THINKing

Give It Up

Christmas is a time for giving, but somehow we’ve gotten this holiday turned around a bit. Every year I promote Holiday For Charity, a simple way to help charity during the season of giving. I just heard about a couple of other ways to augment the Holiday For Charity program – GoodSearch.com and GoodShop.com. Here’s what they say about the programs:

More than 70,000 nonprofits have partnered with a new Yahoo-powered search engine called GoodSearch.com, and online shopping mall GoodShop.com to enable their supporters to generate donations just by doing something they do everyday – search the Internet or shop online. What makes the system so compelling is that it doesn’t cost the users a thing. It’s a form of philanthropy that works for everyone in this tough economy!

Consumers are helping their favorite causes by shopping at GoodShop.com where they can choose from more than 800 well known retailers including Target, Apple, Macy’s, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Petco and others. The shopping experience and the prices are exactly the same as going to the retailer directly, but by going through GoodShop, up to 37% of the purchase price is donated to the user’s favorite cause. In addition, GoodShop provides the user with coupons and deals for the stores so not only are they helping a cause, but they’re saving money while doing so!

Similarly, with the GoodSearch search engine, approximately one penny is donated to the users’ favorite charity with every search. You use it exactly as you would any other search engine (it’s powered by Yahoo so you get quality search results) and the pennies add up quickly – just 500 people searching four times a day will earn around $7300 in a year! It doesn’t cost the users a thing!

So, help spread the word through all your social media channels. Word-of-mouth can help make a difference this year.

bookmark to:

Feeling Charitable?

It’s the time of year when my thoughts turn to charity. Being involved with charitable pursuits is good for you. Additionally, it is something you can merchandise to your customers, particularly if they are in the 18 – 25 age group. Surveys show that 69% of them consider a company’s social consciousness when determining where to shop.

But if you are going to select a charity with which to partner, how do you go about it? Charitable Choices provides guidance. Forbes offers this list of America’s most efficient charities.

Finally, here’s a piece in FundsRaiser that I wrote on cause marketing.

bookmark to:

Holiday For Charity Gains Traction

Our Holiday for Charity effort is gaining traction. Last week we mentioned it in our enewsletter, and we distributed a news release via PRWEB. If you visit our release, please feel free to share it through StumbleUpon or your other social networks.Additionally, I posted an article on social site, Gather.

The Publicity Hound featured us in its Help This Hound feature in both the newsletter and the blog.

A good story on charitable giving appeared on the highly trafficked Unclutterer blog and I posted a note there about the program.

Today, the Charlotte Business Journal mentioned our Holiday For Charity effort in its print and electronic editions. Other places we have found the story:

News.Bigg.Net

Newslife.us

If you like this holiday for charity idea, help spread the word. Use your social networks to  let others know. Use our embedded  social bookmarking feature beneath this posting, too. Thanks.

bookmark to:

Cause Related Marketing

Tis the season and we’re wanting to give gifts with soul. According to a new Cone poll,

While Americans love to give gifts with soul, the Cone Holiday Trend Tracker finds that the rising cost of energy and housing is impacting this desire in a big way. The percentages of people who will donate or purchase from a retailer supporting a cause are way down from last year. Even the spirit of volunteerism took a hit, with just 25% planning to volunteer, down from 49% last year.

I don’t believe that making donations and volunteerism will take a hit, just like I don’t believe all the negative press about holiday spending. These predictions are never correct. So, get out there and save the holidays for the cause.

bookmark to:

Holiday For Charity Update

We’re kicking the Holiday For Charity program up a notch. I asked Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound, to poll her readers for additional ideas to publicize the program. Today, she announced the program on her blog and in her newsletter. I’m excited to see what ideas will come in. Additionally, I:

• distributed a release via PRWEB this morning
• have sent the story idea to some local media in the Charlotte market.  No word from anyone yet
• mentioned it in my enewsletter today

Do you have any ideas about boosting this idea? Send them in. Thanks.

bookmark to:

Holiday For Charity

I told you recently about my Holiday For Charity program. If you’d like to participate in the program, here are a few items to help you promote it.

Letter/email to the editor:

Subject Line: Holiday for Charity Program Designed to Boost Charitable Giving

Americans spend more on holiday gifts during two months than they do in a full year of charitable giving. I’m supporting Holiday For Charity this season. Join me in asking friends and family to donate to your charities of choice instead of buying you another tie you won’t wear. The giver gets the tax write-off and you get the pleasure of doing something for someone less fortunate. (Fill in the blank) is my charity, in case my friends and family are reading.

For more information about Holiday For Charity visit www.my-creativeteam.com/blog

——————-

Holiday For Charity Resources:

Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance
The BBB Wise Giving Alliance offers guidance to donors on making informed giving decisions through our charity evaluations, various “tips” publications, and publishes the quarterly Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Guide.
Just Give
JustGive is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect people with the charities and causes they care about and to increase overall giving. As the central gateway to giving, we provide people with the resources, services, and tools they need to give — whether it’s their money, their time, or their goods.
Charitable Choices
For 15 years, Charitable Choices has been helping charities jointly promote themselves in workplace fund-raising campaigns.
VolunteerMatch
VolunteerMatch is the nonprofit, online service that helps interested volunteers get involved with community service organizations throughout the United States.

bookmark to:

Charity Begins At Home

Americans spent more in two months on holiday items than they did all year on charitable giving in 2006. Holiday retail sales for November and December 2006 in the general merchandise category were up about 4.6 percent, totaling roughly $456 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Charitable giving for 2006 set a record, topping $300 billion.

Why am I telling you this? Because once again I’m promoting Holiday for Charity, which encourages more donations to charity.

The program works like this:

1. ask friends, family and business associates to donate to a charity instead of buying you holiday gifts

2. sell your gifts online at eBay’s GivingWorks and donate the proceeds to charity

3. register and shop at iGive, whose merchants donate a portion of each transaction to the charities of your choice.

4. offer to do volunteer work in lieu of buying holiday gifts

5. donate directly to charity in lieu of buying holiday gifts for clients and customers

Giving to charity in the names of your clients instead of buying holiday gifts is a good way for a business to establish itself as an upstanding corporate citizen. Charitable giving is tax deductible and – when properly done and communicated – helps a business position itself positively in the eyes of its key audiences.

Recent research indicates that 80 percent of Americans have a more positive image of businesses identified as supporting charitable causes. Two-thirds say they would likely switch brands or retailers to one associated with a good cause.

So, give it up this holiday season and get some goodwill.

bookmark to: