At a Brendon Burchard event last year, I met Justin Sachs – a dynamic, thoughtful and very well-spoken young man who is totally committed to youth leadership.  I recently received an email about the upcoming launch for his new book, “Your Mailbox is Full” and I was very impressed to see he is has committed that book sales will benefit his favorite charities: Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership and Kiwanis.  Coincidentally, I have worked with Javier LaFianza, the CEO of HOBY, so it is a small world indeed!  Talking recently with Javier it was clear they are very pleased to be included as a partner with Justin (who is also a HOBY Alum)…and hope Justins sells MANY copies both for himself and to support their organization. 

This is a great example of a win-win partnership.  Awareness of HOBY and Kiwanis is increased and they will receive funds, as well; Justin gets exposure through the networks of both those nonprofits to help boost his book sales.

Justin is planning a huge book launch next month which I am pleased to support.  The following describes his book – check it out.

“Our friend Justin Sachs is launching his new book, Your Mailbox Is Full as one of the largest Teen Book Launch’s in history. His book is the perfect tool for teenagers and young adults who are pursuing greatness in their lives, and the best part is, a portion of the proceeds benefit his two favorite youth leadership non-profit organizations, Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership and Kiwanis International.

Your Mailbox Is Full à http://www.MotivateYourTeen.com

To make things even better: Justin is offering a free coaching session to the first 25 people who purchase his book! If you have a teenager or young adult, or know someone who does this book will change their lives!

Act Now to ensure you get your FREE Coaching Session with the Author! http://www.MotivateYourTeen.com

Things Just Get Better and Better and Better! Justin is offering over $2,000 in free bonuses just for purchasing the book!

This book is being compared to the bestsellers Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens and Success Strategies for Teens. So make sure to purchase yours NOW because you don’t want to miss out on this amazing opportunity to contribute to your teenager or young adult’s life.

Check it out: http://www.MotivateYourTeen.com

Justin began his experience in personal development in an Anthony Robbins seminar full of thousands of adults. He wrote this book so teenagers won’t have to end up in an endless stream of personal development seminars later in life. Now is the time to support your teenager with the tools and strategies they need for success!

Don’t Wait: http://www.MotivateYourTeen.com“

So I plan to follow Brendon and Justin’s lead and tie my own book and its launch to a nonprofit partner.  How about you?

In today’s Colorado Business section of the Denver Post, I noticed a small blurb that Colorado Bag’n Baggage stores will be collecting gently used luggage in April as part of their event, “Bags 4 Kids Trade-in Event.”  “Luggage will be donated to foster-care children living near each store.”  In return, each luggage donor will receive a $20 gift certificate to be used for a future purchase from the store.

So, as usual, I went to their website to check out more details…and found nothing after poking around in the likely places and doing a search of their site for “Bags 4 Kids.”  When I did a Google search, I found a group in California by the same name, Bags4Kids.  Then I got confused – is this promotion affiliated in some way with that nonprofit?  Or…??

Here’s a tip!  Great ideas need great implementation.  Please…make sure you have all your ducks lined up before you launch an effort like this.  The idea to collect luggage for kids makes total sense for a luggage selling company – so good job there on alignment.  However, before sending out a press release to the newspaper, make sure – at a minimum – you also work with your webmaster to post the press release on the company website..at the SAME time.  Preferable would be to have a special landing page for the promotion that gives a few more details to those that want to support the effort – perhaps information about the nonprofit or community agency being supported including how customers can support foster children in other ways, as well.  As is, it is way easy for consumers to make the leap to “this promotion is self-serving and just about getting people in the store” and overshadowing any heartfelt intent to do good that motivated the promotion in the first place.  Win-win is great but do it justice.

Maybe next time…??

NOTE:  After writing this blog post this morning, I was contacted by the company (see comment section below).  So in case you don’t click through to the comment section, I wanted to give you an update.  They have a new press release section on their site and the release on Bags 4 Kids is now up!  Very impressive that they contacted me back.  I have bought all my luggage from them for years and am now an even bigger fan!

Have you heard of ServiceNation?  Because of my work in National Service, I have heard about ServiceNation since its inception and have been watching its work and growth with great interest.  Last year, representatives made a presentation at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in Atlanta to all the AmeriCorps grantees in attendance.  The energy about what they were doing was great – I even had one of their reps, a young man from Alaska, come to my session on measuring the impact of nonprofit programming and ask for a few minutes to share about more about ServiceNation with participants.

From their website, “This campaign now focuses on building a national grassroots movement aimed at inspiring widespread public support for increasing voluntary community and national service opportunities, solving problems with proven service strategies, and elevating service as a core ideal of civic engagement. ServiceNation encourages all Americans to step forward and take the lead in bridging our divides, strengthening our communities, and building a more vibrant democracy.”

Especially given the economic times in which we find ourselves, ServiceNation is a movement which deserves our support.  Check them out and join me in signing their Declaration of Service. 

You can also find ways to volunteer through their partnership with Network for Good and USA Freddom Corps, as well.  Within 20 miles of my office, there were 1820 opportunities – so surely there is something for everyone that wants to get more involved.

My bank, BBVA Compass, launched a new program in 2009 called “The Compass For Your Cause” both to support nonprofit fundraising and grow their customer base.  The concept behind the program was not to ask people to write a check or buy special premium items (who really needs another candy bar??), but to do something they were doing every day already – use their check card for purchases.

So how does it work? A nonprofit signs up for a free business checking account at BBVA Compass (while keeping existing accounts at other banks, if they want). Then, by spreading the word to their networks – friends, family, volunteers, and other supporters, they can earn dollars.  For every person that opens a free individual account at BBVA Compass and specifies the nonprofit they want to support, that nonprofit will receive $20 deposited directly into their account. Then, for every subsequent purchase made by supporters using their BBVA Compass account check card, a $0.25% royalty will also be deposited in the nonprofit’s account. 

I don’t know about you, but I almost never carry cash anymore.  I use my check card instead.  So to have a percentage going to support my favorite nonprofit, EVERY time I buy something, catches my attention!  BBVA Compass has branches in 6 states: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas.

Food for Thought:

·     Do you have nonprofits you support that could benefit from the “Compass For Your Cause Program”?  Pass the word! 

·     Can you develop a marketing/distribution strategy for a new or existing product or service that could expand your company’s exposure to new markets and benefit local causes?

Amy Pera, Cherry Creek Branch Manager of BBVA Compass Bank, sent me the following information as an email follow up.

“Thank you again for taking the time to discuss our Compass For Your Cause Program.  We are extremely excited about the opportunity to help the many wonderful non-profit businesses that are in need of additional funding.  This program is an excellent opportunity for them to earn donations without much effort on their part.  It will also provide them with a monthly stream ofl income from the ongoing debit card transactions by their members who open a checking account with Compass.

Here is the link for decision-makers that tells about the program:  http://www.compassbank.com/business/affinity/

In addition, here is the link for members who open a personal account to learn more about what it entails:  http://www.compassbank.com/personal/affinity/”

Check it out and spread the word!!

I just ran across an interesting campaign being run on Facebook.  Intel is donating 5 cents for every online click to Save the Children and Kiva.  The Facebook page stated, “Intel Will Donate 5 cents for You to Save the Children and Kiva. All you have to do is visit their website and click a button.

Help by doing this now at: http://www.smallthingschallenge.com

You can also help by spreading the word to your friends via email, Twitter, Facebook status updates, or IMs.

Intel’s Small Things Challenge is a campaign based on the premise that every small action can make a big difference. It aims to raise awareness and money for two of the worlds most pressing challenges — increasing access to quality education and fostering economic development in emerging countries.”

So I clicked, they donated, and I learned more about this effort.  So, go visit the website, click, and then help spread the word!  All it takes is a little time!

Four years ago I met Beau Perry from a Bay area company, AIDE, Inc., at the Green Business Conference in San Francisco.  Their specialty was doing this type of online cause marketing campaigns where a corporate sponsor would pay a certain amount for each click on a link sent out via email to the nonprofit partner’s distribution list – only one click a day was allowed per person for the duration of the campaign.  The emails provided information both about the nonprofit and the corporate sponsor, as did the website where you were taken by the link to click.  The email also allowed you to invite others to join in so the word was spread virally giving the sponsor increased exposure.  I participated in one that benefitted sea turtles in Sri Lanka after the tsunami.  They had a great concept so I interviewed Beau for my book.  I was sad when I learned that AIDE, Inc. was defunct but glad to see the idea lives on!

Have you ever wanted to get your book, product, event, tour, cause or dream sponsored and promoted…by major companies and leading nonprofits a zero cost to you? If so, you have to hear about my friend Brendon Burchard’s sponsorship and partnership strategies.

For the first time open to the general public, Brendon will be revealing the same step-by-step system he’s used to close partnerships with Wal-Mart, Toyota, US Bank, Wachovia, Sony Pictures, other Fortune 500 companies and leading global non-profits organizations…and how you can do the same thing to grow your business and instantly reach millions of people.

Brendon’s Partnership Seminar

Think about it…

What if you could get major nonprofits (including charities and associations), major corporations (including Fortune 500 and smaller companies) to partner with you and…

• Email their staff, customers and volunteers about your book, cause, or business.
• Write you a six-figure sponsorship check like it was play money so that you can accomplish your dream (Brendon got $500,000 with one partnership strategy)
• Feature you on their websites (one that Brendon got on received over 5 million impressions).
• Feature you in their newsletters or magazines (Brendon’s regularly in one that goes to 2 million people a month).
• Issue press releases for (or about) you.
• Invite and pay you to speak at their events.
• Arrange media appearances for you (Brendon’s sponsors got him on ABC World News, Oprah & Friends plus 64 radio shows).
• Buy and recommend your products or services (Brendon sells 50,000 copies of one of his books through partners each year).
• Refer you to others.
• Give you testimonials from their CEOs.
• Hire you as a speaker, coach or consultant.
• Use your products or services in a sweepstakes promotion.
• Fund your event, book tour, business growth, or marketing expenses.
• Teach you how to make more of an impact in your community.
• Spend thousands of dollars promoting YOU?

Is this all possible?   Can you really get the support of major companies and nonprofits to grow your business and make more of an impact in the world?

The answer is YES…and you can do it FAST when you follow Brendon’s system.

Check it out: Partnership Seminar

Everyone in our industry is buzzing about Brendon’s new strategies and you can see from the testimonials on that page that this works,…and it will work for you.

If you’re ready to get your project sponsored and promoted by major companies and nonprofits, then signup and I’ll see you there!

Check it out: Partnership Seminar

 P.S. Brendon has previously opened this event to a limited audience, and it has always sold out.

This is the must attend event of the year if you want to reach (and make) millions through partnering with other organizations.

Check it out: Partnership Seminar

I hope 2009 finds you happy, healthy, and ready to continue your business giving and community involvement to do your part to make a real difference in our world.  These are tough times for many people.  Daily, I hear so many negative things when I talk to some entrepreneurs and small business owners because of the state of the economy, it can get a little depressing!  I see many smaller business owners pulling back and hardening their protective shell as they think such actions will help them ride things out and keep their businesses afloat.  But I wonder if that will really work…for me whenever I have closed down and “gone underground” to regroup, I ended up shutting off opportunities.  When I have hibernated because I had business challenges that I didn’t want others to know about – figuring I needed to try to figure out the way forward on my own before I showed my face again - I ended up feeling really isolated and alone.  And then things DID go from bad to worse.

At the same time that I see many business people turning inwards, I also see many others with a sense of optimism and hope that together we can “turn the Titanic.”  I have been at several business events in the past couple months where entrepreneurs and small business people (some whose bank accounts I can only begin to imagine) are committing themselves to using their skills, talents, and connections to come up with new solutions to social and economic issues – old and new.  It has been very inspiring to me and helped me stay really positive.

As I listened to Obama’s inauguration speech, two specific sections struck me.  I will share one of those today and the second in my post tomorrow.

“Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched.  But this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control. The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.  The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.”

In my work, I have long been trying to shift the paradigm from “charity” to a greater sense of partnership between businesses and community organizations for the “common good.”  It is one reason I work with companies to be more strategic and intentional in how they offer their support to nonprofits – often encouraging business people to think past checkbook philanthropy.  For me, cutting a check and then turning your back because “you’re done” is self defeating and a lost opportunity to do a deeper kind of “good.”  I am absolutely a fan of capitalism and the market – but conscious/compassionate capitalism.  I refuse to consider that making a profit and running a business that considers the other two P’s (people and planet) are mutually exclusive.  And there are many great examples that doing all three is totally possible and even preferable for long-term success.

We are at a unique point in history – at least in my lifetime – where so many people are willing to step up – really step up – and be part of the solution not just whining couch potatoes.   Some of these have never paid attention or been active in civic life before.  They are collaborating for the common good and to rebuild our trust and pride in our country.  Won’t you join us?  What can you and your company do?  Remember my mantra – “You are never too small to make a difference.”