This week's Pep Talk: "The Plumber"

I was sitting in the audience at the Denver Business Journal's 2010 "Partners in Philanthropy" event and listening to the keynote speaker. The man, a well-recognized and respected leader in the nonprofit world, was encouraging the gathered to embrace a stronger bond between the business and non-profit worlds.

The speaker, Jeff Pryor, concluded his excellent remarks with a powerful story about a woman on Colorado's Western Slope facing difficult times: she had lost her home and child-welfare a...