BG US Challenge and St. Jude Childen's Research Hospital Part 2

A Business to Business Cause-Related Marketing Campaign that Brings Money & ROI... Part II

Cause-related marketing isn't always about the consumer audience. Just as there are businesses that sell goods and services to other businesses (B2B), it is possible... though not always easy... to put together cause marketing campaigns where the cause transaction occurs between businesses (B2B Cause-Related Marketing©).

The smartly-branded Memphis-based St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, has just such a B2B Cause-Related Marketing campaign going on right now with the BG Corporate Challenge. And unlike the countless walk-a-thons, bike-a-thons, eclair-eat-a-thons, etc., this one offers corporate participants real ROI.

Read the second half of my interview with Holly Thompson... the Liaison-Sports Marketing & Sponsor Development, and the person in charge of the BG US Challenge at St Jude... to see how. As a reminder, what follows are paraphrased answers from Holly, NOT actual quotes.

The event seems very physical. Does it give you any heartburn that only fit people are likely to participate?

The BG US Challenge measures teams mentally, physically and strategically. And
one of the things it forces teams to do is play to their strengths. If a team
has someone who can read, understand and memorize maps, the BG US Challenge
rewards the team when they build on such strengths.

It seems like there’s an x-a-thon for charity every weekend. How does the BG Corporate Challenge differ?

Teams come back from the BG US Challenge able to draw on and impart to internal
teams the lessons learned. It impacts the entire organization. There’s real
measurable ROI. Several companies have written case studies that demonstrate the
ROI.

St. Jude apparently fields several teams. What do those team members say about the experience?

We have two teams, the first is celebrity team comprised of All Stars from
reality shows like Survivor and the Amazing Race. They took first place last
year and represented the United States at the World Challenge last year. Our
second team is comprised of employees who are also former patients at St. Jude.
They are powerful reminders to the other teams of the mission and purpose of the
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

How does the intensity of the experience translate for St. Jude? That is, when participants are in the thick of the Challenge how does that reflect on (if at all) St. Jude?

Last year as one team crossed a finish line, which involved rigging a makeshift
stretcher, they were heard to say in effect; this is nothing compared to what the
kids at St. Jude go through every day!

What kind of presence do you have in front of participants?

All the teams wear a hospital-style bracelet with the name and condition of an
actual patient. We’re on all the signage at the event and all the marketing
materials and collateral in the lead up to the event including the ads in
Fortune. Last year the BG US Challenge aired on OLN and we got exposure there.
Since the Challenger World was purchase by IMG we expect the TV component will
be even greater this year.

BG US Challenge and St. Jude Childen's Research Hospital

A Business to Business Cause-Related Marketing Campaign that Brings Money & ROI... Part I

I’ve written before about what we at Alden Keene & Associates call B2B Cause-Related Marketing©. That is, cause marketing that takes place between businesses rather than between business and consumers.

B2B Cause-Related Marketing can be more challenging because of the issue of money. It’s relatively easy for a cause marketer to put together a CRM campaign with a physical good that’s sold to a consumer. But where does the money come from in when the CRM exchange takes place between two businesses?

Memphis-based St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is currently running a dynamite B2B Cause-Related Marketing campaign that turns the standard walk-a-thon on its ear. And it does so while building corporate teams and affinity between corporate America and St. Jude. It’s called the BG US Challenge. You may have seen the ad above for the Challenge in Fortune magazine.

I spoke last week with Holly Thompson… the Liaison-Sports Marketing & Sponsor Development, and the person in charge of the BG US Challenge at St Jude… about how St. Jude got involved with a cause campaign that offers participants honest-to-Pete ROI.

I can’t think of even one of the countless x-a-thons that could claim the same.

What follows are my questions along with Holly’s responses. Let me hasten to add that the answers below are my paraphrases of her, NOT direct quotes.

For reasons of length, I’ll spit the post between today and Thursday.

Give me some history. How did St. Jude get involved and what is the nature of your involvement?

Late in 2004 the Challenger World, an event production company out of the UK recently purchased by IMG, approached a number of US nonprofits looking for a partner. Challenge events had been successful in the UK and Europe for 10 years and they were looking to expand into the US and wanted a charity partner that could complement their brand and whose mission included serving children. We turned out to be perhaps more than they hoped for. We raised $250,000 the first year, $650,000 last year and we anticipate topping $1 million this year.

Companies sign up as team. We receive the registration information and we
contact and help the individual team members set up customized websites. The websites, developed by our internal IT staff along with Convio, come with a list of tools; a fundraising contact management system, marketing materials and collateral,
press releases, a blog, newsletter, etc. Pledges can be fulfilled directly through the websites.

What are your goals for your participation? Is it just fundraising or do you fee like you get more than that out of participation?

Our principal goal is fundraising. But the BG US Challenge has served as a
springboard to other types of fundraising for us. Some of the teams have
approached us and expressed interest in employee-giving, which is very easy
to do. That said, we haven’t pushed any participating team very hard…
after all they may have just raised $100,000 for us and we don’t want to seem as if we’re going to the well too often. We also have the capacity to track gifts and we know that 100 people who have made pledges through the BG US Challenge have also made additional gifts to St. Jude above and beyond their pledges.

One of the reasons we feel confident that we’ll top $1 million this year is that
after the BG US Challenge last year the Vice President of Corporate affairs for BG in the United States asked how much it cost to run St. Jude for one day. We told him it
was $1.2 million and he said he wanted to do that.

On Thursday -- how the BG US Challenge builds ROI for corporate teams while raising money for St. Jude.

Local Toyota Service Centers and Weber State Automotive Training Programs

Affinity in Cause-Related Marketing

Implicit in any successful cause-related marketing campaign is the idea of affinity. Absent affinity, no cause-related marketing campaign is likely to soar

Think about it, if children with cancer don’t affect you emotionally, intellectually or otherwise, then you’re far less likely support any cause marketing campaign on behalf of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

And it has to be the right kind of affinity. I may love American Idol and Randy Jackson, but if I don’t have a cat then his endorsement in this 9Lives FSI isn’t likely to convince me to buy a bag of dry cat food.

So consider the case of this mailer, received at my home circa October 2004 from the cooperative marketing group for the Toyota Service Centers in my market. I get one of these mailers about once a month. This one advertised a lube, oil and filter service featuring genuine Toyota parts.

In the red burst on the left side is the cause-marketing offer. Buy this service for $25.95, and the Toyota Service Center will make a $2 donation to Weber State University automotive training programs, which the mailer points out, were negatively affected by budget cuts.

The text of the burst makes it clear that the local Toyota Service Centers have some skin in the game.

“Weber State University trains our technicians to stay current with the ever
more complex systems in your state of the art Toyota vehicles.”

But I don’t have any skin in this game. While I admire Weber State University, I’m not an alumnus, nor is any immediate family member. Weber State’s campus is about 50 miles away, so I don’t have any particular affinity based on proximity. Moreover, the training of automotive technicians, while important, strikes me as exactly the kind of program that ought to be heavily funded by Toyota, its dealers, and service centers anyway.

In other words, I don’t have any affinity with the school or its automotive training programs. Ergo, the $2 donation represents no special incentive to me.

Who might have an affinity? That’s a tough one. Certainly graduates of Weber State’s automotive training programs, but almost by definition those people all change their own oil. What about other Weber State students, graduates, vendors, donors, faculty or staff?

They certainly have affinity for the school, but does that extend to any special affinity to an automotive training program? Difficult to say without surveying those groups.

In short, the Toyota Service Centers in my local market used a cause-related marketing ploy on a lot of people (myself included) that don’t have a natural affinity for the ‘cause.’

I don’t know what the results of the campaign were, but I do know that in the 2½ years since I received this I haven’t seen any other offer like this from my local Toyota Service Centers.

I’ll bet the gambit didn’t really pay off.

Integrated Cause Marketing

Bridge the Gaps

Pictured is a recent flyer from Designerchecks.com. The flyer features two cause-related marketing efforts; one for the New York City police officers and firefighters who performed so bravely during 9-11, and the other for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Ignore for the moment the weak and confusing “portion of the proceeds” language on the firefighter check and concentrate instead on what else is in play besides the transaction-based promotions.

Everyone that buys either of those checks is identifying themselves as someone who has so much affinity for the New York City firefighters and police officers of 9-11, or for breast cancer research that they’re willing to put a ‘bumper sticker’ on their checks saying as much!

Imagine the value to those two nonprofits to have the list of people who bought those checks. It’s the hottest kind of list.

While for-profits commonly approach non-profits for their lists, it’s less common for the lists to go the other direction. But how hard would it be for Designerchecks.com to provide lists to the respective charities as an element in their sponsorship/licensing agreement?

We’re about 25 years into modern cause marketing and companies and nonprofits still don’t fully understand one another's needs.

That stems from the fact that on the nonprofit side cause marketers tend to be ‘siloed.’ At one of the big disease charities, for instance, a cause marketer might not even know a direct marketer in the firm. (Although at smaller charities the cause marketer and direct marketer are likely to be the same person).

On the corporate side few cause marketers fully realize how charities fundraise and where the money comes from.

Pop quiz for you folks on the for-profit side. On average, how much of the funds raised by charities comes from individuals?

The answer is more than 75 percent.

A big chunk of that comes from major donors, but a lot of it comes courtesy of direct mail efforts. In other words, every charity needs a list. And lists with high affinity are much more valuable than those with low affinity. Duh, right?

On the nonprofit side, few cause marketers know how much pressure their for-profit colleagues are under to keep their brand out in front, even when the partner is a nonprofit.

It’s time we bridge these gaps.

Bridging gaps starts with understanding and understanding starts with lunch.

So I propose the following: Let’s make Friday, June 1 the “International Take a Nonprofit Colleague to Lunch Day!”

If you’re a corporate cause marketer, you’re buying.

If you're an agency, wrangle a meet-up with both parties.

If you’re a nonprofit cause marketer and an invitation isn’t forthcoming from a sponsor, then you need to call a colleague from the direct mail division, say, or the PR staff.

If you’re from a small nonprofit with few employees, take the boss to lunch and try to get into her head to find out what she wishes you knew.

Either way, I suggest a multi-course Italian meal; because it will take longer and because… well, Italian food is great.

Buon appetito!

Breaking News: Humane Society of the United States Added to Microsoft's i'm Initiative List of Benefiting Charities

It's not often that I get to 'break' news here at the Cause-Related Marketing blog, but today I do.

Here's a press release, leaked to me, which announces that The Humane Society of the United States is the tenth charity to benefit from Windows Live Messenger's cause-marketing campaign called the i'm Initiative.

The Humane Society of the United States Announces Participation in the i’m Initiative from Microsoft

Windows Live Messenger connects customers to top social causes through the donation of Microsoft advertising dollars

(May 21, 2007) - Starting today, anyone who sends instant messages to their friends, family or colleagues using Windows Live Messenger can also help animals at the same time.

Through participation in the i’m Initiative from Microsoft, The Humane Society of the United States is offering supporters and other animal lovers who download Windows Live Messenger the opportunity to make a difference without spending a dime. Microsoft will donate a portion of advertising revenue to The HSUS, and also offers special backgrounds and buttons featuring an animal theme.

Microsoft and nine other charitable organizations announced the launch of the i’m Initiative in March. The HSUS is the tenth organization participating in the
initiative.

‘The Humane Society of the United States is pleased to be participating in this exciting program,” said Wayne Pacelle, HSUS president and CEO. “We are searching for every possible way to connect with our supporters and to help them demonstrate their affection for animals and their affiliation with us.”

This new initiative connects selected cause-related organizations to Windows Live Messenger users. When joining the program at http://im.live.com, users will be asked to select a cause organization to benefit from donations generated from their conversations on Windows Live Messenger.

Every time a user who joins the i’m Initiative has a conversation, Microsoft shares a portion of the program’s advertising revenue with the participating organization of his or her choice. While there is no set cap on the amount each cause can receive, Microsoft will make a minimum $100,000 guaranteed donation to each of the 10 organizations during the first year of the program.

Designed to empower people to make a difference without spending a dime, Microsoft says the i’m Initiative helps support causes that are confronting some of the world’s most urgent social issues. The i’m Initiative aims to help the organizations involved to broaden their reach in a sustainable and new way, allowing the millions of people already using Windows Live Messenger today to be a part of the solution.

According to a 2006 Cone Cause Millennial Study, 61 percent of young Americans between the ages of 13 and 25 are currently worried about the state of the world today and feel personally responsible to make a difference.

“This initiative is the latest in a series of programs we offer to help people connect to our mission to celebrate animals and confront cruelty,” said Pacelle.

-30-

The Humane Society of the United
States is the nation’s largest animal protection organization – backed by
10 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS
has been fighting for the protection of all animals through
advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting
cruelty -- On the web at humanesociety.org.


For
more information, press only:
Rachel Querry, The Humane Society of the United
States,
301-258-8255
rquerry@humanesociety.org

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Get Away Today Vacations and Credit Unions for Kids

How to Raise $1 Million for Charity Without Transparency

I have ranted frequently about the hazards of cause marketing without transparency.

But the fact is, there are plenty of campaigns that manage to be successful without much transparency. Plenty that still cling to the obsolete language, “a portion of the proceeds,’ and do just fine.

How does that work? Am I wrong about the necessity of transparency? Maybe it’s more of a nicety than a requirement, like chives with your baked potato or seeing the Musee d’Orsay after touring Le Louvre.

Case in point is the back page of a small brochure that came stuffed in my credit union statement a few months back from Get Away Today Vacations (GATV). GATV is a privately-held travel agency with billings of about $50 million a year which built its business booking Disneyland vacation packages for families.

It’s a nice little niche. Chuck and Julie Smith, the husband and wife who own the agency, say, “We’ve been able to make our vacation our vocation.”

So how is it that GATV can raise more than $1 million for Credit Unions for Kids using weak language like “a portion of the purchase price?”

GATV markets extensively in partnership with credit unions in the Western United States. And in general, credit unions in the United States enjoy a sterling reputation, especially when it comes to customer satisfaction.

In effect GATV’s cause campaign for Credit Unions for Kids trades on the reputation of credit unions. Like a favorite restaurant or hairdresser, people trust their credit unions. “If the credit union has blessed it then it must be OK,” the thinking goes.

So how do you build a cause campaign that can raise more than $1 million without transparency? You build a great campaign and borrrow from the reputation of a highly-respected organization.

But imagine how much more powerful the promotion would be if GATV just said how much money from each transaction went to Credit Unions for Kids?


I submit it would be much more than $1 million.

Social Entrepreneuers Galactic Pizza and Endangered Species Chocolate

The Importance of Being Earnest (or Not) in Cause Marketing

How important is it to understand your audience in cause-related marketing?

It’s more important than the creative approach, the appeal and maybe the cause you choose.

Illustrated are two companies that practice social entrepreneurship; that is, they’re capitalists with a nonprofit-like missions.

Both employ cause marketing to sell their respective products. But they come at their cause marketing from completely different points of view.

The first, Endangered Species Chocolate of Indianapolis, is earnest in its approach. Here’s a couple of paragraphs printed on the outside wrapper of their Gorilla milk chocolate bar with pecan pralines.

OUR STORY At Endangered Species Chocolate, we provide exceptionally delicious,
ethically traded chocolate made with only the finest, 100% all-natural
ingredients. Just as important, we see chocolate as a medium to save species,
conserve habitat and honor human life. ESC donates 10% of its net profits to
organizations that are committed to the conservation of species, habitat and
humanity.

ETHICALLY TRADED means we source our cacao fruit from
small family-owned farms that thrive in the forest, which in turn provides
natural preservation for the species that live there. This practice also ensures
economic well-being for the communities in which the farms are located

On the inside wrapper are a few hundred more words on the gorilla, its habitat and human threats.

Contrast this with Galactic Pizza in Minneapolis.

1. Galactic Pizza has a fleet of electric-powered vehicles they use when weather permits.


2. The milk for their mozzarella comes from cows that are not treated with growth hormones.


3. They also source other food ingredients from organic sources.


4. During the growing season, they have a featured pizza that draws ingredients from a community-sponsored agricultural project that eschews artificial fertilizers and pesticides.


5. A portion of the proceeds from another pizza supports the local food bank.


6. Overall five percent of after-tax profits go to charity.


7. Their electical power comes from wind sources.

Here’s the kicker, instead of being earnest about all this Galactic Pizza is jokey.

1. Their pizza delivery guys dress up in superhero garb and go by names like “Bob,” “Frank” and “Les.”


2. They had “Richard Simmons Day” where if you dressed up like Richard Simmons you got 50 percent off your total order.


3. They have a "4:20 Special," a jesting reference to marijuana.

So which social entrepreneur is right, Endangered Species or Galactic Pizza?

Actually, even though both companies almost certainly have overlapping audiences, that question is a false dichotomy.

I doubt either company spends a lot of time or money doing rigorous AB copy tests or convening focus groups to segment their customers. But that’s not to say that they don’t understand their respective customers.

Whether you're an agency, a nonprofit, a for-profit, or a social entrepreneur, you have to figure out ways to understand the audience you hope to appeal to in your cause marketing campaign.

If you don't, no superhero will be able to save your campaign.

Target and the National Teacher Appreciation Week

Cause-Related Marketing, Sans the Cause

Target advertised this gift card in their weekly flyer meant to be given to teachers in appreciation for their efforts.

Why? Because “teachers inspire and guide children to learn and grow and achieve their dreams.”

What should we do? “Show your teachers how important they are to you during National Teacher Appreciation Week, May 6-12.”

How? Well “The World’s Best Teacher Giftcard” is available in Target stores and online at Target.com.

Why now? Because for many kids in the States the school year ends in about three weeks.

The offer turns on “National Teacher Appreciation Week.” In fact, the full title of the week is “The National PTA Teacher Appreciation Week.” The National PTA Teacher Appreciation Week has been the first full week in May since the PTA founded the observation in 1984.

The National PTA is an umbrella group, a 501(c)(3) charity, that leads and coordinates more than 23,000 affiliate Parent Teacher Associations in every state in the U.S. Locally the PTA is the most grassroots organization imaginable, putting on fundraisers for school and teacher needs and advocating and lobbying on behalf of children before principals, school boards and politicians.

Many’s the politician (usually female) who cut her political teeth in local and state PTAs. The former governor of my state of Utah, Olene Walker… not only the first female governor of the state, but the also the first one with a PhD… has said as much.

But PTA is conspicuously absent in Target’s promotion.

If they’re not Federal or state recognized, there’s no sanctioning authority for these observances. And it doesn’t appear that National PTA Teacher Appreciation Week is a trademark of the National PTA.

In effect, what Target has done is create what appears to be a micro cause-related marketing campaign out of thin air but with no money going to an actual cause.

You could do the same thing.

I’m just going down Chase’s Calendar of Events for the month of May and looking only at observances that are not trademarked. May features National Astronomy Day and National Astronomy Week. May is also Awareness of Medical Orphans Month, Better Hearing and Speech Month, Clean Air Month, Creative Beginnings Month, Family Wellness Month, Fibromyalgia Education and Awareness Month, Freedom Shrine Month, Get Caught Reading Month, Heal the Children Month, and many, many more.

I don’t know whether to cheer Target’s inventiveness or decry their parsimony.

Turning Data Into Information

An Average Hour for Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki, Seven Months for Me

On Tuesday, October 17, 2006 I posted my first entry on this blog called Eyeballs vs Tears. According to Google Analytics, in the 202 days since the blog has received about 4380 visits and 7300 pageviews, for an average of 1.67 pageviews per visit.

I confess I’m pretty proud of those numbers, although they probably represent at best an average hour’s worth of traffic at Guy Kawasaki’s or Seth Godin’s blogs.

Nonetheless, I think it’s instructive to parse the data revealed in Google Analytics and try to turn it from ‘data into information,’ as the immortal Peter Drucker (seen above) used to say.

Not surprisingly, the most common Google search terms were phrases like “cause-related marketing,” “cause related promotion,” or variations on a theme.

More than 200 visits came courtesy of Newsweek magazine’s article on the Red campaign in which I’m quoted. Philanthopy.com’s roundup of nonprofit blogs called Give and Take, where this blog has been featured several times, has generated 175 referrals. By contrast, natural search on Google has generated more than 2,000 visits.

Thus, while referrals, especially from the ‘old’ media can drive traffic and build respectability, the biggest chunk of traffic comes from ‘new’ media.

In terms of postings, the most popular was the Top 5 Bottom 5 Cause-related Marketing Campaigns of 2006. The next three most popular were Montblanc Nicolas Cage Ad, followed closely by the Viva Glam Lipstick for the MAC Aids Fund, and Using Celebrities to Enhance Your Cause-Related Marketing. It appears that people interested in cause-related marketing believe there’s a strong role for celebrities and glamour.

Among postings that received 50 or more unique pageviews, Keeping Your Cause-Related Marketing Relationships Fresh had the highest average time spent on that page; 3:33 minutes. That leads me to believe that there’s a hunger for information about the people part of cause marketing.

I have tried not only to highlight and dissect the big cause marketing campaigns like Susan G. Komen, Red, the Red Dress campaign and others, I’ve also aimed my radar at smaller efforts, like the Rocky Mountain Power Cool Keeper Program and Silk Soymilk and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Neither have generated much readership.

When I have tried to be self-consciously clever I’ve had mixed results. I thought I’d get calls from book publishers after I posted Cause Marketing and Galvanic Corrosion. But most people found it about as exciting as rust. My posting on the need for a ‘MacGuffin’ or a mechanical devise that impels action in cause marketing campaigns did better. Still, no calls from publishers.
The great plurality of visitors come from the United States. But I’ve had readers from a total of 83 countries on six continents, none more surprising to me than a visitor from Myanmar who read 19 pages! But early on a great number of my readers came from Europe and Asia, especially China.

As a result although I’m an American and all but a small handful of the cause marketing campaigns I’ve reviewed have been American campaigns, I’ve conscientiously tried to write posts that I thought had at least some application for cause marketers whether they were in Mauritius, Morocco, Mexico or Massachusetts.

I’ll end on a related note. For my readers everywhere, I hope you'll share with all of us notable cause-related marketing campaigns where you live along with your review. Please direct any campaigns to aldenkeeneatgmaildotcom. And if it’s not in English, please include a translation.

And thanks to all of you for finding and reading Cause-Related Marketing. It’s been fun!

Window's Live Messenger and Multiple Charities

Tech Companies: Steal This Idea from Mr. Softy!

I’M intrigued by the new cause-related marketing campaign Microsoft is promoting right now called the “i’m Initiative.” Sign up with the i’m Initiative in the United States and every time you use Window’s Live Messenger Microsoft will make a donation to one of nine designated charities.

The money for the donation comes from splitting ad revenue, which echoes the way Seth Godin’s Squidoo.com makes charitable donations.

As currently constituted the nine charities are: American Red Cross; Boys & Girls Clubs of America; The National Aids Fund; National Multiple Sclerosis Society; ninemillion.org; The Sierra Club; StopGlobalWarming.org; Susan G. Komen; and UNICEF.

The most recent survey of IM users that I’m familiar with comes from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, published in September 2004. They found that 42 percent of American Internet users, or 53 million people, used IM. The heaviest usage is among Gen Y (age 18-27). Pew reported that 46 percent of Gen Y used IM more than email and that the largest portion of people…35 percent… who use IM for an hour or more a day are Gen Yers.

In short, IM appeals to Gen Y the way a welcoming barnyard appeals to farm animals.

Microsoft’s signup page is certainly illustrated with Gen Yers, leading me to believe that’s their target with this promotion.

There’s a lot to like here. There’s no cap on the amount that can go to one of the nine charities, but all are guaranteed a minimum of $100,000 this first year. Likewise, as of right now, the i’m Initiative will be a permanent part of their business plan. That, too, is reminiscent of Squidoo.com. They've also built in a capacity for Live Messenger fans to spread the word virally using the theme "i'm making a difference."

I have two small reservations.

The mix of charities is a curious one if they are indeed targeting Gen Y. The Red Cross, MS Society, UNICEF… and to a lesser degree the Sierra Club and Susan G. Komen… are slightly fusty choices. I’m not saying they’re unworthy of the program’s support (or your support or mine, for that matter). Only that these causes are most likely to appeal to an older generation. But maybe Microsoft is just hedging its bets that older people will sign up, too.

My second reservation has to do with having to choose just one charity to support. Unless I’m missing something, it seems to me like it would be a simple matter to allow someone to support multiple charities at once; say, The Sierra Club and StopGlobalWarming.org. Or, the Red Cross, UNICEF and ninemillion.org. Why not allow the option to split on a percentage basis the revenue generated by each call among multiple charities? Or, why not split it by month such that UNICEF gets the proceeds from your messaging in January, the National AIDS Fund in February, etc.?

I'M in hopes that this promotion will fly. Because just as Mr. Softy has borrowed a page from Squidoo, there will be a lot of web-based endeavors that will steal from Microsoft if it works.

March of Dimes and Colored Charity Ribbons

Enough With the Ribbons Already

How powerful is the ribbon as a visual awareness symbol? Can causes and nonprofits continue to adopt existing colored ribbons and yet still have meaning invested in all the rest? What’s the potential for confusion when two or more different charities/causes claim the same color of ribbon? When another cause adopts a colored ribbon already in use, does it undermine meaning or expand it? Could another iconic image beside a ribbon come to mean as much? Isn’t there a ‘me-to’ aspect to ribbons nowadays? Could ribbons be overused to the point where there’s a ribbon backlash?

These and other questions came flooding to me when I saw this ‘thank you to our sponsors’ ad in the April 30 issue of Fortune Magazine from WalkAmerica, the fundraiser for the March of Dimes.

In the bottom right corner is a blue and pink ribbon (get it?). Frankly it came as a surprise to me that March of Dimes… which works to prevent birth defects… had a ribbon and that they choose to feature it so prominently.

If the entry under Pink Ribbon in Wikipedia is to be believed then ribbons in America came in vogue in later years of World War I when a marching cadence sung by the doughboys had the line “around her hair she wore a yellow ribbon.” Another Wikipedia entry said that the yellow ribbons were worn by wives and girlfriends of American Cavalrymen in the 19th century. Another says the practice was brought to America from Europe by Puritans during Colonial times. During WWII songs were written about yellow ribbons and soldiers coming home.

But the biggest hit using the yellow ribbon theme came from Tony Orlando and Dawn in the 1970s with their song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Ole Oak Tree,” which was about a prisoner returning home to his sweetheart. Later, American embassy officials held hostage in Iran found yellow ribbons waiting for them on their return in 1981. In short for perhaps 300 years, the yellow ribbon meant a homecoming.

Then in the early 1990s AIDS activists began to employ red ribbons not as a symbol of homecoming but to bring awareness to the fight against that dread disease. Very soon thereafter activists against breast cancer began to employ pink ribbons as a symbol of the fight against that dread disease.

In Canada and increasingly worldwide the white ribbon signifies opposition to violence against women. It is also used by the Quebec peace movement to signal their disapproval of the war in Iraq.

Blue ribbons mean remembrance of police officers killed in action in Victoria, Australia. In Spain the blue ribbon is worn by those who oppose the terrorism of ETA. In Ukraine blue ribbons are worn in protest of the seizure of power during the “Orange Revolution.”

And on it goes. Every color of ribbon you could name means something to a nonprofit or a cause somewhere.

Or does it?

Is it really possible for a purple ribbon to be truly meaningful for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation when it already stands for awareness of pancreatic cancer, as a protest against horse slaughter, as a sign of Pagan solidarity, or in memory of slain Beatle John Lennon?

I can see both sides of the argument. The wearing of ribbons has perhaps 20 generations of meaning woven into it, and maybe more. And the colors, like the March of Dimes pink and blue ribbon, all have some specific connotation. Why kick against the pricks?

Here’s a suggested rule of thumb if your cause or nonprofit is thinking about utilizing a colored ribbon: If you’re one of the first five to adopt the color, well bully for you and your cause. Run hard with it.

But if you’re the last ribbon to the party… say, number six or beyond… then it’s time to head back to the drawing board and develop some other iconic image and color that can denote the unique passion, mission and thrust of your nonprofit.

Because, let’s be honest, most of the colored ribbons are pretty well tied up.