Annie’s Homegrown uses its community involvement programs to build trust between the company and its customers. With the mission to respect all of earth’s inhabitants, its product respects customers by providing natural and organic comfort foods. And its approach to community involvement respects people by informing them and giving them the power to make a difference.

The company supports three main causes: the environment, women and children, and Stand for Peace. Most activities it supports within these causes promote education to the public, such as educating children on nutrition and the merits of eating more natural foods. On top of supporting education programs, Annie’s also uses its packaging to educate consumers everyday. This packaging is the first main portion of Annie’s cause marketing initiatives. By not overwhelming consumers with a lot of explicit marketing of the product and the company’s philanthropic endeavors, customers trust the company’s intentions as genuine and pay attention to information provided. The result is happy customers aware of the issues that Annie’s finds important.

 The second pillar of cause marketing at Annie’s takes place during the events it supports. Annie’s has two of its 35 employees devoted to cause marketing, and tries to have strong public relations during its community involvement programs. For example, with gluten free rice pasta recently launched, the company donates product to and speaks at meetings for the phyliac community to educate them about the product and its health merits.

Trust, loyalty, and cohesiveness within Annie’s have been the main advantages of these programs. Through trust of the Annie’s brand, customer loyalty for the company has remained strong and been one factor in its ability to move into general grocery stores across the country. And in these times of growth and evolution, the approach to giving has been inspirational to many employees and encouraged them to work together on projects.

Actual events and support for the causes comes in the form of product donations, monetary donations, and services. Two of Annie’s biggest initiatives are ‘Cases for Causes’ and the Environmental Studies Scholarships. ‘Cases for Causes’ is a program that supports unique nonprofits with donations in kind every month. Annie’s will not support any organization more than one month of the year, which allows them to learn about many different nonprofit projects each year.

The Environmental Studies scholarships are also smaller and more widely spread, with at least 35 $1,000 scholarships to college and graduate environmental studies students per year. This larger number of smaller donations allows the company to have more exposure, meanwhile keeping overall giving appropriate to the company’s size. This is actually one of the main pieces of advice that Chelsea Simons, Cause and Event Marketing Manager, gives to those starting a community involvement program: rather than letting your company’s small size prevent you from getting involved, simply think through different approaches to giving that will allow you to have an impact without necessarily donating the same amount of money and resources as larger companies.

By Louise Doyle Based on interview with Kathrine Koslowski and Chelsea Simons, both in event and cause marketing for Annie’s Homegrown, conducted by Susan Hyatt.

More information on Annie’s Homegrown can be found at: http://www.annies.com/

As a loose conglomerate of 10 different neighborhood pubs, the Little Pub Company uses community involvement as a central business tool to market to and attract local consumers. Founder Mark Berzins first decided on this approach when he realized how unrealistic traditional marketing avenues are for pubs that truly want a community feel with mainly local customers. So in lieu of a marketing budget, he established a community involvement budget.

Pubs in the group get their name out through local involvement. And inside pubs there are often informational hats on the tables showing what community causes the pub is supporting. Berzins explains that this ensures that customers in the communities know that the Little Pub Company is giving back to those communities.

The Company has chosen to focus primarily on causes related to arts and culture. This is in part because these causes are less glamorous, and often have more trouble raising money. But it also has the benefit of contributing to the culture and unique feel of many of the neighborhood pubs. However, this narrow focus was not always the case.

At first the company had no guidance on which causes to support, and no screening mechanism. As a result, the community involvement program was overwhelmed, and Berzins was forced to reevaluate the process. One of Berzins’ greatest lessons learned is that targeting community involvement programs before starting them is much more efficient.

There are four main resources the company uses to support its cause: money, product, leverage with suppliers, and time. The company gives grants to nonprofits in arts and culture. These are targeted to both adults and children. It strongly encourages employees to help out as well during their free time. The response to this is generally strong, as Berzins explains that employees want to help out in the community. He chose not to financially support employees volunteering because he wants them to do it out of desire to help, not because of external incentives.

For events and general community support, he also leverages his power with vendors for additional aid. In fact, he refuses to do business with organizations that don’t help support his causes. In order to help nonprofits not under the arts and culture umbrella, individual pubs often make donations of gift certificates.

A crucial quality in business and community involvement, Berzins truly leads by example in all of the programs his company offers. He is on the boards of various nonprofits and community organizations, and even organizes a program for his son’s kindergarten class to make arts and crafts gift baskets for underprivileged children.

For him, ‘getting involved is like working out,’ invigorating and addictive after the first time. He also recommends that people take programs or seek education before embarking on these projects, something which he himself got a lot out of.

One of the main challenges that he, as an involved individual and as a business owner, has faced is dealing with the money and politics in nonprofits. Education has helped him deal with some of these fundraising difficulties. When in need of motivation, he ironically goes back to the nonprofits, as their hard work and pure mission can be very inspirational despite these difficulties.

As far as the Little Pub Company is concerned, the business advantages of this program have included attracting customers and employee loyalty. Local customers appreciate that the pubs try to cater to the neighborhood and give back to the local community. And in the especially high-turnover bar and restaurant industry, feeling a sense of belonging and need can help retain employees by making them feel valued.

By Louise Doyle
Based on interview with Mark Berzins, founder of the Little Pub Company, conducted by Susan Hyatt.

Little Pubs Company’s Colorado Locations include:

Don’s Club Tavern
723 E. Sixth Ave., 6th Ave and Washington, Denver, CO 80203

The Elm
5001 E. Colfax Ave., Denver, CO 80220
(303) 336-5763

Firehouse Bar & Grill
1525 Blake St., Denver, CO 80202
(303) 820-3308

Irish Hound
575 Saint Paul St., Denver, CO 80206-4338
(303) 996-0709

Salty Rita’s
200 Quebec Bldg. 300101, Denver, CO 80230
(303) 344-4404

Spot Bar & Grill
98 S Pennsylvania St., Denver, CO 80209
(303) 733-1299

The Spot Bar & Grill 111 Rubey Dr., Golden, CO 80403
(303) 271-9310

Three Dogs Tavern
3390 W. 32nd Ave., Denver CO, 80210
(720) 854-1277

Wyman’s No. 5
2037 E 13th Ave, Denver, CO 80206-2003
(303) 996-0842

Through Zhena Gypsy Tea (ZGT), Zhena Muzyka has created a company with an integrated approach to community involvement, personal fulfillment, and product success. ZGT has a strong community involvement program, composed of a three-pronged initiative: ‘organic harvested tea that gives back to the planet, fair trade tea that gives back to the people harvesting the tea, and community support to ensure long-term sustainability of the business and community.’ This threefold objective is implemented through a diverse set of programs.

Both the organic and fair trade requirements help ZGT to fulfill its mission to end poverty in the communities from which it buys raw materials. This means not only buying the fair trade tea at a price premium, but also looking at what and how communities are using funds to improve. Zhena focuses on fair trade because workers are given health benefits, paid fairly, and no child labor is permitted. Even the tins holding the tea are made in China under Fair labor requirements.

Community involvement is also central to the company, where giving started before ZGT ever met its bottom line. Zhena insists that starting the giving from the beginning is crucial, as it integrates this mindset into the business as a whole and ensures that it grows out of sustainability. She even introduced a ‘tithing system that takes out the bottom line automatically.’

The company Credo serves to tie these programs together, solidify the threefold approach to improving the community, and guide who & how to support. The credo requires that all teas benefit at least one cause from an extensive list, that the company helps to improve women’s body awareness and preserve the gypsy culture, and support organic and biodynamic agriculture.

Philanthropic efforts to support different causes are supported through a grant process and cause products. The grants come from the sales of four new tea products, and support organizations that are consistent with the credo. ZGT tries to focus efforts on a few causes very important to the company and Zhena. For example, it is now focusing on supporting CEO Women, a group to help disadvantaged business women with micro-enterprise development.

Furthermore, ZGT offers cause products. These are teas created and named for a certain cause, with all profits going to that cause. Causes include Code Pink and Women for Peace. These products help bolster the company’s reputation through Cause Marketing and help to educate consumers with information about the tea and its cause on each tin.

In order to make sure that the efforts of ZGT are sustainable in future years, Zhena has systematized many of the processes. The primary example of this is the credo which Zhena created. But choosing an important personal issue and making sure to hire employees that support these objectives is also a form of systemization. It further helps to remind Zhena and employees not to straddle their efforts to much — to be firm about which organizations to support and which ones not to support.

Some of the strongest words of wisdom Zhena has to give are to tap your interests and utilize that personal connection. By choosing causes that one is passionate about, people have the bonuses of being ‘paid in soul’ and of greater incentive to work and put everything they can into getting it going.

Zhena wants to leave the legacy of passion for what she has done, and integrating her own culture and personal beliefs into the causes chosen will help further this memory. This extends beyond just grants, dictating her personal volunteer time and encouraging Zhena to donate belly dancing lessons and insight into the Gypsy heritage to help empower women. Zhena in fact uses her heritage and personal experience to guide not only the community involvement of the business but also the business strategy as a whole.

After finding out that her son was ill and needed better healthcare, Zhena turned to self reflection and prayer to find a solution. She then decided to leave her writing behind and start ZGT, literally beginning in a cart donated from a friend. As a result, the causes that the organization supports have a lot to do with giving women the power to be financially independent and helping to ensure that children in need receive the appropriate care.

One important resource for Zhena has been the progressive organizations of like-minded individuals. She has looked to these people for inspiration as well as practical help. Zhena emphasizes the need to ask questions freely, pointing to one example where she asked the crowd she was speaking to for advice and instead found a business partner.

The greatest reward of this integrated approach has been the deep sense of satisfaction that Zhena and those involved have because they know that they are doing something to help. And there have been business advantages: namely in the brand recognition and customer attention it is receiving because of the causes it supports so whole-heartedly.

By Louise Doyle

Based on interview with Zhena Muzyka, founder of Zhena Gypsy Tea, conducted by Susan Hyatt.

More information on Zhena Gypsy Tea can be found at: https://www.gypsytea.com/