These nonprofits are teaming up with corporations to make a difference

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, businesses, brands, CSR professionals, marketing managers.

Guest post by Daryn Sung-Lee, for Vivanista

At Vivanista we believe that we all have a bit of philanthropist inside us. Beneath the protective masks we put on lays the innate desire to do good. Cause marketing, where a company partners with a cause like breast cancer research or a charity donates funds to tsunami relief, enables regular people to consume mainstream products while doing their small part.

Although there’s nothing like good old-fashioned hands-on philanthropy, it does give causes and nonprofits the visibility and marketing resources they couldn’t get on their own. eBay, the world’s largest e-commerce company, is breaking ground in the world of cause marketing. They started an in-house cause called Giving Works in 2003, which allows eBay users to donate money to any cause of their choice. Basically, users can choose to donate money along with a purchase, or donate a percentage of whatever they sell to an organization. In this way, eBay has made it incredibly easy for thousands of nonprofits, big or small, to receive funds and visibility.

Last year Microsoft’s Bing search engine received the Cause Marketing Halo Award, given by the Cause Marketing Forum, for their partnership with DonorsChoose.org. With the cause of education in mind, both organizations sponsored a contest called Our School Needs, where students from schools across the nation sent videos, pictures and essays explaining their schools’ needs. Bing and DonorsChoose were responsible for donations and projects in schools across all 50 states. As a result of the contest, children gained a familiarity with social media tools like Twitter, blogs, playlists and YouTube, which they used to submit their schools to the contest.

Coca-Cola is also in the mood for philanthropy. The company teamed up with the polar bear-loving World Wildlife Fund to turn the classic red cans white during the holidays. Along with donating $2 million right off the bat, the white packaging, which appeared on such Coke drinks as Coca-Cola Zero and Diet Coke, helped to raise awareness for the conservation of the polar bears’ natural habitat. Cola drinkers were able to text in dollar donations to WWF as well as donate online at ArcticHome.com. It is widely known that the polar bear is the symbol of Coke’s cool, refreshing taste. What better way to return the favor then by fighting for the greatly threatened habitat of these majestic animals?

Sure, when your company is making millions of dollars, it’s easy to pick a charity out of a hat and throw money at it, all while marketing your products. But for the ongoing cause marketing campaigns mentioned above and many others like them, this is simply not the case. As with Bing’s Our School Needs fundraiser and eBay’s massive effort to raise money for thousands of causes, the companies went to the people for philanthropic direction. Through social and online media, the people themselves were able to decide what, where and to whom their donations were going to.

With social tools like Twitter and Facebook making it even easier to become informed about local and world causes and charities, and with a little support from businesses, cause marketing might see an explosion in popularity in the near future.

This article originally appeared at Vivanista.com and is republished with permission.

Photos above from Flickr by: roitberg, USFWSAlaska, calvinfleming, Jochen Siegle/TechShowNetwork

The post Cause marketing campaigns making an impact appeared first on Socialbrite.

Acouple of months back, some smart folks came together in San Francisco to provide creative technology and marketing strategies for DonorsChoose.org in a first of its kind “social hackathon.” DonorsChoose raises funds for public classrooms. Several of my friends were there — Beth Kanter, Chris Brogan, Chris Messina, Ben Parr, Kathy Sierra — as well as representatives from Bing, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, REI, Twitter and WebTrends.

Out of this gathering, put on by marketing agency Deep Focus, came a free ebook, Goodness Engine: Driving Greater Social Impact in the Digital World, which aims to help nonprofits — and, yes, businesses — learn about how to use social media for social good, including topics ranging from driving online traffic to creating dynamic content and managing online engagement.

From the introduction of the 54-page ebook:

“We are now more connected than ever before. Power in numbers — especially online — has become our everyday reality. Rallying, organizing and motivating are no longer hurdles, but life-changing opportunities. Passions become movements. Movements make impacts. Impacts re-shape our world. In the spirit of connecting for good, Microsoft’s Bing and Hotmail teams brought together luminaries within the tech industry to help DonorsChoose.org address its ongoing technology and marketing challenges. Deep Focus attended the event and distilled the best ideas, tactics and creative solutions into an in-depth analysis that can serve both nonprofit and for-profit companies with corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.”

Download the free book

Also check out Microsoft’s Citizenship efforts: Microsoft.com/Citizenship website; @msftcitizenship on Twitter and Facebook.com/MicrosoftCitizenship on Facebook.

Related

• Bing post on the Goodness Engine.
• Interview with DonorsChoose founder Charles Best (Socialbrite)

The post ‘Goodness Engine’ ebook: A social hackathon for DonorsChoose appeared first on Socialbrite.