class  . . . something began to change for me.

When you’ve lived very well for a number of years, it’s embarrassingly easy to lose sight of the many who don’t get that rarified option. I remember laughing when I heard a story that President George Bush (the father) used to have the Secret Service take him to a grocery store once a year so he could check the price of milk to reconnect him with average Americans. But after the laughter, something else struck me.

I realized that, having been successful in my forties and fifties, I had forgotten a debt; one that is part of being a caring human being: a debt of responsibility to those who work, certainly as hard or harder than me: the many whose lives hadn’t been wrapped in that lucky embrace that gave them financial freedom.

Within a few days of having that very private realization, I was, coincidentally, introduced to the energy business all over again. Not the brokerage of oil derivatives that had changed my financial life; but to that industry’s successor; deregulation of energy for the American consumer.

My best friend in the previous business, Carey Turnbull, had experienced similar success. We took a hard look at consumer energy deregulation and realized that the potential was greater than any business opportunity we’d seen in our lifetimes.

That’s how North American Power came into being. But this time, something was different. My children, now in their 20s, looked at the world in a much more interconnected way that I had. They changed our approach to the business: not the approach for  success, but the way that success is utilized for a broader sense of profit; helping more than my own self-interests.

My experience in energy and self-interest led to an actual commitment for social responsibility. My partner and I began to discuss how the profit of energy deregulation could enrich more than the few at the top. We saw a way to provide a business opportunity to people who needed one; even to provide a helping hand to society through charitable opportunities we could create.

North American Power is positioned to give tens of thousands of people a new opportunity in life, without financial risk, through the magic of sweat-equity, to lift themselves by their own bootstraps; a phrase that has somehow become a forgotten part of the American character. The no-risk business opportunity was born for anyone who chose to become a referring customer.

From that, we created a culture of investing in those who became involved in the company. ‘We Invest in You’ became a mantra of sorts for our free offer of training and support that gave a referring customer all the tools to make financial freedom a reality.

Then my sons added an extra level of responsibility to our company, one that too few companies have embraced. They saw a need to give support to charities that pick up the slack in society that government often can’t, or won’t fulfill. And further, they wanted to create programs to give charitable organizations a way to become a part of the fabric of the company.

Today, what has become North American Power’s Mission to Millions embraces individuals and charitable organizations. We donate $1 per month, per customer, to a list of charitable choices for our customers to help in health, housing, food, medicine and the arts, a full 15% of company profits.

Beyond that, we’ve created a perpetual fundraising program that benefits our representatives and the charities that chose to become a part of our referral network.

Does North American Power plan to make a profit? You bet. But we hope that our approach fits that age-old saying that “a rising tide raises all ships.”

I’m not retired anymore. I am energized, happy to go to work each day feeling that, by achieving success, my efforts help others. It’s a good way to do business . . . and a worthwhile way to live.

Nicholas Confessore explores the role of new kind of philanthropist: those that use their dollars to power change in the area of policy – generating support to areas that they see with the greatest need.  While government has lacked efficiency of late when it comes to distributing funds to support various social and economic projects, these individuals have taken power into their own hands and used their wealth to leverage a new social movement.

Howard Schultz, a Starbucks executive with a net worth over $700 million, has proposed using the corporate foundation and customer support of this socially responsible company to fund a job training program in hopes of battling the unemployment rate and jump-starting small business production.  He was quoted saying: “As corporate citizens of the world, it is our responsibility – our duty – to serve the communities where we do business by helping to improve, for example, the quality of citizens’ education, employment, health care, safety, and overall daily life, plus future prospects.”

While in theory these social projects reflect a strong supplement to a stalemate in Washington, the real debate seems to be: is it enough? Confessore proposes that philanthropists may find most success funding advocacy: “When philanthropic dollars are applied to lobbying for programs, they can have an enormous leveraging effect on public dollars”.  He goes on to site a number situations where this has rung true, including the involvement of Mark Zuckerberg (the founder of Facebook) in a project to fund Newark’s struggling public schools while working in conjunction with a number of other private donors including personal funds from Mayor Bloomberg as well as additional dollars from city funds.  Through the efforts of “policy-making billionaires” in this new age of philanthropy it is possible to power change and raise awareness for causes that need it most – without having to replace inefficient government funding.

Although there is still research and experimentation that needs to be done to determine how to successfully implement philanthropic strategies such as this, it seems to be a good sign that positive social change is not out of reach.  Despite difficult times, individuals and companies are still finding unique and innovative ways to raise awareness and generate support for causes that they believe in most.

The “Policy-Making Billionaires” covered in this article are making a difference on a grand scale.

How are you powering change? We’d love to hear from you.

To take it one step further, we’ve scoured the web and came up with some web-sites featuring gifts produced by socially responsible companies; products with purpose if you will. These sites take the guesswork out of holiday gift shopping and allow us to give back at the same time.

Milkshake (http://www.getmilkshake.com/) is a free daily email and web-site based on the belief that it’s better to support products, people, initiatives, events and services that are not only innovative, unique and desired, but also do GOOD. Here are a few we love:

First World Trash (http://www.firstworldtrash.com/) is proving why one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Started by New Yorker Jenelle Marlbrough. These eco-friendly totes, messenger bags, wallets and laptop sleeves are made of old billboard vinyl and seatbelts that were tossed away.

Hats off to Krochet Kids! (http://www.krochetkids.org/) – This company was the idea of three then high school boys who started crocheting stylish hats to wear while snowboarding. During college, one of the founders spent a summer volunteering in Uganda and found his calling: provide financial independence to working women in Uganda by teaching them to crochet. A non-profit was born and today over 100 people go to their compound in Northern Uganda everyday to work and rewrite their stories for the better, all the while creating a sustainable cycle of employment and empowerment.

What a Vision! Warby Parker (http://www.warbyparker.com/) offers a line of 27 vintage inspired prescription glasses with a high-end look and a budget price under $100. The best part is that they’ve teamed up with non-profit Restoring Vision and have instituted a Buy a Pair/Give a Pair program so that each pair of glasses bought delivers a pair to someone in need.

Another great place to shop is Ethical Ocean (http://www.ethicalocean.com/) – Everything featured on this web-site is ethical (good for people, good for animals or good for the environment). Once you’re on the site, you’re asked a series of questions by a friendly little elf about the person you’re shopping for. You then receive a list of suitable gifts. It’s genius!

Here are some of gifts we love from the Ethical Ocean site:

The Bedol Water Clock  (http://www.ethicalocean.com/product/water-clock)- Accurate, environmentally-practical, and hassle-free, this clock works 100% on the power of water! No batteries, no chemicals, no electricity, no pollution. Just fill the tank with tap water, add a splash of natural lemon juice and you’re set for 6 to 8 weeks of accurate timekeeping before refreshing. When the water needs replacing, the built-in memory chip keeps track of the time while changing the water. This AMAZING product saves electricity and saves you money!

Wungan (http://www.ethicalocean.com/product/wungan)- This boomerang is great for adults and kids 9 years old and older and it’s made from bamboo, a fast-growing, renewable resource that needs no fertilizer or pesticides, uses less water and releases more oxygen than alternative materials. Products made in Canada like this Wungan are manufactured under the most stringent environmental, animal cruelty and labor laws, while reducing the shipping carbon footprint and supporting the Canadian economy.

Tsi-La Eau De Parfum Collection (http://www.ethicalocean.com/product/eau-de-parfum-collection) – Tsi-La uses select coconut oil as its moisturizing base, so these pure fragrances contain no alcohol. Botanical extracts of pink orchid help neutralize free radicals and enhance your skin’s mineral content with natural minerals. The parfums are more than 70% organic, they’re non-toxic and contain no harmful ingredients. Though they may contain animal products, they were collected in a humane manner preventing animal suffering.

We’d love to hear about any other web-sites featuring gifts that give back. Leave us a comment and let us know if there are any we should be adding to our list.

Happy searching!