I’m a road tripper – meaning I love to just take off and explore new places on the weekend. Like fellow road trippers, I tend to have my favorite roadside stops to refuel myself and my car. One of my top stops in the Mid-Atlantic region is Wawa. This is for a variety of reasons – the food is decent, the bathrooms are clean, it’s fun to say “I need some wata from Wawa” …but a bigger reason is that they’re very involved in great causes.

Right now, Wawa is supporting the Children’s Miracle Network, and actively taking point-of-sale donations through May 27. Check out this video that shows the heart of the company and how it donates volunteer time and funding to the nonprofit children’s hospital.

Click here for additional info on Wawa’s Miracle Month campaign. Thanks for the support, Wawa!

(posted by Megan)

One of Ben & Jerry's Personalized Flavors

Can you picture an ice cream brand that’s so well respected that people want to have wedding ceremonies in its store? Well, that’s the case for Ben & Jerry’s, the brand that has stuck to its beliefs and principle of giving back to society since its inception. For years, the company has used ice cream flavors to promote good deeds (like we wrote about here), in addition to other good works like encouraging employee volunteering projects.

In need of a reason to shop this weekend?

Say no more!

From now through Sunday, Banana Republic is campaigning to create jobs for the USA. Not by a big hiring spree, but through a good ol’ cause marketing fundraiser.

By shopping, buyers get the treat of 25% off purchases over $100, and better yet, an additional 5% goes straight to the Create Jobs for USA campaign, working to build sustainable jobs across the nation.

Of course, we’re no sales rep for Banana (though we do like their clothes). But it’s another example of the cause marketing campaigns the company continues to put on.

Thoughts on the content… the heading (and campaign name): Let’s Create Jobs for USA, is clever but slightly odd. Using “let’s” it’s a strong choice, giving the consumer a sense of power in numbers and a desire to participate.

Inside the brochure, Banana Republic makes a clear statement that donated money goes to the Opportunity Finance Network, and the max donation is $500,000. All very clear, so we at Brighter World give our nod of copywriting approval.

Now enough chit chat — I’m off to buy some shoes to contribute to American jobs!

(written by Megan)

A big thumbs-up goes out to Swiss chocolatier Lindt for launching a cause campaign on Pinterest — the first we’ve heard of, in fact.

Pinterest is one of the newest social media platforms, based on sharing images called “pins.” Users set up boards focused on specific subjects, and get to “follow” the boards of others.

Lindt set up their own pinboard called #Pin4Autism — a brilliant move, as it allowed the company to showcase bright visuals of their best products.

Lindt also set a $10,000 donation goal to raise money for Autism Speaks, an autism awareness organization. The company initially offered a $1 donation each time one of their images was repined, but changed the donation-per-pin to $10 after the first month of the campaign.

Other elements of the campaign included a $25 donation for each user who recreated one of Lindt’s Easter projects and sent an image via email with the subject line “#Pin4Autism Donation.” They also offered

• A ten cent donation each time a chocolate Gold Bunny was purchased
• A $1 donation for every Lindt e-card sent
• A $2 donation for every pre-filled Easter basket purchase

Lindt also connected with bloggers for the mommy industry — a wise move, given the largely female audience attracted by Pinterest.

On top of that, they featured the Pinterest and donation-with-purchase elements of their campaign front-and-center on their website.

By the beginning of April, the company had raised $2,500. No final numbers appear to be in just yet.

This is the third year the company partnered with Autism Speaks and the first year they’ve used social media to promote the campaign.

(posted by Mindy)

One of the fundamental strengths of cause marketing is that it’s steeped in involvement.

In other words, more than any other philanthropic effort, the goal of cause marketing is to engage and convert supporters for the long haul.

In turn — and in an ideal campaign — those supporters become evangelists for your cause. They’re your long-term crusaders for change. They commit themselves to your battle.

But thanks to the Internet, it’s easier than ever to win over crusaders — and keep them.

This is a fundamentally different approach than age-old fundraising campaigns that ask exclusively for donations. Whereas those messages tended to focus on images that inspire guilt or altruism, today’s online messages are more likely to inspire the urge to spread the word.

What does this mean? If you’re running a cause campaign, it means you must do three things:

1. Inspire emotion
2. Engage attention
3. Motivate further action

It could certainly be argued that traditional fundraising campaigns do the same thing, in a sense. After all, a touching photo of a hungry dog sparks sympathy in most people’s hearts. Their attention gets focused on a message, and then they’re motivated to act by writing a check.

The difference here is that our current techno-crazed world opens up layers of opportunity. Emotions these days are coaxed to the surface by more than just photos. These days, you can tweet your message, put up a video, launch an entire dedicated website, or send out a full email campaign.

When it comes to engaging attention, all the avenues mentioned above are there for the taking. This makes it a lot easier to get a captivating message across — you’re no longer limited to the days of old when a single headline made the difference between an appeal going straight into the trash versus getting read.

And as for motivating further action, think of the possibilities that unfold with the power of the “click.” It takes a single click to repost to Facebook, retweet on Twitter, or forward a message via email. It takes two clicks to re-pin an image to Pinterest. And that’s really just the tip of the interconnected online world.

Following that, it’s quite likely your new supporters will forever have that badge or image or post tied to their names.

What’s the lesson in all this? Make your message empowering. Let the Internet do the rest.

(posted by Mindy)

Oh, how I love this article!

Good News Network recently featured this incredibly heartwarming yet heartily humorous hobby one husband is doing for his wife — and for all other cancer patients now aware of him.

Husband’s Cause: a Cure for Breast Cancer — spurred by his wife’s prognosis
Approach: Humor
Theme: Crazy Tutu Photos With Different Backdrops

It’s one man, Bob Carey, who is making a huge impact with one cup of online outreach, a dash of silliness and a gallon of fun. (As you can see in this photo!)

Bob is a professional photographer who has taken the lead in innovative ideas by turning his humorous self-portrait photography into a fundraising tool. His website, complete with photos of him in a tutu at a New York metro station, in a field with horses, or at the Grand Canyon, has raised more than $8,000 to date. It seems many people are happy to buy photos of men in tutus — especially photos that raise cash for such a cause.

Companies can really take note of this strategy… quality artwork… laughter…. a noble cause. Bravo, Mr. Ballerina of The Tutu Project!  Check out all the impressive prints here: http://www.thetutuproject.com/.

(posted by Megan)

Do you ever wonder just what it is that makes you tick? Or more specifically, why you’d ever want to launch a cause-related venture?

You can find out — or at least get an idea — of your underlying motivators by visiting The Motivation Matrix, which I discovered through Paul Jones and his Cause Marketing blog (worth reading, by the way).

The matrix came out of an article by Inc. magazine about what drives entrepreneurs.

One of their key points is that you can predict both your career satisfaction and future level of success by considering how your interests and skills merge with your motivators.

Why is this important? According to the article, which quotes Noam Wasserman, associate professor at Harvard Business School, “One of the key things about entrepreneurs is that they have far more potential to make decisions with both head and heart.”

Wasserman also points out that when you understand what matters most to you, you have a better shot at launching a venture that satisfies you both materially and emotionally.

Wasserman has a book out on this: The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup (The Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship). The book can help you think through some of the more critical decisions relating to when and how to launch a venture.

The biggest benefit to the book, as it relates to cause marketing, is that it can help you anticipate crucial decisions like how much equity to take or who to include in your team.

Taking that advice one step further, it may also help you decide what kind of cause marketing venture you’d like your business to be involved in, and what you hope to gain from it. Ideally, the result will be a better understanding of how to do something altruistic that also helps your bottom line.

(posted by Mindy)

It’s always such a delight to see companies linking up on great cause marketing initiatives. Today, we’ll highlight just a few of the ones out there.

1. Kraft did an awesome Valentine’s Day campaign for their Macaroni and Cheese product. The company had fans tweet about #voicoflove and donated 100 boxes of mac & cheese to Feeding America for every tweet (up to 100K). And the results? They met their max and made some happy customers! On their final Facebook update, they received 156 likes and 23 comments – all very impressive numbers for a short-term campaign. Go Kraft!

Kraft's Successful Cause Promotion

2. Outnumber Hunger is a campaign put on by General Mills and Feeding America. Country singer celebrities are getting into the mix as well by helping to raise awareness about hunger across the U.S. Consumers simply need to insert a code online (found on General Mills packaging) and they can direct funding for five meals in local food banks. We love how the national campaign goes local by focusing on local hunger needs (determined by a zip code with online registry).

3. Kellogg’s is also in the mix to fight hunger. Their campaign is “Share your Breakfast, Share Hope.” They’ve partnered with Action for Healthy Kids to do just that, and will share 1 million breakfasts for kids in need.

We love all of these. Keep up the great work, Kraft, Kellogg’s & General Mills!

September marks a new cause marketing campaign for Snapple, where they’ve paired up with Maroon 5 for a limited time flavor. Both the drinks manufacturer and Grammy-award winning band will combine forces to donate $250,000 to support Feeding America. Pretty awesome — that equates to 175 million meals for the hungry.

All in all, a great idea. Maroon 5 fans will love that the band members each chose a tea ingredient to create the refreshing new Tea Will Be Loved flavor. Plus, naturally, many will be delighted to see the cause-related product.

The thing that we find missing, however, is the connection to the cause. We know how much Maroon 5 and Snapple will donate, but we don’t know why they’re donating. Sure, there’s a natural fit with any food-related business and hunger-relief charity, but we sure would love to see more — more stories, more info about the cause, and more call to action.

We didn’t see anything about how the public can support Feeding America. Nor did we see a link to the nonprofit site. But of course, there’s still a win/win/win. Snapple looks good. Maroon 5 looks good. Feeding America gets a nice “shout out” plus a wad of money.