I have been in Des Moines this week staying with my 12 year old niece while my sister was out of town for work. As Annie and I cruised various malls looking for a new shirt for the first day of school – she kept pointing out examples of cause marketing and business giving as we wandered around asking, “have you written a blog post about this?”  I guess I am having an influence…

Today in the Des Moines Register’s Datebook section, there was an announcement about the “Wing Ding” to be held Saturday, August 29th at El Bait Shop in Des Moines. Eight area restaurants have teamed up for this event. For $20, you can get nine wings of your choice, a beer or soda, and a commemorative koozie. Special events are scheduled all day long to draw people in to participate in the event.  Proceeds benefit VSA Arts of Iowa, a charity that provides artistic opportunities for people with disabilities.

I (of course) went straight to the El Bait Shop website – since I am not from here, I had no idea what it was. I was greeted by a voice saying, “Hey, man. Circle your calendar and get your butts down here to EL Bait Shop on Saturday for a Wing Ding…” which gave me a start.  And it is a great idea – underneath the overview of the bar on the home page, they put an avatar who starts speaking as soon as you land on the page to tell about the upcoming Wing Ding event. To the left of the avatar, they put the logo for the Wing Ding event which once clicked takes you to Paypal to buy tickets online.  Also, there was an icon to click through to the pdf flyer with all three logos (event, business, and nonprofit) and the description and details of the event.  Really great promotion of the event by the business!

Going to the VSA Arts of Iowa website, they have the Wing Ding event featured on their home page — so great work doing promotion by both organizations.

Still a little cognitive dissonance in my head about El Bait Shop supporting the arts – but it is clearly a great and worthy cause and they have done a nice job with it.

About VSA Arts of Iowa
VSA Arts was founded in 1974 by Jean Kennedy Smith as an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.  The purpose of VSA Arts is to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities and their communities by providing artistic opportunity.  To accomplish this mission, VSA Arts operates affiliates nationwide and in over 60 countries.  For more information on VSA Arts of Iowa visit http://www.vsaartsofiowa.org or call 515-281-5839.

California Pizza Kitchen offers fundraisers for schools and 501(c)(3) charitable organizations. The CPK Manager will schedule the date for the event and give the nonprofit a flyer they can copy and distribute to everyone they know. On the day of the fundraiser, CPK will donate 20% of the sales from the event back to the organization. CPK has glossy card stock flyers they have available for customers announcing the “Philanthropizza” program. For more information, go to: http://www.cpk.com.

Industry: Food service

Headquarters: Centennial, CO

Founder: Mark Berzins

Founded: 1994

Number of Employees: 130

Markets: Denver Metro Area, CO

Interviewed: Mark Berzins, Founder

Little Pub Company is a group of neighborhood bars in Denver, CO loosely collected under the Little Pub Company name. Each pub is a distinct neighborhood place for patrons to hang out and be social with their neighbors and other members of the community. The firm has grown over the past 13 years to have about 130 employees and 10 different pubs. The company’s business model is to provide an evening alternative to the morning coffee shop; a place where people can routinely go to end their day with others in their community. Some of the company’s restaurants include Senor Rita’s, Salty Rita, Three Dogs Tavern, Spot Bar & Grill and Irish Hound.

Little Pub Company’s community involvement began as a way to reach their desired target market of locals, neighbors, and pedestrian traffic. In order to build relationships and reputation among their desired clientele, the company devoted its marketing budget toward getting involved with various nonprofit and community organizations.

Little Pub Company

7348 S Alton Way
Centennial, CO 80112

http://www.littlepubco.com/