I was in Steamboat Springs, CO over the weekend with my recreation club.  A group of us went snowmobiling on Rabbit Ears Pass which was great fun until I hit a bump and managed to break my back…literally.

Yesterday I went to Whole Foods to see about buying some calcium to take – figured it was wise given I have a broken bone.  I bought Garden of Life’s Vitamin Code Grow Bone System – a raw whole food calcium formula with D3, bone building factors, and BioActive Ingredients.

Got home, opened the box and on the lid noticed “For every Vitamin Code bottle sold, a donation will be made to Vitamin Angels and their Operation 20/20 to eliminate Vitamin A deficiency in the world by 2020.”  So of course, I now like the product and the company even better!!  I was disappointed however when I could not find any reference to Vitamin Angels on the Garden of Life website – I would recommend they do add a section to show their customers about their support of this worthy effort. Not mentioning it is a lost opportunity to have their customers appreciate them even more.

The Vitamin Angels website says, “Our mission is to mobilize and deploy private sector resources to advance availability, access and use of micronutrients, especially vitamin A, by newborns, infants and children in need. Vitamin Angels reduces child mortality worldwide by connecting essential nutrients, especially vitamin A, with infants and children under five. Essential nutrients enable young immune systems to fight infectious diseases, helping children attain good health and the opportunity to lead meaningful and productive lives.”

The Vitamin Angels website does have a section which lists its business partners. “Show your support by shopping with our partners. With every purchase you make, we are one step closer to achieving our mission of giving children around the world the foundation to lead a meaningful and productive life.”  Garden of Life is listed with a link back to the Garden of Life’s website which is great.  Good job Vitamin Angels!

Today I saw a Tweet from City Year fly by about Games That Give.  After I retweeted it (yup…attended a social media workshop this week so I am pretty proud of myself for upgrading my skills…), as I had never heard of it before, I checked it out.  And…20 minutes later I have now played 4 hands of solitaire and 2 of Gems – and the site’s sponsors have donated money to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, the charity I picked from their list of charities to support before playing my selected games.  Other nonprofits you can support on their site include City Year, Jumpstart, the American Heart Association, Service Nation, and others.

So how does it work?  You play for free, they sell ads, and 70% of the ad revenue goes to the charity of your choice.  When I was playing solitaire, behind the card spread, the “table cloth” for my first couple rounds was the Dove logo, for the second couple rounds the Domino’s Pizza logo.  The logo is visible at all times but does not interfere with playing the game.

It cracked me up that on the page where the game is played, there is a link to click if the boss is coming – and it opens another window over the game — with a nondisclosure agreement that appears to be in Word.  What a hoot – they had a great sense of humor!

I sent the link along to my sister and 12-year old niece…if she is going to be online playing games, why not have it be making a difference at the same time??!!

Check it out!

Every month or so, I get a value pack of advertising postcards in the mail from local businesses. In the last batch, there was the card from Stanley Steemer you see here offering a special on cleaning and committing 5% of the net proceeds as a donation to the Denver Affiliate of Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure using code Pink54149.

The back of the card also indicates that if the special cleaning was not of interest, they would also donate 5% of the proceeds from any other of their cleaning services when providing the coupon code of PinkRSVP.

So, a nice win-win promotion by Stanley Steemer with the tie in to the massive business support during October’s focus on breast cancer.  Customers may be moved to action to hire them to do fall cleaning and Susan G. Komen benefits by getting additional dollars, as well.  Customers get to feel good that something they would have done anyway is helping make a difference.

Another time though…Stanley Steemer needs to do a better job proofreading – the name of the organization is spelled K-O-M-E-N  not K-O-M-A-N.  Also, when I went to Stanley Steemer’s website, I could find no mention of this promotion which I think is a missed opportunity for the company.  The Denver Susan G. Komen site does mention Stanley Steemer International as one of their Silver Sponsors, however.  So good job there!

So make sure your company connects all the dots on your cause marketing promotions, OK?!!

Just saw this on Facebook –Kelly Ripa is in the Electrolux ad promoting Earth Day and Electrolux’s Virtual Flower Garden.  If you plant a flower, Electrolux donates $1 to Global Green USA.

I clicked to plant a virtual flower in Facebook and got an error message that said it was having trouble and try again.  Hate that…get me all interested and then it flops??  So I went to the Electrolux website…and while I saw green appliances and Kelly…I could find nothing about the virtual garden.  So either it is hidden or it is bad timing on their part.  Before they announce an initiative like this, they should have had their ducks in a row to make it easy for people to participate. Nothing on the Global Green site yet either…

The best information I could find was on the I’m Not Obsessed” blog:  “Kelly and Electrolux have teamed up to release an eco-friendly washer and dryer in a vibrant “Kelly Green.” Kelly inspired this limited edition line because of her commitment to green living.

‘I love green… the color green and the act of living green,’ said Ripa. ‘What better place to make a simple, every day difference than in the laundry room? Kelly Green is a gorgeous shade, and just by using the new Electrolux high-efficiency washer and dryer you can save energy and use less water. How green is that?’ “

In addition to releasing the Kelly Green washer and dryer, Electrolux is kicking off a virtual flower garden campaign to raise awareness and funds for Global Green USA (which is running a healthy green schools initiative across America).

For every person who goes to Electrolux Appliances and plants a virtual flower for a friend, Electrolux will donate $1 to Global Green USA. Every person who logs in and donates $1 will also be entered into a drawing to win a new Kelly Green front-load washer and dryer.”

Tip for other businesses: Make sure your site is all set to go before word starts circulating about the great promotion you are doing!!

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!

I got an email announcement today from United about their ongoing support of the American Cancer Society (ACS).  It appears United is doing a series of bears to sell to raise money for ACS.  This year’s bear is called Maye I Hugyou.  As a nonparent, I once again admit I don’t get the teddy bear attraction but clearly it is a promotion that is working for both United and ACS.  I do like that it was not a one time partnership but is something longer term.

The email says, “United Airlines and the American Cancer Society are again teaming up and inviting you to bring smiles to children undergoing cancer treatment. For a contribution of $50 or 7,500 Mileage Plus miles to the American Cancer Society, you can help comfort kids undergoing treatment. United will arrange for a huggable, limited-edition 18-inch Gund teddy bear, Maye I. HugyouSM (the adorable blue-eyed sister of last year’s teddy bear Kenny Hugyou), to be sent to a child undergoing cancer treatment.

Funds and Mileage Plus miles raised will support the American Cancer Society’s efforts to save lives from cancer by investing in research to discover cancer’s causes and cures, educating and empowering people to avoid the disease or find it early, helping people facing cancer overcome obstacles in their personal cancer fight, and fighting for laws to keep our communities healthy and cancer free.”

So if you are in need of a cute teddy bear, check this out.  It is for a great cause.

When I went to the American Cancer Society website, I did a search for “United Airlines” but did not come up with any mention of the 2008 teddy bear promotion.  What I did find was an article written about the success of last year’s Kenny Hugyou.  “Thanks for your support of the Kenny Hugyou campaign…Working with you and our campaign partner, United Airlines, we achieved exciting results:

• More than 10,000 kids with cancer received a huggable teddy bear over the Valentine’s Day weekend.

• More than 40 million frequent flyer miles and $250,000 in cash donations went to the American Cancer Society’s Angel Flight program, which provides free air travel for patients who receive cancer treatments far from home.”

Great results!  Hopefully they will get the same or better response this year!

Here are some food for thought items as you consider your company’s support of your favorite causes. 

1. Consider the size of the nonprofit you are interested in supporting and how that relates to the size of your company.  In this case, both United and ACS are BIG players but ACS gets a lot of other big company support, as well.  So, on the ACS website, even United’s efforts with the teddy bears are not featured while the promotion is going on to get more participation and recognition.  If you are a small company, getting visibility for your good works with a huge nonprofit organization like ACS from that nonprofit will be even more difficult.  It’ll be up to whatever you do to get the word out and let your own supporters/customers know about it.
2. You can make it part of the agreement that the nonprofit needs to offer a link to your company’s website for whatever the promotion is, or have them issue a press release about it which gets posted on both your websites.  Be sure to negotiate such things on the front end to avoid any gaps in expectations.
3. Think about how you can develop a longer term relationship with a cause or nonprofit to show your true to commitment to it.  And…see if there are ways that each year you can deepen your involvement to whatever the next step is, to get even more benefit for the cause and for your company.
4. United used the same language on their website page as in their email blast.  This does not have to be tough or seriously time consuming to get the word out.

Good luck!  And, call me if you need help with designing an effective cause marketing promotion.

OK…so after all the hype about Starbucks joining the (RED) campaign and the ad on Facebook getting people to sign up to go in after 7:00 am to get a drink in honor of World AIDS Day, I was underwhelmed.  I did go get my morning coffee at 7:00 am today for World AIDS Day, as I had RSVPd yes on Facebook for that.  I ordered one of the new Gingersnap Lattes which confused the baristas as that is not my usual drink.  They seemed totally confused when I said I was doing it in honor of World AIDS Day…The (RED) logo and signage was up but I expected more promotion/awareness raising by them.  Oh well…a missed opportunity in my opinion.

Perhaps another time, Starbucks could be sure to distribute a one pager that baristas need to read when they clock in for the day…and have them add something to their usual welcome for the day.  Maybe they could say Welcome to Starbucks…on World AIDS Day.  And let folks know that the three special drinks give back.  Or if someone like me buys one unprompted…take the 2 seconds extra for saying thanks – your purchase supports (RED) and AIDS in Africa.  I am a fanatic about following promotions like this – many others don’t take the time to track things as closely as I do – but they still care and would like to know.

So if your company is doing a cause marketing campaign, make sure you think through all the little details to make sure you get as much mileage (including sales!!) as possible from your efforts…including having salespeople let customers know.  It does not have to be a hard sell by any means but information – especially for the conscious consumer – is always great!  Give people the opportunity to like your company “even more” for your good works than they did before.  If they don’t know, they can’t, right?

I was checking my Facebook wall a few minutes ago and noticed an ad from Starbucks about their new (RED) affiliation.  As a kickoff they are doing a donation of $.05 per “handcrafted beverage” to the Global Fund on December 1st, World AIDS Day.

Facebook clearly offers a huge marketing reach for a cause marketing ad like this!

The Mark Victor Hansen MEGASpeaking event I attended in Los Angeles recently was held at a Marriott Hotel.  His next event is MEGABook Marketing University 2009.  Marriott now has a catalog called Shop Marriott that features items you might want to buy from the company…like their bedding.  On the back cover, they offer the Marriott Bear. 

“Show you care…With every purchase, Marriott will donate a portion of proceeds to America’s Second Harvest – the Nation’s Food Bank Network to support its mis­sion to create a hunger-free America. America’s Second Harvest is the nation’s largest charitable hunger-relief organization, a network of more than 200 regional member food banks and food-rescue programs serving all 50 states, the Dis­trict of Columbia and Puerto Rico. ”

(more…)

This was the title of an ad I saw in the 9/22/2008 edition of USA Today while I was in DC working with AmeriCorps.  The ad is for a special event, Eat With Your Paws for a Good Cause, on September 24, 2008 sponsored by WholeMeals Food for Dogs and LA’s restaurant, The Farm of Beverly Hills at the Grove.  You can either make a reservation for a free “hands on” eating experience with your dog at the restaurant (with a donation being made by the WholeMeals company to Much Love Animal Rescue.  Or, you can buy WholeMeals Food for Dogs until October 31st to use at home and the company will make a donation to needy animal shelters nationwide.

The ad had several lines of fine print which I found interesting…and made me wonder how much a nearly full page color ad costs in USA Today…looks like some where on the area of $143,000???  Anyway, the fine print says that the restaurant event will result in a total donation of $10,000 and the donation associated with buying bags of food at the pet store was buy one-give one, i.e., for every bag of food you buy, they will donate a bag of food to a shelter up to a value ot $250,000 (aggregate retail value).  

So…nice ad that cost $143K, they will sell product, got good PR and the donation is $260K.  How do the numbers look to you?