Corporations Take Online and Offline Action On Behalf of Charities

Dear Readers: This post was begun the day before the earthquake hit Haiti. As we all know the people of Haiti are dealing with a catastrophic situation, and the disaster is prompting individuals around the globe to donate to Haitian relief. My next post will focus on the various ways in which technology is being used to help amass desperately needed funds. The use of mobile phones to make donations has made a great deal of news. Below you'll see how the American Foundation for Children with AIDS is working with the for-profit company, CharityCall. In my next blog I intend to take an in-depth look at how mobile phones were/are being used in the efforts to raise funds for Haitian relief.

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Highlighted in this post are two corporations that created special holiday (and year long) programs that are benefiting nonprofits. As you will read, both companies employed online mechanisms for customers/consumers to vote for a favorite charity, which would then receive a donation from the company.

Good Earth, the provider of organic coffee and tea, has initiated an online campaign through which visitors vote for their favorite charity. Good Earth has suggested eight charities, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, American Foundation for Children with AIDS, First Book, Home Safety Council, March of Dimes, Operation Gratitude, Scholarship America, Wildlife Waystation. Consumers can also vote for their own charity of choice but they can only vote once a day.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=119836
http://goodearthcares.com/

The three charities to receive the most votes will receive a donation from Good Earth. The donations will be made from a pool of money that comes from 50% of Good Earth's after tax profits (up to a total of $30,000) from the sale of every package of tea and coffee. The voting runs from October 25,2009 to February 28, 2010.

As of 1/10/10 the top five charities are: American Foundation for Children with AIDS, Operation Gratitude, Home Safety Council, Wildlife Forever, Scholarship America. Of these top five charities only Home Safety Council and Scholarship America promote the Good Earth campaign. Home Safety does the best job with a prominent ad unit on the home page, which is above the fold. Scholarship America's promotion is a bit harder to find though it is found on the home page. Consumers have to scroll down on the home page. Under the section "Scholarship News & Events," almost at the very bottom of the page, there is a text explanation of the Good Earth campaign. The copy includes a hyperlink to Good Earth.

Though the American Foundation for Children with AIDS is not actively promoting the Good Earth campaign, the charity is promoting a partnership with CharityCall™ and Truist. CharityCall is a for-profit venture that allows mobile phone users to make charitable donations via a SmartPhone (PayPal) platform or through an AT&T Wireless cell phone without having to enter an SMS text, credit card or user specific information. The AT&T Wireless user dials #505, and when prompted the user enters the 2-digit ID of their desired charity or cause. The donation process typically takes less than 30-seconds. To support AFCA, dial 12 after being prompted. Donation are posted on the monthly AT&T Wireless statement.

CharityCall charges nonprofits fees to participate. There is a one-time $350 set-up fee, a base monthly service fee of $250, and a is "per donation" fee of 5%. The donation fee is separate from any applicable PayPal, credit/debit card or other financial processing charges. According to CharityCall's FAQS, 95% of a donor's dollars, less any applicable credit card clearing charges, are distributed directly to the designated charity or cause. CharityCall and its partners provide all of the operational donor services at a total cost of only 5% of donations.

The wireless phone donations collected are received by CharityCall's fiscal agent, Global Impact. Global Impact will make a monthly disbursement to the participating charities within a period of 60-days from date of receipt of the donations.

After making a donation, donors can schedule a reminder to donation again user based on a selected calendar criteria - weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc. The reminders are sent to the donor's email address at the scheduled times.

On CharityCall's website lists the American Foundation for Children with AIDS, American Red Cross, Community Health Charities, Earth Share, Global Action for Children, Global Impact, Joyful Heart Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation of Eastern North Carolina as participating charities.

Target has a history of providing financial and in-kind donation support to nonprofits. Since 1946, Target has given 5 percent of its income to support and enrich the communities in which the stores are located. According to the company website, the donation amount today equals more than $3 million a week. The nonprofits supported service the areas of education, the arts, social services and volunteerism.

Support of the arts takes the form of funding music and dance festivals, theater events and programs that enable museum and special exhibitions going. Target's "Take Charge of Education" is a school fundraising program and the "Target Field Trip Grants Program" helps "teachers bring learning to life for students." Target also makes grants to local schools and educational organizations.

In 2009 Target launched "Bullseye Gives." the company's first online giving campaign. The campaign encouraged Facebook fans to vote for their favorite charity. The charity with the highest total would receive a one-time donation that was a portion of $3 million - one week’s worth of Target giving. By logging over 38,000 votes, the Salvation Army received $391,258. The Salvation Army used the funds to upgrade media centers and renovate libraries at designated local chapters nationwide.

The donation mentioned above was part of the more than $3.25 million that was donated in cash and in-kind donations made to Salvation Army by Target. In fact, Target provide the Salvation Army with year round support via national and local partnerships which include local chapter grants, volunteerism and in-kind donations.

Target's holiday support of the Salvation Army included the following:

MediaPost reported on Target's promotion of its three-day holiday pop-up "Target-To Go" stores in New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. On the morning of December 12, 500 over-sized gift tags the morning were placed around the cities. When a consumer brought one of the gift tags to a Target To-Go shop, he/she received a "GiftCard" valued from $10 to $500. Each redeemed tag also resulted in $100 being given to the Salvation Army. When the one customer in each market received the $500 gift card, The Salvation Army also received $500. Lastly an unspecified number of families in need, selected by the Salvation Army, received a $100 Target gift card.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=118617

Target also collaborated with Hasbro, Inc. on a special holiday promotion. From December 6 - 12, Hasbro pledged to give five percent of the purchase price of select Hasbro toys bought exclusively at Target directly to The Salvation Army.

Target worked with local Salvation Army chapters to run toy drives. The total value of the donation was $250,000 and included toys and Target GiftCards.

Target.com became a part of the Salvation Army support via holiday toy “wish list” on Target.com/targetlists that were created by local Salvation Army divisions. Simple and easy navigation enabled site visitors and donors to purchase the toys and other merchandise that were slated to be given to needy families.

http://pressroom.target.com/pr/news/community/safe-families/target-donates-to-support-families.aspx

Online Hits The Year-End Mark

Trying to stand out from the crowd is nothing new in fundraising. Nonprofits compete for the attention of donors/consumers not just from other charities but also from corporations. So what is striking about recent year-end giving campaigns is the proliferation of the use of online strategies to raise not only monies but also awareness of giving and doing good.

Via its "You In?" campaign, Yahoo hoped to spur people to do random acts of kindness - http://kindness.yahoo.com/ "You In" expands upon Yahoo's ongoing, Purple Acts of Kindness campaign.

Participants in the "You In?" campaign are asked to post, in the space of 129 characters, a random act of kindness. Yahoo will then use its network to share the deed with others. As of this writing 315,989 acts were posted. There is also a global map that enables one to see his/her posting by clicking on the purple heart. However, one's act will display only if the posting was set to "Everyone." Posters and visitors can use the map to visit another part of the country or planet. I went to Australia and clicked on the purple heart over Sydney. That person was donating lots of clothing to the local Salvation Army.

The "You In?" home page also has links to Network for Good ("Give a Good Card", Global Giving ("Fund a Global Project"), and Donors Choose ("Sponsor a Classroom").

The MediaPost article, Yahoo Is Latest Brand To Join Random Acts, which brought Yahoo's campaign to my attention also noted Genworth Financial's TV ad that applauds caregivers and its Facebook page that allows beneficiaries of care to thank their caregivers.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=119560

The web was atwitter with charitable tweets and chock-a-block with Facebook promotions as 2009 drew to a close.

In its story, Nonprofits Update Tactics To Cut Through Holiday Fundraising Clutter, ClickZ reported on a small charity, The Staley Foundation, which used tweets to raise $3,500 in a day.

The story also detailed how Chase used Facebook to get individuals to vote for nonprofits each of which would receive $25,000 from the bank.

http://www.clickz.com/3635947

The MediaPost article, Whole Foods Market Launches New Giving Effort, detailed how the Whole Foods was building food awareness by encouraging shopper to share their 'This Is My Year to..." resolutions in-store and on Facebook.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=119745

Winnie Hsia's post on the Whole Foods blog explains that there are three goals for the campaign, to: "know where my food comes from, choose organic, and share my plate." Whole Foods, Odwalla, and Health Magazine teamed up to to donate $10,000 each to: The Non-GMO Project, The Organic Center’s Mission Organic 2010, and Growing Power. An additional $10,000 will be given to one of the three nonprofits that receives the most support from Facebook users. To participate, one had simply to download the Facebook app and choose the favorite. A participant can cast one vote a day throughout the month of January.

http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2009/12/this-is-my-year-to%E2%80%A6do-good-on-facebook/

Whole Foods is also selling its third annual Whole Planet Foundation calendar. The calendar is only $2 and purchasers receive $30 in coupons plus the proceeds from the sale benefit the foundation's microcredit clients.

http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2009/12/calendar-doing-good-great-coupons/

ClickZ's Kate Kaye revealed Haagen-Dazs' sweet spot in the article, Haagen-Dazs Re-Ups Social Cause Campaign for Honey Bees, Again. The company is continuing a "Help the Honeybees" Twitter campaign that began in September. Social media company, Experience Project, manages the campaign. Participants are asked to share the five things that are essential to their lives. The five things helps to reinforce brand awareness of the new Haagen-Dazs "Five" ice cream line that is made with only five natural ingredients.

http://www.clickz.com/3635989

To post his/her five essential things, a visitor has to sign up or log into their Experience Project account. Once signed up on logged on, the user is asked to 1) share the five essentials, 2) check of the featured groups, 3) check out the featured videos, 4) select and send a virtual honey bee to a friend, and 5) Play a trivia game. Though actions 1 through 4 do raise awareness of the disappearance of the honey bee, action 5 is the one with actual monies going to a charity. With every correct answer to a Trivia Game question, Experience Project will make a donation to North America Pollinator Protection Campaign (http://www.nappc.org/). I could not find the specific dollar amount donated per correct answer.

I was also confused by the "Bee Buzz" section on the "Help the Honey Bees" page. The counter notes that 438,866 bee buzzes have been generated. Yet when I clicked on the "Make A Buzz" button I was taken to another page of "Featured Challenges" but neither the page nor the challenges had anything to do with helping the bees.

Participants are encouraged to spread the word about the plight of honey bees by sharing on Facebook, voting for the campaign on Digg, giving it a thumbs up on StumbleUpon, voting on Reddit, and adding it on Del.icio.us

There is a separate Facebook app which allows Facebook users to choose a cartoon honey bee that can be sent to a friend. Or a user can choose one of two Haagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees icons or one of serveral pictures of a Haagen-Dasz ice cream container to send to a friend. By sending bees, icons, or pictures to friends users can build their hives. Facebooks users can also play the Trivia Game and sign up to join the "Help the Honeybees" campaign.