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September 2006 Archives
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September 30, 2006
Heifer International
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Featured Nonprofit
You can buy a goat and rescue a family from poverty. Or you can buy a cow, a sheep, some chickens--pick your favorite farm animal. It's all in the gift catalog of Heifer International and part of a creative effort to engage people in helping to end hunger and poverty.
Heifer International sets up communties with an animal or agricultural project that can help provide food and extra income. The projects always include education and training, sustainable principles, and the requirement that participants pass on one of their animal's offspring and their training to another family. It creates a chain of self-reliance and enables families and communities to break away from poverty.
Since the first shipment of Heifer animals went to Puerto Rico in 1944 the organization has been making sustainability possible.
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September 29, 2006
Accomplishments Over Activities
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Marketing
When talking about a cause you should stress accomplishment over activity. Kivi Leroux Miller at the Nonprofit Communications blog recommends this strategy for annual reports, though it applies to just about any communication about your cause. But sometimes getting to the accomplishment requires a bit of digging.
Miller offers this sample conversation of the process:
Nonprofit: We hosted a golf tournament and a silent auction as fundraisers.Me: And that’s important because ...
Nonprofit: The events raised $20,000.
Me: And that’s important because ...
Nonprofit: We need the money.
Me: For what?
Nonprofit: Our scholarship fund.
Me: Which is important because...
Nonprofit: These kids can’t afford college otherwise.
Me: And how many scholarships did you fund with $20,000?
Nonprofit: Five.
Me: So which sentence is the accomplishment that should lead the section on this area of your work? "We held a golf tournament and a silent auction." Or "We helped five students attend college."
It's not about golf, banquets or auctions. It's about education, justice or equality.
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Room to Read
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Featured Nonprofit
A three week vacation from Microsoft changed John Wood's life--and impacted nearly one million children. In 1998 Wood planned a three-week trip to Nepal trekking across the Himalayas. But on the first day he struck up a conversation with a local who was in charge of resources for 17 schools and had nothing to work with. Nepal had a 70% illiteracy rate. Wood shot an e-mail back to the U.S. asking for books and his vacation turned into something else.
In 2000 Wood left Microsoft and founded Room to Read, a nonprofit organization that wants to break the poverty cycle by bringing education and literacy to the world's poorest children. They open libraries and schools, publish local language books, donate English language books, and offer long-term scholarships to girls--all with an entrepreneurial approach that requires locals to put forth half the effort for a project. So far Room to Read has impacted the lives of nearly one million children, constructed almost 200 schools and founded nearly 3,000 libraries.
Wood has contributed his own story to his crusade to help children read, the book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An Entrepreneur's Odyssey to Educate the World's Children.
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September 28, 2006
Pushing the Non-Profit Design Boundary
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Design
To make an impact you may need to take your cause to the edge. Or over the edge. Houtlust is a blog that collects non-profit advertising and social campaigns from around the world that are on the bleeding edge of marketing and activism.
Some of it may be a little risque, so be warned. But check out the Red Cross Canada's Know What To Do, the Brazilian World Wildlife Fund's Dia Da Arvore (tree day) and Amnesty International's A Signature is Powerful. (link via Selfish Giving)
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September 27, 2006
The Urban Forest Project
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Design
![I [heart] Trees by Scott Pauli](http://www.thinkpersonality.com/think/graphics/2006_09_27urbanforest.jpg)
If you're in Times Square through the end of October you may find yourself thinking less about neon and more about trees. The Urban Forest Project has 186 banners on display in and around Times Square created by world-renowned artists. The banners center around the subject of trees and the idea of sustainability. When the banners come down they'll be made into tote bags and auctioned off to raise money for art education.
The project is a collaboration between three non-profits: the AIGA New York, the Times Square Alliance and the Worldstudio Foundation. The project is also a brilliant way to get people talking about one cause (the environment) while supporting another cause (the arts). (link via Social Design Notes)
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September 26, 2006
Public Relations Meets Web 2.0
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Public Relations
Blogs and wikis and Myspace, oh my! The web 2.0 landscape can be a scary place for non-profits. But when it comes to getting the word out web 2.0 can be a cause's best friend. Why? It's cheap, it's easy and it works. Consider the web 2.0 series from Church Marketing Sucks (OK, I wrote it). It's written for churches but the lessons can be applied to any non-profit or cause. You can tap into sites like Squidoo or MySpace to get the word out (and MySpace isn't just for youngesters anymore: 87% of users are 18 or older; 52% are over 35).
For an even more in-depth lesson, check out PR 2.0 Essentials, a 30-page PDF that explains how public relations professionals can use blogs, tags, wikis, podcasts, RSS and more. (link via Getting Attention via Studio 501c via Micro Persuasion, whew)
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September 25, 2006
Participant: Making Movies with a Cause
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Cause Marketing
Who says Hollywood is self-absorbed and soulless? That image may be changing thanks to Jeff Skoll and Participant Productions and their string of movies with a cause: North Country (sexual harassment), Syriana (tackling the oil industry), Good Night, and Good Luck (McCarthyism and freedom of the press), Murderball (disabilities), Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth (the environment) and the upcoming Fast Food Nation (taking on the fast food industry).
"Ultimately, the goal here is to build a brand around social relevance in media," says Skoll, former eBay president and rich guy looking to make the world a better place. Every movie Participant produces has to be commercially viable and promote awareness about one of six key issues: the environment, health, human rights, institutional responsibility, peace and tolerance, and social and economic equity. They also pair each movie with an action campaign to make that social relevance happen.
"It can't be good-for-you spinach, or it's not going to work," says Ricky Strauss, Participant's president. "The more mainstream the story, the more opportunity to make an impact." In other words this isn't just do-gooder stuff. It's making money while changing the world.
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September 22, 2006
Stephon Marbury's $15 Basketball Shoes
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Cause Marketing
NBA star Stephon Marbury has created his own line of athletic apparel, but you won't see the sky high prices like $150 Air Jordans. Marbury's shoes will sell for $14.98. In fact, everything in his line--including high quality leather jackets, hoodies, hats, jeans and shoes--will sell for under $15 exclusively at Steve & Barry's, a national apparel retailer.
Marbury grew up in the projects of Brooklyn, N.Y. and could never afford the ultra-expensive shoes and apparel that were marketed to urban children like him. So he started his line--dubbed Starbury--to offer something affordable. And also big on style and quality. His shoes and clothes are made from the same stuff as the more expensive lines.
"This is not about basketball," Marbury told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "Everything we're doing is motivated by us, just being a group of people who feel it's time for change."
So far the change is working: Starbury shoes are selling out. Proof positive that a cause can still be good for business.
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One: Making Poverty History
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Featured Nonprofit
"We want you to become a pest," U2 frontman Bono told MTV. "Sign here." The One campaign is a cause like no other. They don't want your cash, they don't want your donations--they just want your voice. One voice, united in an ambitious drive to make poverty history.
One brings together every major relief agency--religious, humanitarian, governmental or otherwise--with the mindset that there's enough organizations and money out there, they just need to be pushed in the same direction. And it is pulling from every demographic, from Republicans and Democrats, punk-rockers and NASCAR moms.
"It's not just a bunch of wiggy liberals, rock stars, hip-hop people, actors," says Bono. "This is not the usual suspects. This is different."
One hopes to push the U.S. government to put 1% of the federal budget towards eradicating poverty. They want to see basic needs--heath, education, clean water and food--be met in the world's poorest countries. They're calling for debt cancellation, trade reform and anti-corruption measures.
And they hope to make it happen with One voice. All they're asking is for people to sign up and let their voice be heard. It takes One voice to make poverty history.
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September 21, 2006
Strive to Stand for Something
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Cause Marketing
Forget the dotcom boom when young workers wanted cash and ridiculous perks. Today's teens care about something more. 78% of teens said personal fulfillment ranked higher than cash, according to Business Week. It fits with the increase in volunteerism and will impact all kinds of decisions, from what kind of clothes to buy to what companies to work for.
"One study by Energy BBDO, a Chicago ad agency affiliated with BBDO Worldwide, concluded that to succeed with this group, brands can't just strive to stand out, they 'must strive to stand for something.'"
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September 20, 2006
International Justice Mission
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Featured Nonprofit
Relief workers and missionaries overseas often witness injustice beyond the poverty or tragedy that may have brought them to the field. They see those in power abusing that power and resulting in violence, sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression. This sentiment was unanimously expressed by more than 40,000 overseas workers from 65 different organizations in a survey conducted by human rights professionals, lawyers and public officials. The results prompted them to form the International Justice Mission (IJM) in 1997.
"Nothing compares to the deadness in the eyes of a kid in a brothel," Gary Haugen, IJM president, told Forbes magazine. "In Rwanda, the dead were already gone. In the brothels of Cambodia, they are the living dead."
While relief workers and missionaries don't have the resources to address systemic oppression, the IJM does, stepping in to offer legal aid, advocacy and international awareness. And awareness is what they're getting with a steady stream of media attention, including Oprah and Dateline NBC--which partnered in an undercover raid. IJM even landed a $5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2006. The result is that slaves and the victims of sex trafficking are going free and justice is being done.
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You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure
Posted by Brian Zopf | Filed under: Marketing
There's a lot of talk about growth these days. If you listen to what people tell you there's "unprecedented growth" and progress in almost every sector of society: in our nation's economy, in our collective knowledge and expertise, in terms of education, morals and, of course, in business. But "growth" in regards to what? According to what standards?
Everything can be measured in one way or another. The problem is: It rarely is. It's one thing to say or feel you're experiencing growth. It's another thing to know it. Test hypotheses. Track your efforts. Even though statistics can be manipulated, anything you can back up with numbers will undoubtedly receive more attention in the public square, while resulting in more trust among your constituents. This applies to personal life, as well as business.
How you measure something is entirely up to you. But one thing is certain: You can't manage--for better or worse--what you don't measure. Without a starting and ending point, you have no measuring stick.
A few words of advice when measuring ...
Continue reading "You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure"
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September 19, 2006
Learning from Mistakes: Veggie Tales
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Business
Two years before Pixar made a splash with Toy Story, Big Idea created the first ever computer animated video series in the U.S.--the children's series Veggie Tales, which debuted in 1993 and fulfiled Big Idea's mission of promoting Sunday morning values with Saturday morning fun. The positive Judeo-Christian values propelled the series to big profits. Between 1996 and 1999 Big Idea's revenue grew by 3300%, from $1.3 million to $44 million. But it all came crashing down and ended with Big Idea's bankruptcy in 2003 (as part of the settlement Big Idea was sold to Classic Media who continues to crank out Veggie Tales shows).
Big Idea founder Phil Vischer shares what happened in a surprisingly honest and revealing series of blog posts, What Happened to Big Idea (at 11 separate parts it's also lengthy). It amounts to a business case study in how not to make the transition from small company to big company. Big Idea found itself in the sticky middle ground of being "too big to be small yet too small to be big," which ended up being deadly.
For bonus reading you can check out Vischer's recounting of how Big Idea almost bought the Dupage Theater in Lombard, Ill. as a headquarters. It's another business case study, this time in how not to buy a headquarters.
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September 18, 2006
Invisible Children
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Featured Nonprofit
In 2003 three college students from California traveled to Uganda and saw firsthand the invisible children. For the past 20 years a rebel group trying to overthrow the Ugandan government has kidnapped children and forced them to fight in their war. So every night thousands of children travel miles on foot in order to spend the night in the sanctuary of towns and villages, safe from the rebel army.
The three college students, Bobby Bailey, Laren Poole and Jason Russell, founded the non-profit Invisible Children and have been trying to create awareness and support the children of Uganda. Their efforts have included the documentary Invisible Children, the Global Night Commute in April 2006 when thousands all over the U.S. spent the night in cities in solidarity with the children of Uganda, and education programs for Ugandan children that they help pay for by selling Ugandan bracelets. It's a media-savvy organization that has tapped into America's youth with online videos, a MySpace page and a compelling cause that where you live shouldn't determine whether you live.
"There's nothing I want to do more than give them the same opportunity that I've had all my life," Bailey told Relevant magazine. "The idea of equality pushes me forward--the idea that we're on the brink of something extraordinary. That coupled with the opportunity that we have the chance to inspire the kids of America. Maybe life has another layer of fullness from giving it away."
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Wash for Life: Give Teens a Cause or They'll Start One
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Cause Marketing
On Saturday, September 16, 2006 teens in 41 states across the country washed cars to support crisis pregnancy centers. It's part of Wash for Life, a student-led organization rallying pro-life teens to do something more than protest abortion.
It's just one example of how young people are volunteering like never before:
- 66% of college freshmen said it is essential or very important to help those in need, the highest response in 25 years, according to USA Today. 83% said they volunteered at least occasionally during their senior year, another record, and 67% said they'd keep the volunteer trend up in college, also a record.
- 34% of high school seniors performed community service in 2001, up from 24% in 1980, according to the New York Times. 10% of high school students volunteer on a weekly basis.
Students today believe in causes and want to work with those causes. And if they can't find a cause to work with, they'll start their own, like Wash for Life.
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September 15, 2006
Pale is the New Tan: Fight Skin Cancer
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Cause Marketing
Neutrogena has teamed up with the American Cancer Society to fight skin cancer caused by sun damange. Part of the partnership includes an awareness campaign to promote the dangers of tanning, whether it's on the beach or at a tanning salon. The plan includes a special "Pale is the New Tan" T-shirt, available only at Amazon.com, with $3 from every purchase going to the American Cancer Society. Neutrogena also pitched in 15 cents from every sun care product sold in May 2006, a minimum donation of $400,000.
It's a classic example of cause marketing. The American Cancer Society gets exposure, donations and increased awareness about skin cancer. Win, win, win. Neutrogena gets positive buzz for supporting a good cause and style points for the T-shirt. Win and win. What does the public get? Hopefully not skin cancer. That's a win.
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September 11, 2006
Ethos Water
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Featured Nonprofit
More than one billion people don't have access to clean drinking water. The result is that water-related diseases are the leading cause of death among children. Water is a big deal. Which is why Ethos Water is not your average bottled water. Five cents of each bottle goes towards funding clean sources of drinking water. It's water with a purpose.
Peter Thume saw children suffering from lack of safe drinking water firsthand while working in Africa. He came up with the idea to sell bottled water to help give kids clean drinking water and started Ethos in 2002. His college classmate Jonathan Greenblatt joined the team and together they started working to make Ethos work. In 2005 Starbucks Coffee bought Ethos and committed to continuing their vision while offering vast resources to make it happen. And it all started with two guys and a dream.
Check out the Business Week interview with Ethos' founders.
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September 9, 2006
Wal-Mart: Changing the World with Lightbulbs
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Cause Marketing
Wal-Mart isn't exactly a corporate role model with its reputation for crushing small businesses, paying low wages and encouraging outsourcing so it can slash prices. But the giant retailer is working on that reputation by focusing on causes. They beat the government in passing out relief supplies after Hurricane Katrina and now they're turning their attention to the lightbulb.
The compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFLs for short) to be more specific, which uses 75-80% less electricity than conventional bulbs—a savings on your electric bill which covers the premium price in about five months—and can last up to a decade. Wal-Mart is pushing the bulbs in a partnership with manufacturer GE in an effort to save customers money, use less energy and create less trash in our landfills.
Wal-Mart jumped on the idea when someone did the math and realized Wal-Mart would save $6 million per year just by putting CFLs in their ceiling fan displays. You can read more about it in the Fast Company article, "How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change the World?"
It's a simple example of how cause marketing isn't always about volunteers and donations. Businesses can support causes and support the bottom line. Everybody wins.
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Personality Getaway 2006
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Personality News
On August 18 and 19 the Personality™ team went to the mountaintop for a little rest and refocus. We spent two days reflecting on our history, talking about strengths and dreaming about the future. We also played horseshoes and pool, ate good food and admired the view of Big Bear Lake.
Here are a few of the things we learned:
- The cause must always win.
- The importance of saying no. Learning what you should be doing and what you shouldn't.
- Before the trip the entire team read Now, Discover Your Strengths and took the test to discover our own strengths. On the retreat we shared our own strengths and discussed what that means for Personality™. The main point of the book is that to excel you need to focus on fine-tuning your strengths, not trying to make up for your weaknesses.
- The only way to learn from mistakes is to make mistakes, so consider making calculated mistakes when there's a potential payoff.
- We talked about what the perfect company looks like, from basics like good pay and flexible schedules, to out-of-the-box ideas like company-paid volunteer days and an office space that's part museum and part classroom.
- We brainstormed what the perfect cause looks like, from being in close proximity to the people they serve to simply being effective--whether that means years worth of proven results or a startup with a unique angle.
- Then we listed the obstacles and problems that are keeping us from being the perfect company working with the perfect causes and talked about how to solve each one (talking about solving and actually solving are two different things--we have a lot of work ahead).
When we finally descended from the mountain we had piles of notes, chockfull of ideas and wisdom. As we're learning, being a successful company isn't simply meeting deadlines and working on projects. It's also thinking ahead and dreaming big. And it's figuring out how to make those dreams a reality. It's what we hope to do for causes, and it's something we're putting into practice ourselves.
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September 8, 2006
Personality Refocuses on Cause Marketing
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Personality News
It takes a certain amount of passion to start a company that can trace its roots back to a spare bedroom. But those are the roots of Personality™. With that passion at heart, it should come as no surprise that we're solidifying ourselves as a cause marketing agency, combining our practical approach to branding, marketing and design with our passion to support social causes.
This is something we've wanted to announce since early this year. We believe we can change the world and now it's part of our business plan. It's about helping non-profits and businesses work together so everybody wins. It's pairing a heart full of idealism with a head full of practicality. It's about doing well while doing good.
It's something we've done since the beginning, back in that spare bedroom in 1998, though the cause marketing revelation has only come lately. Last year we met with an outside consultant, Paula Serios, former ad exec with Ogilvy, and head of marketing and communications at Mission Hospital in Irvine, Calif. Over the course of six months Serios helped us fine-tune our mission and focus. We realized this is what we've been doing all along, we just never had the words for it. Now we're processing what this means and adjusting our focus and communication to help causes.
We bring together the incurable idealism with the practical reality--it's a marriage of the head and heart. Welcome to Personality™--the cause marketing agency.
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Tell Your Own Story
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks | Filed under: Personality News
We have a confession to make. We fell into the trap we see so many of our clients fall into. We let urgent deadlines and giant projects push back our own communication. We became so busy telling the stories of our clients that we forgot to tell our own story.
And we've got a story to tell, though you wouldn't know it from the thick layer of dust on this blog and the placeholder image on the front of our web site.
We've been waiting for so long because we have more than business as usual to report. We've got big news. We wanted to make a big splash with a new web site and a new e-mail newsletter and press releases and the whole shebang. But all of that takes time and when you get busy it's easy to focus on what pays the bills. We got so wrapped up in doing it just right that we didn't have time to do it at all.
But if you want to stick around, you have to tell our own story too.
So we're going to dust off this site and start telling our story again. It's not as splashy as we'd like, but it's something.
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