|
Greetings!
In the March 10 issue of Forbes, two
University of Chicago Law School professors make a
shocking proposal -- make embedded giving tax
deductible to consumers.
"Consumer charity is inefficient under our present tax
code," write Anup Malani and Todd M. Henderson. "If
you pay $15 for a pound of fair-trade coffee instead of
$10 for regular coffee, you can't claim a deduction for
the $5 difference. The additional cost is a
nondeductible donation."
Personally I think this is a weak idea on at least two
counts:
- Most embedded transactions are under a dollar --
the cost of tracking and claiming them would exceed
the donation itself
- It would amount to double dipping since
corporations should still be able to write the donations
off as either business expenses or donations
This provocative article is certainly worth
reading. Please email me back your thoughts for
inclusion in a future issue.
David Hessekiel
President
| Unilever, P&G War Over Which Is More Ethical: Ad Age |
 |
|
I strongly suggest you read the lead story about these
packaged good giants in the March
3 issue of Advertising Age. It's the latest and best
article on the mainstreaming of cause-related
marketing.
"Nothing indicates the growing hold 'ethical marketing'
has on the industry better than the concept's growing
embrace by the world's two biggest spenders," writes
reporter Jack Neff. "While both have been engaged in
such efforts for years, they're talking about them, and
particularly advertising them, like never before."
At least eight P&G brands have major cause initiatives
including Always (providing sanitary products to poor
African girls), PUR (clean water access) and Pantene
which won a Halo award last year for its efforts to
provide wigs for cancer patients.
The best known Unilever initiative is The Dove
Campaign for Real Beauty which will be the subject of
a keynote presentation at the CMF conference this May.
|
| Research, Research and More Research! |
|
|
Hardly a week goes by that we don't learn of another
study describing the impact corporate cause-related
programs can have and the need for improvement in
the way they are implemented.
According to the experts at
McKinsey, "Consumers'
growing expectations of companies make corporate
philanthropy more important than ever. But many
respondents to this survey say their companies aren't
meeting social goals or stakeholder expectations very
effectively. Companies that are doing well are taking a
more strategic approach."
Last month IBM issued "Attaining
Sustainable Growth Through Corporate Social
Responsibility". According to the
report, "maximum benefit from the CSR opportunity
takes place when all activities on the value curve --
legal and compliance, strategic philanthropy, values-
based self-regulation, efficiency and growth -- become
integrated into a cohesive strategy with leadership
driven as much from employees, customers and
business partners as from the CEO and senior
executives."
|
| Upcoming Teleconferences |
|
|
- 3/11 -- Mark Godley of Big City Mountaineers
on "The Summit for Someone Partnership with
Backpacker Magazine". Click here for details
- 3/20 -- Ed Barker of EarthWatch Institute
on "Building Stronger Partnerships" Click here for details
|
|
Don't Miss the 3/15 Early Bird Deadline |
|
|
|
Only ten days to save on admission to the #1 event in
the world of building company/cause alliances: The
6th Annual Cause Marketing Forum Conference in
Chicago.
Among the conference highlights on May 29 will
be:
-- Case studies from Dove, American Express &
Crate
and Barrel to name a few
-- Reaching the Conscious Consumer
research
-- New Approaches to Evaluating Nonprofits
-- Kurt Aschermann on "Getting from a Meeting to a
Deal"
-- Cone on Cause-Related New Media
Strategies
-- and much, much more!
PLUS, we've got exciting new pre- and post-
conference sessions for highly experienced cause
marketers and our ever popular 101-level workshops
for newcomers.
Read more and register!
|
|
