Arianna Huffington’s Thrive: Book Buying as Charity

Arianna Huffington's Thrive: Influency at a Discount

Today, a new book by Arianna Huffington went on sale. I own but haven’t read a copy of Thrive, with the former more significant than the latter. Why is the purchase more important than the read? Because when I bought a copy of Thrive for eleven dollars last week, that purchase created a $26 charitable donation.

This doesn’t exactly make Arianna Huffington and me partners. I don’t feel any better about the way Huffington Post approaches journalism, and I’m sorry, Arianna, but this was ridiculous. That said, Arianna Huffington just did something incredible; for every copy of Thrive that was pre-ordered, Ms. Huffington and/or her publisher contributed $26 to DonorsChoose.org. And yes, that means that if you bought an e-book copy of Thrive, the charitable contribution you created was more than double what you spent on the book:

Arianna Huffington's Thrive Raises a lot more for charity than it sells for

E-Books are the next big frontier in media and Influency, but this magnificent gesture and donation is all Arianna; Ms. Huffington, I salute you.

And of course, it’s huge business change. Arianna Huffington just created a situation where people could induce larger charitable donations than they ever spent while receiving a “prize” in kind, all while promoting Thrive and simultaneously encouraging the saving of some trees. Brava!

There will be none of my trademark snark. Sure, I may not be able to resist pointing out a couple of less-admirable business-change-in-media situations, like Apple’s evil in ebooks and the ridiculousness that is Buzzfeed. But pure and simple, Arianna Huffington just made the kind of gesture-for-good that we see all too infrequently, even among the folks who are in the best position to make them. Thank you, Arianna.