Cause Marketing Potpourri

Some miscellaneous items from the world of cause-related marketing, and corporate philanthropy.

Economy Slowing Philanthropic Giving by Small Business
A survey of small businesses, published by The Chronicle of Philanthropy and sponsored by Advanta, finds them enthusiastic for charitable giving, but retrenching in the slowing economy.

Small business… companies with fewer than 500 employees… is the most vibrant chunk of the U.S. economy employing about half the nation’s workforce. In the survey of small business 66 percent who donate through the company, donate cash, 51 percent volunteer, 41 percent give services and 39 percent make in-kind donations.

The economy has affected the mood of small business when it comes to philanthropy. Sixty percent say the economic turmoil has negatively affected their charitable giving. Thirty-eight percent say they’ve given less this year, 47 percent say their philanthropy has held steady and 14 percent say they’ve given more.

mGive Donates TV Commercial for Keep a Child Alive
mGive, which provides the mechanism that allows charitable donations to be added to donor’s phone bills in $5 chunks, donated an ad buy on MTV to Keep a Child Alive, the charity for kids with AIDS in Africa.

As I’ve posted in the past, mGive has been successfully used in the past in conjunction with outdoor media and events. But this is the first time mGive has been used with a TV ad. The creative features singer and songwriter Alicia Keys.

Advanta’s Ideablob Open to Charities and Social Entrepreneurs, Gives Away $10,000 a Month
Ideablob, a social media site for entrepreneurs, charities and social entrepreneurs gives away $10,000 a month to ideas that receive the most votes from users.

To get a feel for it, I posted my own Ideablob and my takeaway is that charities and social entrepreneurs that could rally voters, could probably finish in the money.

Check my Ideablob here.

OfficeMax Expanding Its Line of Office Materials Made from Trash
OfficeMax and TerraCycle…which makes pencils, paper, backpacks, binders and other items from materials like elephant poop, coffee grinds, wine corks, cookie wrappers, and computer diskettes… are doubling the line available in OfficeMax stores.

TerraCycle donates a few pennies to charity for items like used soda bottles, wine corks, drink pouches and the like.

I’m giving TerraCycle short shrift here, but do visit their site and check out one of the most interesting business models anywhere.

Part 2: How Chili's Used Cause-Related Marketing to Raise $8.2 million for St. Jude

[Bloggers Note: In this second half of this post I discuss the nuts and bolts of how Chili's motivates support from its employees and managers and how St. Jude 'activates' support from Chili's. Read the first half here.] How does St. Jude motivate support from Chili’s front line employees and management alike? They call it ‘activation’ and they do so by the following: They share stories of St. Jude patients who were sick and got better thanks to the services they received at the hospital. Two stories in particular are personal for Chili’s staff. A Chili’s bartender in El Dorado Hills, California named Jeff Eagles has a younger brother who was treated at St. Jude. In both 2005 and 2006 Eagles was the campaign’s biggest individual fundraiser. John Griffin, a manager at the Chili’s in Conway, Arkansas had an infant daughter who was treated for retinoblastoma at St. Jude. They drew on the support Doug Brooks… the president and CEO of Brinker International, Chili’s parent co...

Chili’s and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

I was in Chili’s today and I ordered their “Triple-Dipper,” a three appetizer combo. While I waited for the food, I noticed another kind of combo. Chili’s is doing a full-featured cause-related marketing campaign for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. There was a four-sided laminated table tent outlining the campaign on the table. When the waitress brought the drinks she slapped down Chili’s trademark square paper beverage coasters and on them was a call to action for an element of the campaign called ‘Create-A-Pepper,’ a kind of paper icon campaign. The wait staff was all attired in black shirts co-branded with Chili’s and St. Jude. The Create-A-Pepper paper icon could be found in a stack behind the hostess area. The Peppers are outlines of Chili’s iconic logo meant to be colored. I paid $1 for mine, but they would have taken $5, $10, or more. The crayons, too, were co-branded with the ‘Create-A-Pepper’ and St. Jude’s logos. There’s also creatapepper.com, a microsite, but again wi...

Cause-Related Marketing with Customer Receipts

Walgreens and JDRF Right now at Walgreens…the giant pharmacy and retail store chain with more than 5,800 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico… they’re selling $1 paper icons for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). This is an annual campaign and I bought one to gauge how it’s changed over the years. (Short list… they don’t do the shoe as a die cut anymore; the paper icon is now an 8¾ x 4¼ rectangle. Another interesting change; one side is now in Spanish). The icon has a bar code and Jacob, the clerk, scanned it and handed me a receipt as we finished the transaction. At the bottom was an 800-number keyed to a customer satisfaction survey. Dial the number, answer some questions and you’re entered into a drawing for $10,000 between now and the end of September 2007. I don’t know what their response rate is, but the $10,000 amount suggests that it’s pretty low. Taco Bell’s survey gives out $1,000 per week. At a regional seafood restaurant they give me a code that garner...

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