There was an article from Joan Hill, Communications Manager for Denver’s Warren Village, in Thursday June 19, 2008′s The Hub Section of the Denver Post about a recent philanthropy activity of Qwest, the telephone company.  Warren Village helps motivated low-income, single parents move from public assistance to self-sufficiency through subsidized housing, on-site childcare, counseling, and education or job training.

For the second year in a row, Qwest Women and employees provided every child at Warren Village a brand new pair of shoes.  “Seeing the joy on their faces was priceless,” according to Bridgette O’Toole who managed the shoe donation project for the company.  The article also mentioned that members of the women’s organization “asked everyone they knew to buy a pair of shoes to donate” which to me means they leveraged their personal networks not only to increase the amount they were able to contribute but, at the same time, they let others know about their community involvement, helping to improve the company’s image.  There were quotes from both Bridgette and Naomi Taggart, resources director for Warren Village in the article.
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I interviewed Jason Linkow, owner of Metafolics Salon in Denver, for my upcoming book Business Philanthropy: How Smart Businesses Give Back.  Jason is a smart business man and a deep thinker.  I knew he gave a great haircut and did things in the community, but I after interviewing him, I was VERY impressed with his business savvy and authentic commitment to making a difference while leveraging scarce resources to grow his business.

Jason explained, “A salon, if you look in the dictionary, is a gathering place for the community.  So, in my business plan, it was very important that we give back to the community, which gives to us.  It’s a symbiotic relationship.  Right now with just one location, we pull clients from all over the state.  So, we have a very large community that comes to our salon.”  

Jason explained that Metafolics chooses organizations to support on two levels: personal commitment or as an entire business.  He says, “Any employee that works in my business, myself included, if they have a cause that they personally care about, can suggest charitable directions to head in, as can the customers in our chairs.” 

Metafolics gives back in a variety of ways from small to large.  “For example, a lot of people who are on boards that do fundraising for their schools may come in and ask us for silent auction donations and things of that nature.  That’s a very small level of how we could partner with different small entities where our time is worth money.  It is not necessarily a monetary donation but we’ll give complimentary gift certificates and things of that nature.”

For larger efforts, Jason takes a very strategic approach to Metafolics’ community involvement, especially when their support will involve a significant investment of time, dollars, product or use of their facilities or marketing materials. “If there is going to be an expense to the business, because we are a small business and don’t have tons of excess funds to distribute that way, it’s important for us that it is a symbiotic relationship where the charity is benefitting from our involvement, but in some way we’re also benefiting by working with them…whether it just be through publicity or getting our name out there. 

“At the end of the day, doing a good deed always feels great.” He says that the Salon makes smaller scale donations out of the kindness of their hearts and to keep their name out there in the community. However, for larger scale efforts, a very important consideration for them is whether it will be a win-win for both organizations.

Jason sees many benefits from Metafolics involvement in the community.  “The obvious benefit is that we’ve had a bunch of new clients come in who might have won our hair cut or hair color at an auction and never would have been in our salon if it wasn’t for that. Also, the repetition of hearing our name over and over, creates more brand awareness.  So when somebody does say this is where they get their hair done, it clicks, it makes sense, they’ve heard of us, it makes us more legitimate.  On a bigger level I think, depending on the cause, certain communities are very good about supporting the businesses who support them.  We’ve been asked time and time again to contribute to other events that might have been because of our involvement in another fundraiser - it just kind of snowballs into other things. All in all, it’s great for the individual technician but it’s also good for our business and the culture within our business.”

Food for Thought:
Have you thought about your criteria for which community events or causes to support, as Jason has? Have you segmented the decision-making process based on level of effort or resources that will be required? Do you understand what benefits result from your efforts?

Marathon Oil Company ran an ad several times lately in the Denver Post with the headline, “Marathon is much more than our employer.  They’re our inspiration.”  The ads don’t sell anything directly – instead they are designed to inform readers about Marathon’s values and give back efforts.  The ad pictures a mother/daughter pair who both work for the company and the words are written as if the mother was saying them.  The mother is a breast cancer survivor and the daughter is pregnant.  The ad mentions she is doing all she can to keep her daughter from getting breast cancer and “that’s why I am proud to work for a company that gives so much to so many great causes, such as Susan G. Komen for the Cure.”  The ad goes on to mention other efforts including Impact Player Partners (an organization supporting wounded/disabled war veterans from the Iraq and Afganistan wars) and a school supply project in Equatorial Guinea.   It ends with “And this is only the beginning of all the things that Marathon does.  Needless to say, we love working here.  Giving back.  That’s Marathon.”  The bottom of the ad shows their color logo and the website address – Marathon.com/values. 

I went to their website and was pleasantly surprised to see a link on their home page to their Social Responsibility page.  I really liked their tag line “Commerce.  Conscience.  Compassion.” They have a menu of options to choose from here.

Good for Marathon!  Made me very interested to learn more about this company that I know relatively little about.  It is amazing to me how many companies have not yet been proactive to post a section on their sites to let consumers and other stakeholders know about their social responsibility and/or community involvement.  I did an informal survey a couple years ago with the top 40 fastest growing small businesses in Colorado from the Book of Lists published by the Denver Business Journal.  I went to each of their websites and only two of them mentioned anything about their community involvement.  What a missed opportunity!!  And I know for a fact that two of them that mentioned nothing on their site are VERY active with local nonprofits.  In fact, one I had interviewed as a best practice example for my forthcoming book!

Do you have even one page on YOUR company’s website that talks about your community involvement and/or broader commitment to business social responsibility?  If you aren’t doing anything…then having no page makes total sense.  However, consumers DO care about what the companies they do business with are doing.  So think about putting up at least a simple page.  It does not need to be as detailed as Marathon Oil’s.  You can grow into that later.  If you don’t it is a huge missed opportunity to let folks know about your values and how you are walking your talk.

When standing in the checkout line at Whole Foods, I periodically see a display with tear off tags ($1, $2, or $5) inviting me, the customer, to select a tag in the amount I would be willing to donate to the Whole Planet Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to create economic partnerships with the poor in developing world communities that supply Whole Foods Market stores with product by providing microloans to encourage entrepreneurism.  Microcredit is one of the causes my company, Business Nonprofit Connections, Inc., supports through various local and international NGOs.  So…what’s a buck?  A good cause that I believe in and it’s easy for me to take a tag and make a small donation.  Requires no preplanning, no strategic thinking, and I won’t notice not having that money.  Even if I wasn’t such a microcredit fan, it is still easy to do.  Combine my buck or two with the money from a lot of other customers and it can really add up.  This is a great example of a way any retail business can engage their customers to support the cause selected by the company, build reputation and customer loyalty.  Requires no big up front cash outlay by the company – just some signage and tags and a way to track donations in the cash register system.

Today in the Baton Rouge Whole Foods checkout line, I saw the Whole Foods Market 2008 Calendar for sale for $2.00.  What a deal!!  I needed a calendar to hang in my office and this one was the perfect choice.  It is a glossy page calendar with great photos from various countries and of Whole Foods team members with $13 in savings coupons inside for a super deal of a price…AND…100% of sales of the calendar go to benefit the Whole Planet Foundation.  On the January page of the calendar, it states that Whole Foods covers Whole Planet Foundation’s annual operating budget and that donations received by the Foundation are directed to microlending programs in the developing world.   The calendar reports on every photo page that “As of November 2007, Whole Planet Foundation has authorized over $5.9 million to support microlending programs in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, India and Indonesia with plans to expand to east Africa in 2008. This support has helped 14,429 entrepreneurs create small businesses in the developing world.   Average loan size is $157 with an average repayment rate of 99.8%.” 

Go buy your own calendar while they are still available! 

For information, go to:  www.wholeplanetfoundation.org  

I have been having trouble with my computer since I loaded Microsoft Office 2007.  Instead of doing the smart thing and taking my computer to some tech guy to run a diagnostic, I have been trying to figure it out myself.  Never a good move…  Anyway, I have spent a bunch of time on the Microsoft website lately.  While clicking around in the site, I found a link to Microsoft’s ”i’m Initiative” from Windows Live Messenger. (http://im.live.com/messenger/IM/Home/?source=banner_WLM_MSCOM_typing_DL)  There I learned more and liked what I saw. 

Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of their advertising revenue with the social cause organization you preselect from their list of ten when you sign up to use their free service.  So how does it work?  “It’s simple.  It’s free.  You IM, we give.”  Microsoft provides instructions for how to get started.  First you download the Windows Live Messenger (8.1 or higher) instant messenger service at no charge.  If you already have it, there is a link that gives you information about how to proceed.  Then you place a text code corresponding to the cause of your choice into your Display Name.  They make it easy by providing the list of the ten organizations and the codes you need to use as well as graphics that make it very clear how to do it.  (http://www.im.live.com/Messenger.IM/runonce/default2.aspx?source=homepage) As per their example, if you wanted your Display Name to be “Tude Palma” and the contribution every time you IM to be made to UNICEF, you would set up your Display Name as “Tude Palmer *unicef.  Pretty easy, eh?

The ten nonprofits Microsoft supports through this initiative are:

·         American Red Cross

·         Boys & Girls Clubs of America

·         Humane Society of the United States

·         National AIDS Fund

·         National MS Society

·         ninemillion.org

·         Sierra Club

·         StopGlobalWarming.org

·         Susan G. Komen for the Cure

·         U.S. Fund for UNICEF

I think this is a creative example of cause marketing (for a free service) to build reputation and customer loyalty through Microsoft’s partnering with its customer base to give back.  They encourage you to use their service and then use some of their advertising budget (NOT their charitable donations line item!) to give back.  An interesting spin on advertising, eh?   If you are going to IM anyway either for personal or business reasons, using Microsoft’s free Windows Live Messenger, why wouldn’t you also set up your account to do good at the same time?  I have not done much instant messaging yet but I am definitely going to sign myself up with UNICEF as the beneficiary and have my network of consultants do the same.

My only suggestion for an upgrade here would be to make sure this is more widely known.  And somewhere on the pages about the Initiative to not only list the codes with the names of the 10 nonprofits selected by Microsoft, but also to give a one sentence description of what each organization does.  I personally am familiar with all of them except ninemillion.org but is everyone that might want to IM for free and give back?  Probably not.  At least the names of the nonprofits could be links to take you easily to their websites.

Industry: Office products

Headquarters: Oakland, CA

Founders: Mike Hannigan and Sean Marks

Founded: 1991

Markets: Nationwide

Interviewed: Mike Hannigan, Founder

Give Something Back Business Products is an office products firm selling office supplies, furniture, and printing to businesses, non-profits, and governmental agencies. The company started with a basic idea: to sell business products for less and donate the profits back to the community. The model is based on the for-benefit business model utilized by Newman’s Own. Essentially, the company operates a conventional business model in a competitive marketplace to produce a profit that is donated back to the community. The nonprofit organizations supported are chosen democratically by customers and employees. GSB has been widely recognized for its success as a business and for its philanthropic mission. Out of a field of more than 400 companies, Paul Newman, Marian Wright Edelman, John Kennedy, General Norman Schwartzkopf, and other national luminaries voted the firm one of the 10 most generous companies in America — and the most generous one in California. Inc. Magazine named GSB one of the 50 fastest growing city-based companies in the nation in 1999, 2000, and 2001. That same magazine named the firm one of the fastest growing privately held companies in America.

Give Something Back Business Products is unique because its community outreach is built directly into its business model and mission. The founders started the company so that they could use their business skills on behalf of their community work.

Give Something Back Business Products

7730 Pardee Lane
Oakland, CA 94621

www.givesomethingback.com  

Community Giving: http://www.givesomethingback.com/community.html  

Industry: Organic beverages

Headquarters: Bethseda, MD

Founders: Seth Goldman and Berry Nalebuff

Founded: 1998

Markets: Nationwide

Interviewed: Seth Golman, Founder and TeaEO

Honest Tea was started in Seth Goldman’s basement, in the pursuit of a less sweet, but flavorful, beverage. Over ten years later, the company is the best selling brand of organic bottled tea in the country. Seth Goldman met his co-founder Barry Nalebuff in graduate school, where Nalebuff was the professor for one of Goldman’s classes. Nalebuff’s research into the tea industry uncovered that tea purchased for bottling by American companies was the lower quality dust and fannings left after quality tea had been produced. So, Seth Goldman and his professor decided to start a company that sold Honest Tea, made with real tea leaves. Organic certification, the uniqueness of the product offerings, and the firm’s fair trade philosophy have facilitated the company’s rapid growth and great success.

Community involvement at Honest Tea is driven by the realization that while tea is consumed by the wealthiest countries in the world, it is produced by the poorest. Honest Tea strives to improve these communities however possible when doing business there. When presented with a purchasing decision between two financially comparable alternatives, the company attempts to choose the option that better addresses the needs of economically disadvantaged communities.

Honest Tea

5019 Wilson Lane
Bethesda, MD 20814

www.honesttea.com  

Industry: Jewelry

Headquarters: Des Moines, IA

Founder: Solomon Joseph

Founded: 1871

Number of Employees: 19

Markets: Des Moines Area, Iowa

Interviewed: John Joseph, Vice President

Joseph’s Jewelers consists of three family-owned and operated jewelry stores in the Des Moines, Iowa area. The family has owned the company for 136 years, since Solomon Joseph started S. Joseph and Sons in the Kirkwood Hotel in Des Moines in 1871. From calibrating the watches of railroad men to selling license plates and eyeglasses, the firm has always focused on the needs of its customers. Today, Toby and John Joseph, as well as the dedicated employees, continue to ensure the satisfaction of every Joseph’s patron by providing quality merchandise at competitive prices and unmatched personal service. A full service jeweler, Josephs has 19 registered jewelers and certified gemologists, the most Certified Gemologists on staff in the Midwest and offers expert jewelry and watch repair, as well as a unique design center. Voted “Best Jeweler in Des Moines” each of the last five years by the readers of the Business Record, Josephs Jewelers takes pride in offering unsurpassed quality in service.

At Joseph’s Jewelers, they believe that it is the firm and the owners’ corporate and personal responsibility to be involved in the community that has supported the business and helped it to be successful. The firm does not have an overriding philosophy about the types of causes with which it gets involved; instead, whenever firm management sees an opportunity they think is worthwhile, they do what they can to help support it.

Joseph’s Jewelers

320 6th Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50309

www.josephsjewelers.com  

Industry: Hospitality

Headquarters: San Francisco, CA

Founder: Bill Kimpton

Founded: 1981

Markets: 41 hotels in 19 U.S. cities

Interviewed: Niki Leondakis, Chief Operating Officer

Kimpton Hotel is a national chain of individually branded and uniquely designed boutique hotels. The company specializes in stylish, eco-friendly accommodations with a focus on personalized, first-rate service. Perhaps the most well-known brand of Kimpton hotels is the Hotel Monaco, with locations in Chicago, Illinois, Denver, Colorado, Salt Lake City, Utah, San Francisco, California. Seattle, Washington, Washington, DC, Portland, OR and Alexandria, Virginia (slated to open in 2007). Other Kimpton sponsored and owned hotel chains are located in Los Angeles, California, Aspen, Colorado, Boston, Massachusetts, and a variety of other cities. Each hotel is individually designed to reflect the energy and personality of its location, history, and architectural style, and many are located in converted historical buildings. The hotels feature highly personalized services and in-room amenities, and one of a kind specialty rooms and suites. The signature elements of a Kimpton experience are care, comfort, style, flavor, and fun.

Kimpton’s community involvement philosophy is based on the concept that it is the corporation’s responsibility to be conscious of its impact on the environment and community and to make a difference where possible. Bill Kimpton’s philosophy of balance drives the company’s community efforts in that, through giving back, the company can mitigate any impact on the community and environment.

 Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, LLC
222 Kearny St., Ste. 200
San Francisco, CA 94108
http://www.kimptonhotels.com
Kimpton Cares: http://www.kimptonhotels.com/kimpton_cares.aspx  

Industry: Photography

Headquarters: Boulder, CO

Founder: Judith Abrams

Markets: United States, Japan, Canada

Interviewed: Judith Abrams, Owner

Landscapes Within grew out of Judith Abrams’ photography talent, love of nature, and grief over her father’s struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease. After his death, Judith left her work as a hospice worker to follow her passion of taking beautiful pictures of nature. She began to sell her images on a very small scale at Boulder’s Farmer’s Market Fine Art and Craft Fair, then steadily larger fairs until becoming one of the Boulder’s Open Studios and joining the fine art realm. With the company, she fulfilled her vision of printing greeting cards and selling them nationally. By growing her company and increasing profits, Judith found a way not only for herself and her employees to thrive, but also a way to facilitate the ability to write frequent and large checks to organizations that support research to fight Alzheimer’s disease.

The community involvement of Landscapes Within is driven by the owner’s strong connection to her family legacy of service and her grief over the death of her father from Alzheimer’s. Abrams has harnessed this passion into growing a lucrative and thriving business, the profits of which she donates to Alzheimer’s research. Judith Abrams sees the business success of Landscapes Within as an outlet to support a cause in which she strongly believes.

Landscapes Within

637-B So. Broadway #340
Boulder, CO 80305

www.landscapeswithin.com