TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie was thrilled when he realized the difference a pair of shoes could make in a disadvantaged kids life, but it was the temporality of the gesture that put him on a quest to develop something more.
"I'd spent the day with these children at a non-profit in Argentina distributing the shoes and seeing the joy on these kids' faces and how thankful their families were," he recalled to HuffPost Live's Caroline Modarressy Tehrani. "I was telling a friend about the experience that night, and he said to me, 'That's great that you did that today, but how are these kids going to get their next pair of shoes?' That question kind of haunted me because I experienced this joy of giving but I didn't have, or didn't think, there was a plan to sustain it and I learned that it might not have a lasting impact."
In order to make sure he could continue the giving, he started his philanthropic shoe company, TOMS, which uses a one-to-one model in order to ensure the giving can continue. This means that for every pair of TOMS purchased, one pair is donated.
Watch the rest of the HuffPost Live segment on TOMS and philanthropic entrepreneurship below:
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