When you hear companies boast that they donate a portion of their profits to charitable causes, do you ever wonder what those causes might be? Could it be that some of those dollars are fueling some major machine of the culture of death?

Not to worry with companies that have hopped aboard a new business-service directory called Pro-Life Professionals. They give a portion of their business transactions with pro-life-minded customers to a pro-life charity of the customer’s choosing.

From its base in Colorado Springs, Colo., Pro-Life Professionals is small in scale right now. But the organization founders and directors, Corey and Shalimar Masters, are already proving the concept works to help the consumer, the business and, especially, the pro-life cause. Already they’ve gained toeholds in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, areas far from their home in the Buffalo Plains State.

Corey Masters explains the concept this way. John Q. Customer needs to have his grass cut. He checks the website — prolifeprofessionals.com — for a lawn service in his area, calls the one of his choosing, tells the owner where he saw the link and names which pro-life charity he’d like to designate for a donation by the business.

It’s that simple. And it’s effective, thanks to the number of businesses getting on board.

Father Bill Carmody, pastor of both St. Joseph Church in Fountain, Colo., and Holy Family in Security, Colo., hails Pro-Life Professionals as a simple way for an average person to ensure that some business profits go to pro-life work.

“It’s a nice way to support people who are pro-life with your business and to make sure you’re not supporting the other side,” says the priest. “You’re doing business that you’re going to do anyway, and you’re helping the pro-life cause.”

It turns into a “win-win-win situation,” explains Shalimar Masters.

First, the customer wins by coming to a good, ethical company in the directory.

“People don’t want to go into the Yellow Pages at random,” she says. “These business owners or professional workers are pro-life and agree to donate a portion of their revenues to the pro-life charity of their customers’ choice. You’re working with like-minded people and it makes for a pleasant business transaction.”

Then the business wins by gaining good customers and getting free advertising on Pro-Life Professionals’ website. “This is business they may not have received otherwise,” says Shalimar.

Finally, through this source of new donations, defenders of life score a victory. Take, for example, Maternity of Mary Homes for Mothers in Crisis, a Colorado Springs operation that cares for six mothers and two families at a time.

“We’ve experienced an increase financially as well as people going to the website, learning about us and giving donations from computers to furniture to household supplies,” says Franciscan Sister Reta Tombaugh, Maternity of Mary’s program director.

In fact, she notes, several people who started as directory “customers” went a step further and made Maternity of Mary Homes a part of their monthly or weekly tithe.

“Aquinas and More Catholic Goods (a national website business also based in Colorado Springs) put us on their list, and we receive a specific tithe from their business,” points out Sister Tombaugh. Another local is The Guardian Angel Store.

Dollars Flow

The Pro-Life Professionals idea grew out of the Masters’ real-estate and mortgage company, Pro-life Real Estate. Their original goal was to earmark pro-life donations for pro-life advertising around town.

“People in other industries said, ‘That’s great, but I don’t need a realtor right now. Why limit to real estate?’ That is where Pro-Life Professionals was born,” explains Shalimar. “It evolved into a not-for-profit business and service directory.” It’s funded by the Masters’ real-estate business.

Corey and Shalimar carefully screen the businesses signing on. Businesses get free advertising simply because the Masterses don’t want to exclude anyone who can’t afford a fee to join.

“We do have them sign our mission statement, which says they are pro-life and they agree that life begins at conception and goes to natural death — and we have this right to life because of our Creator,” says Shalimar. “They have to believe in the sanctity of life.”

It’s a requirement because she has discovered that with business people in some places, “stating they’re Christian or Catholic does not necessarily mean we’re on the same page. The pro-life issue is where the line is drawn.”

The Masterses also found that a lot of business people might be personally pro-life, but they don’t want to attach their names to the cause because they don’t want to alienate any customers.

“Corey and I are passionate about this,” says Shalimar. “We believe as business people ourselves that it’s not about being exclusive, but we do need to start letting people know where we stand. We’re not afraid to say, ‘Yes, we are Pro-Life Professionals. If you’re not pro-life, we’re still going to do your mortgage.’”

‘It Adds Up’

Colorado Springs businessman Zeno Nolet thinks the same. He and wife Conchita run St. Mary’s Inn in town. Plus he’s a real-estate broker and a travel agent.

 He isn’t afraid to say grace if he goes out to a meal with a customer; nor does he refrain from telling them he’d like to donate a portion of the customer’s business to a pro-life enterprise.

“I’ve done that and have lost business,” Nolet says. “But that’s okay. I’d rather promote life.”

In his case, the pro-life donations can add up. He might offer anything from 1% of a given transaction to 10% of his broker fee — a generous gift if the fee is in the thousands of dollars.

“If they’re selling a house and buying another, that could be two transactions,” says Nolet. “It adds up.”

Shalimar says she and her husband would like to see Pro-Life Professionals become pro-lifers’ own “yellow pages” — their main directory to find goods and services.

Which brings her back to that win-win-win equation again.

“Most of us don’t have time to spend working at a crisis pregnancy center,” she says. “This is a great opportunity to do your business, do it well, and build a culture of life at the same time.”

Staff writer Joseph Pronechen

writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.