| Greetings!
In my role as "the cause guy", I constantly survey the media for insights into business/nonprofit alliances. Amid the press releases and puff pieces, I sometimes find a real winner.
And so I urge you to read this excellent article from The New York Times on social marketing entitled "Warning: Habits May Be Good For You."
Reporter Charles DuHigg recounts how lessons shared by packaged goods marketers helped public health workers create campaigns that successfully promote handwashing in Ghana -- a critical behavior in fighting disease.
Corporate social marketing is the highest and best form of corporate social initiatives according to my gurus on this subject: Kotler and Lee. As I plan CMF 7 -- May 27 to 29 in Chicago, save the date! -- social marketing is sure to have a place on the agenda.
Add this to your summer reading list -- you won't be disappointed.
David Hessekiel
President
Cause Marketing Forum, Inc. |
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Microfinance -- The Next Great Cause Alliance Tactic? |
Best known as a strategy employed in developing countries, microfinance provides loans and other financial services to low-income people who otherwise would not have access to them.
Recently the famously entrepreneurial Boston-based brewers of Samuel Adams beer employed the microfinance concept to launch their first signature cause-related program.
In partnership with Accion USA, they created " Samuel Adams Brewing The American Dream", a program that provides small loans and training to New England entrepreneurs in the food and beverage industry. With guidance from The Cause Consulting Group, The Boston Beer Company donated money for Accion USA to establish and operate a $250,000 loan fund.
It's one of the first programs I've seen that leverages the microfinance concept to do well by doing good -- and I predict many more to come.
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| Amex Members Project: BIGGER AND BETTER in 2009 |
Two point five million dollars in funding are up for grabs in the second annual Members Projects program from American Express.
As Amex VP Belinda Lang explained at CMF6, the 2008 edition provides consumers and nonprofits with even more social media tools to persuade others to support nominated projects.
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