Companies For Good

Cause Marketing in a Global Context: Hilton Worldwide & Room to Read

Kate_NFG — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Our friends at YourCause create weekly insightful profiles of cause marketing campaigns. Here’s their latest edition, which originally appeared on the YourCause blog. YourCause is a provider of global employee engagement solutions. You can learn more about YourCause’s CSRConnect platform and get additional CSRinsights here.

Company: Hilton Worldwide
Cause: Education
NPO Partners: Room to Read
Website: www.roomtoread.org/maymatch

Program of Action

Hilton Worldwide is participating in Room to Read’s Annual Spring Fundraising campaign by supporting the Girl’s Education program and matching all donations, up to $150,000, through May 31st. Each donation amount has an assigned gift that will be donated to a young girl. For example, a $50 donation will provide a young girl with a bicycle to get to school or $100 will give her the opportunity to attend an academic support camp.

Hilton Worldwide began their partnership with Room to Read this past January in India and pledged to establish thirty new school libraries over the next three years. In addition, Hilton Worldwide aims to gain participation from more than 75 girls in the Girl’s Education Program and publish six local-language children books that will be distributed to the network of libraries and NGO partners in India. Not to mention, Hilton Worldwide is expanding their partnership to support the Girl’s Education Program in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

Best Practices

Hilton Worldwide stays committed to supporting partners, employees, and consumers internationally by participating with organizations in multiple countries where they do business. The expansion of partnerships provides participating individuals the opportunity to contribute and help make a difference in their local communities. Additionally, Hilton Worldwide forms partnerships that are consistent with their responsible business practices and cause focus. The partnership aligns perfectly with Room to Read program mission and Hilton Worldwide’s purpose of creating opportunities for individuals to reach their full potential.

Along with supporting international causes, Hilton Worldwide targets an audience of women that may feel emotionally connected to the program’s efforts. The program focuses on young girls that women, teens, or children feel linked to based on shared experiences. According to research, women give to charity at a higher rate than men and demonstrate an increased level of cause-awareness in their high levels of philanthropic giving.

Incentives are provided to individuals in that Hilton Worldwide matches all donations contributed to the Girl’s Education Program. This approach not only motivates consumers but also Hilton Worldwide employees to donate any dollar amount and know their gift is providing double the impact. A 2010 Cone Cause Evolution Study reported that 81% of employees want to get involved in their company’s cause-related efforts through matching gifts. This is a great incentive to get everyone involved.

Program Outcome

Hilton Worldwide and Room to Read began their partnership this past January and have committed to supporting the Girl’s Education Program in multiple countries over the next three years. We encourage you to watch, share, and support the program and dedicate your gift to young women across Africa and Asia. Visit Room to Read website and contribute your gift today, the program ends May 31st.

What are Millennials Really Like? This BCG Research Provides a Good Glimpse.

Kate_NFG — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Full disclosure, I used to work for The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in their Innovation, Marketing and Communications group, and am pleased to share their insights on social impact, employee engagement and consumer marketing on this blog. You can read about new BCG insights on employee volunteering from a post earlier this week. The following is a guest post from Network for Good's CSO & COO, Katya Andresen and is adapted from an article that originally appeared on Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog.

The Boston Consulting Group has some interesting new research on millennials, including who they are, what they want and how to talk to them.

The highlights? Among the most interesting findings is that millennials - who were taught to recycle in kindergarten - are more likely to take certain socially conscious actions during their daily life. They are apt to buy products that support their principles and more likely than other generations to spread the word about a cause campaign or participate in fundraising events. They are highly social creatures online (and off) are more likely than others to speak up online, whether it’s to rate a product or upload content. Millennials expect companies to care about social issues and reward those who partner with the right causes, says the report.

On the other hand, their affinity for causes doesn’t necessarily translate into higher levels of volunteerism. Millennials are slightly less likely to volunteer their time than non-millennials (31 to 26 percent). But that’s still one in four who will give their time. Don’t write them off! They certainly view themselves as more active than others think they are:

The report notes another important universal quality of millennials: they are distrustful of corporate messengers and more inclined to believe their friends and peers. Of course, not all millennials are created the same. The report profiles several typical “types.”

The bottom line? Make it easy for this generation to spread the word about your cause marketing initiatives and reach them through messengers they trust - their peers. And as the report says, millennial attitudes are early indicators of more widespread future trends. These folks will someday be your brand loyalists - or not - depending on how well you understand them and how well you engage.

Creating Value with a Portfolio Approach to Employee Volunteer Programs

Kate_NFG — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Full disclosure, I used to work for The Boston Consulting Group in their Innovation, Marketing and Communications group.

“The key is to create a varied, equal-opportunity program that appeals to the diverse skills, interests, and availability of all employees at all levels of the organization.” – Brenda Thickett, BCG

Recently, the Boston Consulting Group released the publication “Designing Corporate Volunteer Programs to Create Value” to advise companies on how to build more value – for the company, employees, nonprofits and the community – out of employee engagement initiatives. The report identifies four factors to consider when designing a meaningful volunteer program.

Set a clear mission and goals

In order to be sustainable and relevant to a broad base of employees, a volunteer program must work to achieve established objectives, whether they are goals of participation, social impact results, how resources are implemented, or all of the above. Weaving success metrics and tracking into the program design, ensures that you can optimize it for the long-term and evaluate what’s working and what can be improved.

Choose the right nonprofit partners

This step may be done in concert with the goal setting step above, especially if your company envisions building a long-term deeper partnership with one or a few nonprofits. Nonprofits are not always set up operationally to track results in the way companies are used to doing, so it may be helpful to work with nonprofit partners to figure out what can be tracked and how results can be communicated among partners. Regardless of whether you involve nonprofit partners in the goal setting process, it is paramount to select the right nonprofit partners. Factors to consider include: mission/brand alignment, mutual understanding of expectations and resource allocation, match of employee skill set with nonprofit needs, willingness to invest in the partnership.

Support the program with dedicated staff

Dedicated staff oversight helps ensure that the program is nurtured and evolved over time and that the participating volunteers’ time is used effectively. Active management of the program also demonstrates that the company values the program and is investing resources to assure its success. Knowledge management, capturing best practice and deeper relationship building with partner nonprofits are often overlooked benefits of having a dedicated staff managing volunteer programs.

Develop a portfolio of volunteer opportunities

A portfolio approach is a key differentiator between an employee volunteer program that just checks the box that a company has a program and a truly dynamic program that speaks to the interests, skills and capacity of a diverse workforce. BCG cites IBM’s On Demand Community and Microsoft’s Volunteer Manager website as rich examples of how to take a portfolio approach to volunteer engagement.

At BCG, a volunteer opportunity portfolio includes a mix of:

One-time activities (low time commitment, often seasonal like food drives)
Volunteering Days (organized group activities in the community)
Ongoing, Monthly Activities (longer-term time commitment for mentoring, project work and more skills-based activities)
Secondment or Temporary Transfer (loaning staff to nonprofit partners for a period of time with reduced salary)
Vacation of leave of absence (spend vacation time or longer leave working with a nonprofit)

To this list I would add:

Micro-volunteering (spending 15 minutes at a time performing digital tasks to support nonprofit needs)
Pro bono/skills-based service (taking on nonprofit projects alongside paid client work that require the same skills set)

What mix of volunteer opportunities does your company promote?

CSR or Social Change? Both!

Kate_NFG — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:53:34 GMT

In a recent Forbes The CSR Blog post, Paul Klein, founder of Impakt (@PaulatImpakt), discusses why genuine social change is a better goal than corporate responsibility (CSR). He cites three reasons with three examples. I understand Klein’s point of view, and agree with him in spirit, but tend to be more optimistic about the state and potential of CSR to drive social change. Yes, the term 'CSR' gets thrown around a lot by companies these days and very few of them are taking an authentic and genuine approach to weave responsibility into the core of their businesses. But when done right, the impact – both business and social – is compelling. We need to celebrate the companies that are truly doing ‘well’ by doing ‘good’ and continue to prod (hopefully via carrot, but not discounting the stick) the laggards to get on board.

CSR programs that are based on the 'DNA' of a corporation don’t work.

Klein argues that most companies have aligned their CSR initiatives to core business goals of sales and profitability. An example is Walmart’s approach to sustainability to reduce both the costs and environmental impact of the products it sources and sells. An example of an approach more aligned to pure social change is McDonald’s support of Ronald McDonald House Charities to help families of sick children.

In my opinion, CSR is not a zero sum game and companies don’t need to choose one approach over the other. At the end of the day, companies exist to create value for stakeholders. The old guard would define ‘value’ as economic value for shareholders. Economic value is still a fundamental goal of business. However, we are learning much more about the potential for CSR initiatives to enhance economic value, while simultaneously creating social value for customers, employees, nonprofit partners and communities. We need much more management science and research in this area to better understand how greening your supply chain, improving employee loyalty through cause initiatives and boosting sales via cause marketing affect valuation. But at the end of the day, CSR initiatives tied to business results are more sustainable and less likely to be cut during hard economic times. I hope that companies also see the value in pure social change projects, too, but even those can have long-term business benefits. Just look at Intel’s education programs. One could argue that investing in education and learning around the world is pure social change. The flip side is that Intel is cultivating the next generation of technically literate people who will need Intel products. Investment in education is a ‘good’ thing to do as a corporate citizen, but also a ‘good’ thing to do to build a business for the long haul.

Employees aren’t actually engaged.

Klein argues that most employees are only responsible for business results and therefore don’t participate in social purpose programs because they distract from performance objectives. The few employees that are genuinely interested, should have rich opportunities to engage in community programs like 3M’s Healthy Communities initiative.

In response to this argument, I return to the premise that CSR is not related to employee performance. Companies that truly value CSR and weave it into the core of business, inherently tie CSR objectives to performance objectives. That is how you achieve true employee engagement. Optional programs for volunteering and giving are wonderful opportunities to reach passionate individuals, but that is not where engagement begins and ends. Employee engagement begins by creating a culture and value system that reinforces CSR and then helping each employee understand how their role and work product relate to the higher social purpose of those CSR values. For example, companies like IBM, and its Corporate Service Corps, provide an example of how pro bono service can be used for cutting-edge career training, especially in building a workforce that understands business in a global context.

Cause marketing has become ubiquitous and high risk.

Klein argues that while cause marketing can be a good thing, many campaigns are disingenuous and opportunistic. He cites Starbucks’ Thriving Neighborhoods program as an example of a healthy campaign that is committed to long-term social change.

I don’t disagree with Klein’s take. Cause marketing has gone mainstream and in with the tide comes a lot of garbage. But that is not to say that when done right, cause marketing campaigns can’t serve both marketing and social impact goals. A great example of a campaign that hits the right mark of promoting a cool product, greening a production process and helping a worthy nonprofit is Levi’s with its Water<Less brand. Not only did Levi’s dramatically reduce the amount of water used in producing the jeans, the company also promoted that environmental stewardship with a cause marketing campaign aligned with Water.org to promote water conservation and sanitation projects globally. You can read my full take on the campaign here.

5 Ways to Spark Social Contagion for Social Good

Kate_NFG — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:17:07 GMT

The following is a guest post from Network for Good's CSO & COO, Katya Andresen. The article also appeared on Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog.

PopTech has a nifty new edition on the science of unleashing social good in networks, and Fast Company has a great overview of James Fowler’s specific ideas for spreading the word. Here are the ideas I think are most important to us, with my thoughts on how to apply them to our work.

1. Remember generosity is contagious. Studies show witnessing acts of kindness or giving inspires others to do the same. Use social proof to your advantage by highlighting people taking action for your cause. That includes the amount of donation they give - if it’s one that will inspire more generosity.

2. Think of the network as a matching grant. The effect described above actually continues through up to three layers of networks (from person to person to person to person). Be sure you are giving your supporters ways to publicize their acts of support through social media so you get the benefit of all of those ripple effects.

3. Know that messages get amplified as they spread. Says Fowler, “The indirect effect of a message on a person’s friends is about three times larger than the direct effect on the person who received the message in the first place. The more you can get people to deliver the message naturally, the greater this multiplier effect will be.” Make it very easy for people to forward your emails, share information on social media and otherwise spread the word.

4. If you’re in the business of behavior change, focus on your target audience’s innermost circle. Says Fowler, “When we studied behaviors like obesity, smoking, and drinking, we found that spouses, siblings, and friends had an effect on each other’s behavior, but next door neighbors did not.”

5. Keep in mind that “connected” doesn’t necessarily mean connections. People with more friends and friends of friends aren’t necessarily the best champions. Says Fowler, look for people “1) interested in spreading social good, 2) influential, and can persuade others, and 3) influence-able by their friends (they are persuadable). Without these other characteristics, even the most connected person won’t be of any help.”

Unilever Aims to be Synonymous with Leading-Edge Sustainability

Kate_NFG — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:24:44 GMT

In the world of sustainable products, marketing messages can be misleading and many consumers are confused about how to make ‘good’ choices when they shop for groceries, clothing, personal care items and the like. From ‘natural’ to ‘organic’ to ‘humane’ to ‘Rain Forrest Alliance Certified’ to Greenpeace’s “International Seafood Red List’ to whatever the latest certification is, consumers face challenges in understanding how their purchases affect the greater good.

Enter Unilever, which hopes to clear through that clutter and offer a one-stop-shop option. Unilever plans to become THE company that stands for leading-edge sustainability.

Unilever has undertaken a 10-year Sustainable Living Plan, launched in 2011, to embed sustainability into the company and its brand messages. The latest effort within the program is a corporate advertising campaign to communicate the company’s sustainability efforts and the impact its brands are having on solving social and environmental problems.

As Unilever chief marketing officer Keith Weed told Marketing Week, “I don’t want people to have to worry about whether this product has a better sustainability profile than another, I want people to know that Unilever is leading edge in this area and if you see the Unilever ‘U’ logo on an ad or on a product, that gives you the reassurance that we’ve done our homework.”

I applaud Unilever for taking this approach and hope other consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies take a cue to think about how their product footprint can be improved. That said, I do think it will be a challenge to make a connection between Unilever as a parent company and the brands that consumers know on market shelves. While the Unilever logo may eventually become a shorthand for smart, sustainable shopping, that result can only happen through tremendous consumer education and encouragement to read the back of the packaging – and that means swimming against the tide of irrational consumer behavior.

Ratings systems and certifications can be very powerful, but their effectiveness becomes diluted when they compete to set the same quality standard. Perhaps Unilver would better serve consumers by working with other CPG companies, or distribution partners like Walmart, to set a sustainability certification system that can be applied across the sector. Or even better, collaborate with an existing certification system and put the weight of a Fortune 500 company behind it to build adoption and momentum.

Starbucks 'Vote.Give.Grow' Campaign = Smart Approach to Crowdsourced Philanthropy

Kate_NFG — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT

The latest company to adopt a crowdsourced cause contest is Starbucks with the ‘Vote.Give.Grow’ program. Starbucks joins other such contest fans Target’s Bullseye Gives, Chase Community Giving, Lady Gaga, Tom’s of Main ’50 States for Good’, Pepsi Refresh and others, which involve consumers in helping to allocate philanthropic dollars.

Here’s how it works:

The Starbucks Foundation is giving away $4 million to help communities thrive. Anyone with a registered Starbucks reward card can vote to decide where the money should be spent. Individuals can vote one time per week in April and can choose from among organizations in their local communities. Ultimately, 124 local nonprofits will benefit and the size of the grants will be determined by the voting results.

Why the campaign is smart:

It rewards loyal customers (which supports the bottom line) by limiting participation to registered cardholders
It promotes pre-selected nonprofits ‘already doing great work to help solve the unique needs of their communities’
It provides grants to all participant nonprofits so they don’t spend limited resources and valuable social capital to compete in a contest with unknown rewards
It makes the contest relevant to local communities by regionalizing the voting options
It leverages technology (online, mobile), but reinforces a real world, in-store experience
It promotes social proof by encouraging people to wear there ‘I Voted’ stickers as a badge of honor

Open your CSR Kimono: Advice from Susan McPherson of Fenton

Kate_NFG — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:41:30 GMT

The Georgetown University Center for Social Impact Communication features an insightful interview with Fenton’s Senior Vice President and Director of Global Marketing, Susan McPherson. It's part of the Social Strategist Project and I encourage you to check out the series and access the full blog post and podcast here.

Here are a few of Susan’s thoughts on the future of corporate responsibility excerpted from the CSIC post:

Open the kimono! “What we’re seeing now is companies realizing that by doing ‘good business’ they’re actually doing good business.” Open the kimono and use transparent communication to achieve both social and financial goals.
Turn the equation around. “Instead of asking how we can get funding as a nonprofit, ask: how can we tell the corporation what we can do for them?
Think about upcoming hot topics. Conflict minerals. Human trafficking. Those are two issues whose time has come, according to Susan. Susan recommends paying attention to what topics are particularly active in the public debate because they are natural areas for companies to join the conversation.
Don’t forget employee engagement. “It’s time to find out from your employees who they want to get behind and have a contest to determine which cause makes the most sense…have your employees build that program.”

The Best 5 Pieces of Marketing Advice These Experts Ever Got

Kate_NFG — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:20:00 GMT

The following is a guest post from Network for Good's Chief Strategy Officer, Katya Andresen. The article also appeared on Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog.

Silverpop has a free electronic essay, “The Best Marketing Advice I Ever Received, and the Best I Ever Gave: 5 Experts Share Their Wisdom.” I like the counsel, so I’m passing it on.

1. Consider Your Audience First, Then Manage Your Brand’s Place Within. This is from Scott Monty, global digital & multimedia communications manager for Ford Motor Company. As you’d expect, I’m a big fan of this advice. Says Monty: “If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings and speak my words… Even though tools and technology and the medium may change very quickly, fundamentally, human nature stays the same.”

2. Do Your Own Thing, Then Do It Simply and Really Well. That concept comes from Andrew Kordek, co-founder and chief strategist for Trendline Interactive. He warns against “digital ADD,” saying, “When you think you have to do everything everyone else is doing, you complicate things, rush things and don’t do them correctly or with any thought process behind it.” Good advice.

3. The Zany Bird Gets the Worm, but It Must Work Hard to Earn its Audience. This is the advice of Peter Shankman, marketing consultant, author and founder of Help A Reporter Out. He says not to worry about what people might think when you have a crazy idea. “If they don’t like it, they’ll say so and you’ll start over, but more times than not, they’ll be intrigued and willing to run with it, and it will work.” But, that said, don’t forget restraint and even decorum. “Having an audience is a privilege and not a right. It’s like wearing Spandex,” he says.

4. Get to It Already, but Put the Brakes on the Hard Sell, says M.H. (Mac) McIntosh, founding partner at Acquire B2B and CEO of marketing and consulting firm Mac McIntosh Inc. Get to the point in your outreach with the what, who and why. At the same time, stop selling and instead, help your customers buy. Or in our world, help donors give.

5. When It Comes to Your Site, It’s About Usability, Usability, Usability. That’s from Bert DuMars, vice president of digital marketing and e-commerce at Newell Rubbermaid. “Pretty is as pretty does” he notes. It doesn’t matter how attractive, slick or sophisticated a site is if it isn’t user-friendly and functional. Amen to that. I’ve seen fantastic nonprofit websites that aren’t slick but are wholly effective.

What’s the best piece of marketing advice you ever got?

Great Debate - The Future of CSR: Is it for Good or for Profit?

Kate_NFG — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:39:46 GMT

At the US Chamber Business Civic Leadership Center conference in Atlanta last week, Aman Singh of CSRWire and Emilio Sanchez of VOXXI moderated a debate on the future of CSR. Overall, the panelists were optimistic about corporate responsibility trends, but agreed that the practice needs more rigor to become a core business function and not the first budget to get cut in hard times. Here are some pearls of wisdom from selected panelists.

Margaret Coady, Director, CECP

Coady is encouraged that companies understand the importance of CSR and are not limiting their thinking about how they can have an impact. She sees a shift from asking ‘what’ to do to a focus on implementation and creative thinking about social problem solving. How can my company solve a social problem using core business resources?

Michael Jacobson, Corporate Responsibility Director, Intel

Corporations need practices and policies to allow them to be and do good, but that's not enough. They need to align those practices and policies with core strategy and integrate them into the fabric of the company to unleash full capabilities. Companies are not in a position to solve social problems and truly invest in CSR if they haven’t covered the basics internally. Answering internal questions of ethical business, environmental stewardship etc... helps you build tools and skills to go after larger problems. And where does philanthropy fit in? Philanthropy shouldn't be a cost center - it should create value.

Richard Crespin, Executive Director, CROA

The state of CSR is unsustainable because there is a lack of management science and data analysis. CSR is at a disadvantage against other business functions when tradeoffs have to be made. CSR has to become inextricably linked to those core business functions and managed against goals and metrics like any other function.

Chris Pinney, Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute

Corporate citizenship used to be about what you gave, now it's about what you do. But we need human capital to take CSR to the next level. That includes creating a pipeline of CSR-minded professionals. We need incentives for business schools to embed CSR management science into the curriculum.

Reflections on Corporate Responsibility from BCLC 2012

Kate_NFG — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:27:08 GMT

This week, I’ve been attending the US Chamber of Commerce’s Business Civic Leadership Center conference in Atlanta, GA. Below are a few gems and insights from selected panelists to inspire your thinking on corporate responsibility. You can follow the conversation on twitter under the hashtags #BCLCinUS or #BCLConCSR.

Jean Case, CEO of the Case Foundation

There is a terrific opportunity for cross-sector collaboration, but you need more than a big idea. You need to articulate roles and outline how to grow to scale. Now is the time to be fearless and intentional in pursuing social change.

Michelle Nunn, CEO of the Points of Light Institute

We’ve never had more educated, skilled, super-empowered citizens to create viral and scaled change. There is tremendous opportunity to catalyze social good, but we still face challenges: constrained resources, confusion across sectors to understand roles in collaboration/cooperation. The private sector can play on organizing role in bringing the right resources together.

Mark Mohler, CEO of Sprigster

Start business planning by asking what is broken? What social compromises have we been blindly accepting that we have the power to affect? And then build your business around solving that challenge. Start with the problem and then create the right business model to fix it.

Grady Lee, COO of RockCorps

Brand conversations are happening with consumers, but also with employees. Employee engagement is an asset that can be leveraged internally and externally to drive business goals and create social impact.

Carol Cone, Global Practice Chair of Edelman Business + Social Purpose

Today's trust is built by operational excellence, but tomorrow’s trust is earned on social purpose. Social purpose is a long-term commitment, but it starts with culture (being more human). Start with a socially innovative product, make a commitment to it, publically support it, motivate employees, and then communicate efforts and results. Most companies fall down on the communications piece, but it is vital to share the commitment to social purpose with consumers and employees. The future of purpose is a radically transparent global world of 24/7 communications where the citizen consumer is in control.

Walmart's 'Fighting Hunger Together' is Model for Cause Alliance

Kate_NFG — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:21:46 GMT

Company:Walmart
Cause: Hunger
NPO Partners: Feeding America food banks & Action for Healthy Kids
Website: www.facebook.com/Walmart

Program of Action

Walmart and four of the nation’s top food brands, ConAgra, General Mills, Kraft and Kellogg’s, team up to launch the hunger relief campaign, Fighting Hunger Together. Along with nonprofits, Feeding America and Action for Healthy Kids, the campaign brings 42 million meals to Americans in need this spring. Customers who visit Walmart stores and purchase participating products from the suppliers listed above generate meals for families struggling with hunger. On-package labels advise customers to enter product codes online, share a hashtag on Twitter or scan a QR code.

In addition, customers can visit Walmart’s Facebook page to vote for one of the 200 communities affected with unemployment. The community with the most votes will receive $1 million with the remaining 20 runner-up communities receiving $50,000 each towards hunger relief. Customers can vote for as many of the 200 communities once every 24 hours.

Best Practices

Walmart arranged a giant effort to bring corporate alliances together and raise funds around a single cause through their suppliers and celebrities. This approach amplifies the campaign by receiving more press and engagement from customers and fans. In addition, all partnerships participating in Fighting Hunger Together align with the cause and mission of helping hunger relief in America.

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation show their commitment in making an impact by making a historic pledge to provide $2 billion by 2015 to food banks and hunger relief organizations. The pledge allows Walmart to gain customer loyalty as well as include associates to participate and help support one of Walmart Foundations community initiatives.

Fighting Hunger Together Facebook app provides transparency of all information customers and visitors like to know. The app offers a calendar tracker, community leaderboard, facts, campaign instructions, and much more to engage fans to vote. In addition, the app provides easy access to share activity and extend the campaign with others. According to research, 7 billion pieces of content are shared weekly on Facebook.

On the other hand, the amount of activity and moving pieces in the campaign can make it hard to follow. Better clarifications on how participating brands are helping and where QR and product codes are entered can be clearer to customers and visitors on the Facebook app.

Program Outcome

Fighting Hunger Together ends on April 30, giving customers a month to vote and purchase participating products at Walmart stores. In 2011, Walmart provided nearly 197 million meals to communities across the United States. Let’s help give 42 million more meals to Americans in need and $2 million to communities struggling with hunger this spring. We encourage customers to visit your nearby Walmart stores and purchase participating products and don’t forget to vote online for your community at Walmart’s Facebook page.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Kate_NFG — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:04:45 GMT

The following is a guest post from Network for Good's Chief Strategy Officer, Katya Andresen. The article also appeared on Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog.

Walter Isaacson, who wrote the Steve Jobs biography, has a fascinating piece in the Harvard Business Review called “The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs.” He notes many people have tried to draw management lessons from Jobs and his personality, but that the real lessons are to be drawn from what Jobs accomplished.

He points to a variety of factors, which I’ve listed below. My favorite for folks like us was something Jobs said he once read in the Whole Earth Catalog: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

According to Isaacson, Jobs was the product of both the Bay Area hippie counterculture and the high-tech/hacker culture of Silicon Valley. He notes, “Jobs stayed hungry and foolish throughout his career by making sure that the business and engineering aspect of his personality was always complemented by a hippie nonconformist side.” Isaacson cited the Apple advertising copy for the Think Different campaign, which Jobs wrote, as an apt description of the man himself: “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that do.”

We have to be people who make things happen - like engineers - and at the same time, people who think big and think different. His legacy is to remind us that good causes require both qualities - and maybe a bit of bent reality (see below). It’s the only way to create what Jobs would probably call a dent in the universe.

Here are the other factors for your reflection. Read the whole article for the details - it is well worth your time.

*Jobs’ focus
*His driving commitment to simplify
*His end-to-end responsibility of the entire Apple ecosystem
*His leapfrog approach to innovation
*Putting products before profits
*Designing for what he intuitively felt people wanted rather than what they might state in focus groups
*Bending reality - insisting the impossible was possible
*Imputing: caring about packaging and presentation as much as the product
*Pushing for perfection
*Tolerating only “A” players
*Engaging face to face
*Knowing both the big picture and details
*Combining the humanities and the sciences

Purposeful Brands for Social Good

Kate_NFG — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT

The following is a guest post by Jocelyne Daw, a leading expert, author and consultant on building powerful business-community partnerships and on the integration of branding, corporate citizenship and social purpose. She is author of Cause Marketing for Nonprofits: Partner for Purpose, Passion and Profits (Wiley, 2006) and co-author of Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding: Seven Principles to Power Extraordinary Results (Wiley, 2010). This post is a companion to a previous article on this blog - Why Every Community Investment Program Needs a Brand

What do you stand for? Leading companies are thinking more holistically about their approach to community work to meet the growing expectations of key stakeholders. There is an urgent need for action on a myriad of issues from education, health and wellness, economic development and more – that affect us all. It is going to require the combined resources, ingenuity and sweat equity of business, government, nonprofits and citizens.

The critical issues of our time are far too complex and significant for any single entity to address alone. Through collaborative engagement solutions and opportunities will not be far behind.

So what does this mean for your company’s community investment program? It means leading with purpose. Companies are looking at their community investment as a way to create value and truly improve social conditions that make a fundamental difference in the community. They’re moving away from “sprinkling pixie dust” to a variety of good causes, to really standing for something. They are infusing a social purpose into their community investment strategy. This creates mutual value and earns respect, trust, and loyalty – both inside and outside of the company.

According to the 2010 Edelman’s Good Purpose survey, “purpose allows brands to have a deeper level of engagement with their consumer — and it also allows consumers to put their own mark on brand marketing by collaborating with brands to tackle important social issues.”

Every brand’s purpose is unique, but it always boils down to what connects the brand and its consumer and key stakeholders – inside and outside of the company. So where do begin? How do you build a social purpose brand strategy that resonates with your stakeholders – that becomes a shared purpose?

A strong strategy is built from the inside out. It starts with deep introspection and understanding of who you are as a company, what you stand for and where your strengths and leadership position could drive impact and value. How do you deliver the ideas, experiences and opportunities to address the social issues that matter most to a company and its core constituents?

Authentic: Social purpose brands must be authentic and true to the core values of the company’s brand. Companies are looking beyond traditional corporate community investment programs in which they simply donate money to a good cause. The Edelman study notes, 66 percent of people believe that it’s no longer enough for corporations to merely give money away, but that they must integrate good causes into their day‐to‐day

business.

Focused: In traditional CI money is handed out to many organizations based on a company’s pillars. In many cases the pillars are not clearly defined with a specific focus and clear outcomes. As such almost any application can fit, leading to an array of disjointed program support that rarely deliver the kind of impact expected today. Leading CI programs have clearly defined values reflecting who they are and what they stand for. They focus each pillars around a higher social purpose and specific outcomes they seek. It puts its efforts on critical community issues where the company can make the maximum impact. It finds the right organizations, acts as a partner to leverage internal resources and brings like organizations together to advance even higher impact and increase credibility and capacity. Stand out CI programs have a sense of purpose that drives

passion and empowers it to activate mutually positive social change for people, companies and communities.

Aligned: In traditional approaches, the CI team is singularly responsible for the program. While they are critical in shaping it, all‐out efforts have to be made to ensure the program aligns with the company’s brand and business strategy. The best outcomes are delivered by aligning with a company’s core competencies and business strengths. This ensures cohesion and operational effectiveness from plant to the board. Leading CI programs make a concerted effort to break down internal silos and bring the organization together around shared needs, values and commitments.

Engaged: Success is built from the inside‐out. Employees must be truly engaged and feel that they are part of making a difference in the community. Rather than the traditional programs that give employees disparate volunteer opportunities that are disconnected to their everyday work, a stand out social purpose brand spends as much time engaging internal communities around what they stand for. It creates pride and a sense of ownership. As well, employee engagement brings skills to partnerships and makes them both more cost effective and mutually beneficial.

Differentiator: In this increasingly crowded marketplace, a social purpose (done well and with true commitment) can distinguish a company and their products and help them stand out in the marketplace as a preferred corporate citizen and in the workplace as a good place

to work. Today, employee attraction, retention and morale are strengthened by meaningful CSR.

Measurable: It’s not good enough anymore to give out money and hope that it makes a difference. Using measurement after‐the‐fact as an accountability or compliance tool will never deliver breakthrough results. The most successful initiatives build measurement at the front‐end. They use measurement as a way to drive strategy, and continuously monitor results along the way. ‐ More on how to incorporate measurement in an upcoming blog post.

Taking a meaningful stand creates a bond and inspires passion. Purpose and passion drive results. Companies need to find and express the social purpose behind their brand that today’s socially conscious employees, stakeholders and citizens are looking for. They need to use it as an opportunity to develop inspiring community investment strategies that create positive social change and meaningful connections for people inside and outside the organization.

Gone are the days where profit and purpose were mutually exclusive. Today leading companies are defining and delivering on their social purpose. I believe a social “purpose” must now be engrained into the core of a company’s brand, strategy and culture if they are to strengthen trust and loyalty, fulfill their business goals and achieve sustainable profitability.

The next generation of CSR and community investment is moving from an innovative new concept towards the potential for positive social change. When your brand leads with a clear social purpose and positive social change you foster positive conversations, deeper connections, more sustainable revenue and greater impact.

How will you create value? What will your social purpose be?

Outside-In CSR: Start with Consumer Wants

Kate_NFG — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT

The following is a guest post from Network for Good's Chief Strategy Officer, Katya Andresen. The article also appeared on Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog.

If you are promoting a cause (or even a product), it needs to resonate with what people already seek. Remember: Don't tell someone to value your cause. Show how it relates to their values.

I just finished reviewing a very interesting study, Brands: The New Social Reformers, which provides some useful insights into those values. The research by Onesixtyfourth focused on early technology adopters and news-engaged Millennials and Baby Boomers in the US and UK. A good summary of the prevailing sentiment is this quote: “My hope is that society will become more family oriented than government oriented." People are in a mood to belong to a group and help others - but not if it means compromising individual needs.

Here are key wants the study identified:

• Security: food, shelter, keep my house, increase my savings, bolster my retirement plan, a corporate job, being part of a movement but not a sole anarchist

• Control: frugality, effective money management, black and white answers that come from scientific pursuits, own business/entrepreneurship, self reliance (especially younger Millennials)

• Consistency: stable employment, stay at college, complete college

• Proving self-worth: value through charity work, striving to get promoted, finding a way to leave a legacy (baby Boomers), training/learning something new rather than leisure time, constant resume buffering (especially Millennials), aggressive pursuit of success (older Millennial males in the US)

• Honoring my needs first: protecting my health, making healthier friendship and relationship choices, spending more time with people who have my genuine interests at heart, valuing private information more (Millennials)

• Respect for others (but only if they show respect for me first): rejection of greed and self serving society as demonstrated by governments and corporations, helping others through volunteer pursuits

• Liberty: personal independence, time for me (Baby Boomers), take control of my investments (Baby Boomers), not oppressed/restricted by others schedules or technology

• Progress: pursuit of scientific invention and learning, further education, choice of foundations, supportive of organizations who take society forward in some way

In this environment, says the report, consumers are looking for leadership and brands that have the following attributes: visionary, courageous, sincere, empathic, transparent, efficient and practical. One way corporate brands have sought to create that image is through CSR (corporate social responsibility) programs, but those can be viewed with skepticism unless the programs are believed to be very genuine and personally relevant. Most leaders - whether from governments, companies and nonprofits - are seen as falling short. So people are filling the leadership gap through connecting with others with similar interests and concerns.

The report recommends, "For corporate citizenship to be meaningful it can’t be removed from people’s day-to-day lives... progressive corporate citizenship begins with helping me, the individual consumer, making my life easier, more simple, helping me to make better choices and manage my day to day life more effectively. It then spans out to be about the collective, the community, the country, the world... includes simple things like employing people in my community, being respectful of employees, and saving resources. Innovative research and development efforts around packaging, plastics and fuel, aiding people in need, and advancing developing world, etc. then follow."

Below is a chart from the study showing what consumers want. The more you can reinforce these values in your cause marketing programs, the more you strengthen your case that support of your cause isn't just good - it's good business. And that's an argument you really need in this economy.

Stop. Start. Finish. Brian Reich on Cause Marketing in a Connected Society

Kate_NFG — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Brian Reich, SVP and Global Editor at Edelman Digital, doesn’t think that traditional fundraising is working anymore. As outlined in his book Shift & Reset, he wants fundraisers (and I’d argue cause marketers fall into this category) to stop doing certain things and start looking at solving complex social problems in a new way. The following is a recap of his presentation at this year’s AFP conference.

STOP…

Asking for money. Money is the least interesting thing you can ask someone to provide. Information, data and insights are much more interesting. Create deeper and better relationships by getting to know your supporters. The money will come later.

Creating organizations. There are already too many organizations focused on the same issues, cannibalizing donors, attention. The audience doesn't care about the organization, they care about the cause, so let’s see how we can collaborate.

Using social media - or over-using it. These are tools and platforms where people gather, but they are not relationships and communications. What motivates people to do things is information, passion, purpose. People came together to solve problems long before social networks, but now we put tools between us and our audience. Focus on being social, being human. Social media amplifies those relationships.

Looking back - stop paying attention to case studies. You have to understand the work, effort, care and collaboration that went into a project, not just the end result. We are often distracted by the fact that a video got 1 million views, but forget that thoe views may not translate into tangible impact. Keep your eye on the goal, not the flashy new tool.

Whining. The world hasn't changed so dramatically that fundraising has become easy. We are in a connected society, but we have to work harder to build relationship in fragmented, distracted world.

START…

Thinking bigger. Acting smarter. We can't just focus on improving what we know or fixing what is broken. We need to break out of old habits.

Building a better effort. Assemble the choicest elements to form a freakishly amazing operation. Passion for a cause is an incredible incentive to work on these projects, so get the right folks engaged to tackle the problem, even if you can’t afford to hire them on staff. Find the right value proposition to attract the right resources.

Writing the future. We should support and enhance, cultivate and create a broader commitment to change

Being social. It's time we changed how we act - and interact - with each other.

Taking on the hard stuff. We have plenty of tools, cash, and attention. What we don't have are real solutions to the challenges that our society is facing.

Finishing something. Instead of launching more campaigns and creating new initiatives we should be committing to actually finish something. Let’s solve it and move on.

Speaking of solving something, Reich recommends tackling problems in the following order. Most people start by assessing what resources they have, but that stymies creative thinking. Start with what you want to achieve and then fit the resources to the plan. You’ll get more done.

Solve problems in this order:

Goals
Strategies
Tactics
Resources

Cause Marketing the Charity: Water Way - Compelling Content Front & Center

Kate_NFG — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:03:58 GMT

Direct from the annual Association of Fundraising Professionals conference in Vancouver, here are some tips for cause marketers from Scott Harrison, the CEO of Charity: Water.

Scott detailed is personal history and how he was inspired to make a lifetime commitment to solving the global issue of access to clean water. His approach was to establish Charity: Water with three core guiding principles: 100% of public donations would support direct programs (overhead and operations funds would come from another source), the organization would provide proof of how money was spent on the ground (guarantee via a photo and GPS location trackable on Google Earth) and the organization would build a brand around the cause, not rely on traditional nonprofit marketing tactics of pity, guilt and asking for a handout.

Charity: Water has taken an innovative approach to building awareness from the start. Through photo essays, exhibits and experiential marketing campaigns to illustrate the plight of the 1 billion people on earth without access to clean water, Charity: Water has put a cutting-edge spin on traditional awareness building. The key has always been about telling a story and providing compelling content about the issue. Good content makes the case for consumer brand participation via in-kind advertising, PSAs, and product tie-ins. Good content also makes it easy for individuals to become evangelists for the cause, sharing the story – with their own personal spin – to their social networks. The My Charity: Water platform allows individuals to create their own personal fundraisers As Scott asserted, Charity: Water had become intentional about giving 'our' story away so that the cause could become larger than just the dedicated staff at headquarters.

Scott shared his guidelines for helping you achieve your cause marketing and impact goals:

Don't run out of money - but don't ever compromise on your integrity. At one point, Charity: Water was about to run out of operating capital. Scott had made a vow never to touch public donations to support operations. That vow lead to an innovative approach to long-term operations support via a giving circle of individuals who committed to fund the day-to-day needs. Charity-Water treats theses donors as shareholders and asks for a 3-year commitment to support long-term planning. Scott made these donors partners in the long-term success of the organization.

Get off the couch. Just get started. If you are passionate, dedicated, and smart about your approach, people will respect your efforts and help.

Tell the truth and broadcast your failures. Charity: Water’s most successful supporter appeal came in the wake of disappointing news about an unsuccessful drilling project. People got insight into the magnitude of the challenge to supply 1 billion people with clean water and redoubled their commitment to helping Charity: Water make a difference to real people across the world.

Think really, really big and then execute. You have to have a plan and then recruit smart, visionary people to help you pave the way.

Learn about the 'why' principle. In other words, don’t confuse your mission and ‘what’ you do with ‘why’ people want to support your cause. For Charity: Water, the ‘why’ is giving individuals a compelling experience with the cause and the joy of giving.

You are what you eat and who you hang out with. The Charity: Water fundraising department has two people in it. Instead of focusing on traditional fundraising methods, the organizations has unleashed a viral network of fundraisers who deeply internalize the cause and promote compelling stories that ultimately result in donations.

Share opportunity, not guilt, but don't shy away from harsh realities. Cause marketers face heart wrenching social challenges. You can’t be afraid to show the realities of the hard work you do, but you can’t use that as a platform to guilt people into giving you a handout. Make your supporters your partners in solving the problem at hand.

Tell amazing stories and the money will come. Good content brings people in, inspires their action and reinforces their commitment to the cause. Lead with your stories and people will be generous.

Get good video fast. Show the story, don’t tell it in a long, wordy newsletter. Younger donors and those connected via social networks, smart phones etc… don’t want to read a long missive, but they will watch a short compelling video or share a moving photo. Now is the time to get visual with your cause.

Close the loop and connect your donors with the impact. Charity: Water is a leader in telling impact stories. The organization audits each donation to report back to donors exactly where and how their donation was spent. Donors can see a portfolio of projects their exact dollars helped fund. Donors want to feel like partners in your impact and reporting back on the difference their dollars made is how you make them more than donors and build their loyalty and commitment to the cause.

Companies For Good is Going on the Road

Kate_NFG — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:17:24 GMT

It’s conference season! I will be attending the following events. I’d love to connect with you. Send me a note on Twitter if you will be participating in any of these conferences and we can plan to meet IRL style (in real life).

--Kate

April 1-3 AFP Conference on Fundraising, Vancouver, Canada

I’ll be presenting on cause marketing tools and tips for nonprofits on Tuesday 8:00-9:00 AM PDT. Join me for “Purpose-Driven Marketing: Doing Good and Getting It Right In a Web 2.0 World”.

April 16-18 BCLC 2012 National Conference, Atlanta, GA

I can’t wait to see the Forecast on Corporate Citizenship and America’s Future and chat with other CSR practitioners about trends, learnings and innovative ideas.

May 30-31 Cause Marketing Forum, Chicago, IL

Don’t miss our CSO Katya Andresen’s presentation “The Science of Consumer Engagement and Social Change”.

June 18-20 National Conference on Volunteering and Service, Chicago, IL

I’ll be presenting at two sessions (see below) and be sure to check out Kevin Bacon at the Opening Plenary. He’ll be sharing his story about starting SixDegrees.org, his charitable initiative in partnership with Network for Good.

Monday 1:00-2:30 PM CDT (Session #2697) “Do Users Really Generate Content? Tips & Tools for Building Engaged Online Communities”
Wednesday 8:00-10:00 AM CDT Disaster Solution Center

Building Cause Awareness…No Billboard or Megaphone Required

Kate_NFG — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:24:03 GMT

A post earlier this month on Cone’s What Do You Stand For? blog referenced an innovative cause awareness-building approach directly tied to packaging and the intimate relationship an end user has with a brand’s product. The post referenced a new bone marrow donation registry kit that is placed in packaging alongside adhesive bandages. When you are fixing up your boo-boo, you are reminded to swap a little blood to send to the registry. The campaign is the brainchild of Graham Douglas of Droga5 and his advertising and design students at the Miami Ad School in Brooklyn. It was featured at TED earlier this month and reviewed in a Fast Company Co.Exist article called, "A Bandage That Allows You to Save a Life While Patching up Your Cut".

As Chris Mann, former Account Director for Cone’s Cause Branding group, asserts, “Douglas's kit is a great example of someone putting themselves in the shoes of the audience they are trying to reach and developing an appeal that is delivered in exactly the right way and at the right time to get to ‘yes’".

This micro-messaging approach to an audience-of-one got me thinking about missed opportunities to engage with conscious consumers, not as part of a multi-channel marketing blitz or at the time of purchase, but rather at the moment of core brand interaction. How can cause marketers embed a social action within the actual product experience? The opportunity is really about drawing a relevant and authentic connection between the product (and its intended uses) and some social benefit the consumer can co-create with the brand by using the product or taking an extra moment to consider the embedded call to action.

Mann offers three questions cause marketers should reflect upon to get ‘in the shoes’ of consumers and deliver a compelling opportunity to do good within the brand experience:

1) What is the specific problem are we trying to solve?

2) What is the easiest thing someone could do to help in a meaningful way?

3) How could we reach our target when the barriers to a "yes" are at their lowest?

Please check out Mann’s full post here to get meaningful insights on how to frame the answers to those questions for your brand.

Is CSR in your DNA? Levi's Water
Kate_NFG — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:57:38 GMT

Levi’s has relaunched its Water<Less cause marketing platform, highlighting its long-term partnership with the nonprofit Water.org and commitment to environmental stewardship. You can read my first impressions of the campaign from 2011 in an earlier post on this blog here.

The Water<Less campaign provides a rich example of how to leverage new media to co-create a movement with consumers. The website promotes storytelling via video, interactive education on water conservation, profiles of celebrities promoting the campaign (and how they support the cause) and challenges to consumers to make their own personal impact.

The challenges present an innovative way to keep consumers engaged. Rather than taking a pledge to save water just one time, as many campaigns ask, Water<Less proposes many ways for people to make a difference, and more importantly, gives them a reason to come back and commit to another action and share their new pledge with their social networks. Example challenges include reducing water use, rethinking plastic use, showering less and other ways to safeguard water resources. Not only is this an effective way to maintain campaign momentum, but it allows participants to ramp up their commitment to the cause over time and thus feel more empowered to make a difference.

The Water<Less campaign is a relevant means to raise awareness for an important cause, but is made that much more powerful because it aligns with a tangible product design and manufacturing improvement made by Levi’s. The Water<Less line of jeans reduces the use of water in the finishing process by up to 96% for some styles. Not only is a major consumer brand using its platform to support the work of a worthy nonprofit partner, but the company is simultaneously demonstrating how industry can lead the way in solving a social problem that affects 1 billion people. This is what it looks like to absorb social responsibility into corporate DNA.