While at a shelter in Charlotte, N.C., Trish Karter, CEO of Boston, Mass.-based Dancing Deer, sat with a homeless mother of two named Cynthia who shared a simple, yet powerful idea with her: “Everybody should help somebody every day.” That philosophy is not unlike the way Karter herself was raised. “My mother found something wonderful about everyone she met,” says Karter, which led to countless “$25 checks being written out even when we didn’t have the money.”

With Dancing Deer now in its 15th year, Karter is honoring her family tradition with the Sweet Home Project. It donates 35 percent of revenues from the Sweet Home product line to the One Family Scholars program, which provides college scholarships to homeless mothers as a pathway out of poverty. Karter says Dancing Deer’s donations average about $50,000 every year, but notes that writing a check isn’t as important as being personally involved. During the holidays, for instance, her employees go to Boston-area shelters to decorate gingerbread cookie houses with homeless families.

But this year Karter embarked on a more ambitious path, a Mother’s Day 1,500-mile bicycle ride from Atlanta to Boston with a view to raise national awareness of homelessness and One Family’s mission. Karter peddled to a different city shelter every day for 15 days straight. “What really resonated with me,” she reflects, “was that I was out on the road in what turned out to be horrific cycling conditions and I was just barely pulling it through, but I had support. And then I’d meet these families that had these tough lives and they kept going everyday without any support.”

Though the ride did not meet the company’s intended goal in terms of money raised or publicity, the people Karter met along the way “were so grateful that someone was paying attention,” she says. “I chose to do this trip as a personal athletic feat, and I’m also building a business around this concept of a double-bottom line, which made it a win-win.” But, she adds, “there is a model there that the entire private sector could follow—and, wow, if everybody did.”—Dennis Marrero