I read an article recently about a Cistercian order of monks who started an online office supply business. The monks have no personal income or possessions, but are required to be self-supporting. After they noticed the mark up on ink supplies was "sinfully high" (no joke!) they started their business. But get this, they not only claim to save customers a lot of money, but donate all of their net revenue to nonprofits.

There's a certain amount of religious thinking in the American Christian world that says money is kind of tainted — that there's something kind of evil about it — and I think that's wrong. That's part of the reason why (people) say, 'Monks making money? Monks running a big business?' They think there's something wrong with that ... What I've come to realize is that (money) is a tool, however I make it, whether it's selling ink and toner, or beer, or investing in stocks. It's a commodity that can be useful for doing a lot of good for others.

Mmmm...beer.

But even more seriously, this is truly "commerce with compassion" and a business I can totally get behind.

Anyway, I mentally filed it away when I read the article, thinking I would check it out next time I needed toner.

And so the time for toner arrived. Holy moley! I just saved a significant amount, and got to choose where I wanted to invest what I spent from their list of nonprofit organizations. I was so impressed I'm posting their info here.

Laser Monks

I just hope they don't mind being pimped by an NC-17 rated blog. Sorry guys.