“Drop and Give Them 10”

From May 20-29, CSX will donate $1 to the WWP for each individual who completes 10 pushups in honor of U.S. veterans.  CSX will double its donation to $2 for each participant that shares a photo of their pushups via Instagram or that tweets support using the hashtag #GiveThem10. CSX will be highlighting some interesting submissions from participants throughout the next few days, so people can follow along by keeping tabs on http://twitter.com/CSX or  http://www.facebook.com/OfficialCSX.  This campaign coincides with CSX’s sponsorship of AMC’s War Heroes Weekend, which airs May 25-28. During this period, AMC will air a marathon of war movies to honor America’s men and women in uniform.

Why it’s effective?

Online and Off: The Perfect Combination. – The “Drop and Give Them 10” campaign is unique because it combines an easy online ask [i.e. Tweet or share photos], with an easy offline task [i.e. the push up].  Consider it a Goldilocks-and-the-Three-Bears scenario for viral campaigns. It doesn’t ask consumers to do too much, but it doesn’t ask too little. By incorporating a quick offline action, it makes the campaign unique and perhaps more attractive to Americans who are constantly being barraged with online campaigns.

The Pushup. It’s quite brilliant.  The pushup is synonymous with the military. It’s also nostalgic. It reminds Americans of their elementary school days fulfilling their physical fitness test in PE class.

The Cause. – The Wounded Warrior Project has strong brand recognition as a credible, trusted organization fighting to support our soldiers.

The Sponsor: Why CSX?  Well, it just makes CSR sense. Nearly one in five CSX employees serves or has served in the United States armed forces.  In fact, last month CSX was ranked #1 on Diversity Inc.’s Top 10 Companies for Veterans. And the company ships goods to more military facilities than any other major U.S. railroad.

“It is, for me, a great tragedy when the needs of any child, anywhere are not met.”

Mrs. Ban Soon-taek
Spouse,
United Nations Secretary-General

“It’s all about education and awareness and doing something – do your part! Supporting each other comes back to you.”

“Women are so powerful when we get together. We have such a passion and an understanding of what is important in life.”

Jennifer Lopez
Actress, Music Artist & Co-Founder,
The Lopez Family Foundation

“We need a social movement to bring about change of social attitudes towards women.”

Sheryl WuDunn
Author & Business Executive,
Half the Sky

“More everyday citizens are engaged on this issue – and who better to solve this issue than mothers themselves?”

Christy Turlington Burns
Founder,
Every Mother Counts

“Motherhood truly is a universal word.”

LaShaun Martin
National Director of Social Media & Community Service,
Mocha Moms

“We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”

Laura Turner Seydel
Trustee,
Turner Foundation, Inc.

“To listen to people and hear what tools they need to change the context of their own lives is incredibly inspiring.”

Maz Kessler
Founder & Creative Director,
Catapult

“In so many ways we are all mothers.”

Tiffany Dufu
Chief Leadership Officer,
Levo League

“I don’t consider myself a politician, I’m a change agent!”

Reshma Saujani
Founder,
Girls Who Code

“This is a new, solution-focused generation and they’re going at things in different ways.”

John Gerzema
Author & Social Theorist

“It’s up to the rest of us to man up as much as GirlUp.”

Nigel Barker
Photographer

“It’s hard to get major media to cover some of these issues – that’s why social media is so important.”

Dr. Richard Besser
Chief Health & Medical Editor,
ABC

“Social media has become an everyday aspect of a mom’s life – 90% of moms use a social media platform each day.”

Linda Murray
Global Editor-in-Chief,
BabyCenter

“A universal thing about mothers is that they love their children.”

Sophie Blackall
Measles & Rubella Initiative and Shot@Life champion

“Think about how mobile technologies have changed your own life and how it might help others around the world.”

Patty Mecheal
Executive Director,
mHealth Alliance

“I hope some of the mom bloggers can help us in getting the word out that vaccines work and can save children’s lives.”

Nina Schwalbe
Managing Director of Policy &
Performance, GAVI

“My daughter was born and tested negative for HIV. I had given my daughter the gift of life and the gift of health.”

Fortunata Kasege
Foundation Ambassador,
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

“Saving newborns is really important and it is doable – and you can help!”

Carolyn Miles
President & CEO,
Save the Children

“Today, from New York to Nigeria, we are going to discuss the importance of global motherhood.”

Elizabeth Gore
Resident Entrepreneur,
United Nations Foundation

“This shift in stakeholder expectations carries significant implications for companies engaged in CSR,” says Cone Communications’ Executive Vice President Jonathan Yohannan. “Purpose is no longer enough, and successful campaigns must demonstrate return for business, brand and society. ‘Proving purpose’ is the new mantra for effective CSR.”

These stats speak for themselves:

Anyone, from anywhere, will be able to participate in the dialogue by tuning into the speeches, discussion, and panels via live stream and social media.

This event will put moms at the forefront of the discussion. It will connect them to each other, to worldwide experts, and to a global audience to inspire action that leverages the unique power of social media to improve the lives of families, of communities, and our world.

Mom+Social will feature Jennifer Lopez, Christy Turlington, Ann Curry and Mrs. Ban Soon-Taek, Spouse of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon.  These leading luminaries will take the stage to share advice and experience as mothers and spark dialogue on the role of social media, technology, and philanthropy on improving the health of women and children everywhere.

Please make sure to join in via livestream and add your thoughts and your voice to the conversation which will take place from 9:00 am EST – 6 pm EST.

Also, consider sharing the buzz via Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter:

• #MomPlusSocial will address the greatest health challenges affecting women & kids today #globalmom join here! http://ow.ly/kKTWR
• Moms are key to a better future. Join the #MomPlusSocial convo via livestream 9EST Wed http://ow.ly/kKTWR! #globalmom
• #MomPlusSocial is a movement to improve women’s & children’s health, join the convo 9EST Wed http://ow.ly/kKTWR #globalmom
• Join Mom+Social virtually – RSVP here: http://on.fb.me/ZGXoYr

Facebook:

• Mom+Social is the only one-day conference that celebrates moms who are making a difference globally.  It’s all happening on May 8, and you can participate virtually by visiting www.unfoundation.org/momplussocial!
• The Global Mom Relay connected moms everywhere through the power of social media. All good things have to come to an end, but we’re sending it off in style on May 8 with the Mom+Social conference.  You can join us virtually! Visit www.unfoundation.org/momplussocial

Spring is here, which means, “change of season.” In my house that’s code for “time to shop.” And for this change of season, I’m shopping AND shwopping.

British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) debuted its shwopping program in April 2012 and it’s really caught on in the UK. If you’re not familiar—shwopping is a clothes recycling program M&S is conducting with Oxfam, and a natural extension of the Oxfam Clothing Exchange M&S established in 2008. People go through their closets, round up their unwanted clothes and take them to the nearest M&S store for a “second life.” Oxfam takes the donated clothes, sorts them, and either resells, reuses or recycles each item through the Oxfam shop. In the first year alone, more than 4 million garments landed in M&S “shwop boxes.” (As an aside, I was excited to see the “shwop boxes’” up-close when I was in London in February—sadly, I didn’t have time cull my closet before the trip so no items to donate.)  Being savvy retailers, M&S doesn’t leave shwopping to a simple in-store experience—they’ve built a robust Facebook Shwop page where you can register your donations to earn points and prizes, collect some DIY fashion tips, and vote on “shwop of not” decisions form fellow fans.

Goodwill Industries has a similar model in the U.S. and I make it part of my change of season ritual to clean out my closet before shopping. I already started the shwopping process for spring!

If your closet doesn’t need to be weeded, but you still want to get into the shop-for-good spirit, stop by the Clarins counter at Macy’s and pick up a few items. In addition to your “gift with purchase” set of travel-sized items, you get a bonus “gift with PURPOSE.” Your purchase will trigger a donation to the UN’s World Food Program and your travel goodies come in a FEED 10 pouch.

Happy shwopping AA readers!

Tara Greco (@teegrec) is a seasoned CSR professional with experience on both sides of the equation, having worked in corporate community relations and nonprofit communications & marketing. She focuses on trends and innovations in community engagement, strategic philanthropy, volunteerism, cause marketing, and CR/nonprofit communications.

Yesterday I ran my first mini-marathon.

Milestone Managed

This is certainly a milestone for a 43 year old mother of three who a year ago the furthest I might walk, yet alone run, was from the couch to the local library…which is only a block away. But in the past two years I recognized that while not completely out of shape, I certainly lacked any energy, any “get up and go.” And while I could walk the hill as an advocate, I probably couldn’t walk much more than that.

Then I heard a story. About how women from other nations will walk fifteen miles, or more, just to have the chance to have their child vaccinated against illness. They carry their children on their hips, on their back, in the hot sun, with little food or water, just for a shot.

A Shot@Life.

But after their child is vaccinated, they then walk another 15 miles back to their homes. So in all actuality, they are walking a marathon.

Not for a medal or their name in the paper, not to cross an item off their “bucket list” or even for a personal best. They walk because if they don’t their child could die. Because every 20 seconds that happens. A child dies from pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, and polio. For the cost of my entry into the mini-marathon (approximately $80) I could have vaccinated 16 children. And if the 62 people who like the photo of me holding my medal made a donation to Shot@Life, then 310 children could be vaccinated. Because $5 makes a difference. $5 gives a child a shot at a future.

I ran the race, they make a donation, a child gets vaccinated.

Simple. Smart. Social Good.

I’ve been fortunate to be a Champion Advocate for Shot@Life these past two years. To hear stories about global vaccination efforts in Tanzania and Uganda. To participate as a Mentor Champion in advocacy training events for new champions while in Washington, DC. To interview and write about other champions on my personal blog, Roots and Wings, and to read about all the other incredible champions as part of Shot@Life’s celebration of it’s first birthday, a milestone many children don’t get to reach because of a lack of access to these life-saving vaccines.

As Shot@Life will tell you, germs don’t need a passport. So expanding access to vaccines strengthens our ability to fight diseases globally and keep our families healthy here at home. Ultimately, though, for myself and the over 300 Champions, it really is about this:

Every child deserves a shot at a healthy life, no matter where they live.

And while I sit here, typing this, my legs so sore that I can’t navigate stairs, I think just yesterday I ran, then walked, then limped, 13.1 miles and, because I used the Charity Miles app on my smart phone, I gave two children a Shot@Life.

And that alone ensures there was nothing mini about my milestone.

To learn more about how Shot@Life educates, connects and empowers Americans to champion vaccines as one of the most cost-effective ways to save the lives of children in developing countries, please go to Shot@Life. 

Catchafire is an innovative social enterprise  working hard to create a more efficient and effective social good sector and a world where it is commonplace to serve for the greater good. We believe that by providing meaningful pro bono experiences for both skilled professionals and the organizations with whom they work we will achieve this. We also believe that a  great pro bono experience can transform someone’s life. You’re probably thinking…”pro bono? I’m not a lawyer!” Pro Bono is not just for lawyers, it literally means for the public good. We are here to help you contribute to it! We recognize that it is not always easy to find great opportunities to give back so we thought we’d share a few tips to help you harness your altruistic impulses to make an impact.

.

• The Red Cross says the best way to help right now is to get in touch with loved ones through its Safe And Well Listings. The organization is not asking for blood donations at this time.

• The Salvation Army is offering food, beverages and crisis counseling to survivors and first responders. Find out how you can get involved here.

• Some marathon runners are stranded in Boston and in need of places to stay. Find out how you can offer housing here.

• Anyone with info about the incident can call 1-800-494-TIPS.

For the full article, see here.

The good news: Email list sizes are up by 15%. Online revenue grew by 21% over 2011 totals, with only the International sector seeing a decline in online giving. Monthly giving programs in particular have seen explosive growth, with revenue growing by 43%. These top-line numbers show online programs are attracting a larger audience and generating more donations than ever before. There is real reason to celebrate.

And what about social media? If you’ve been paying attention to trends in the past few years, or really been online at all, the top-line findings for social media probably won’t surprise you. Organizations keep attracting more Fans and Followers—Twitter Followers in particular increased at a tremendous rate, with 264% growth over the past year. Despite this growth, email lists continue to dominate in size. For every 1,000 email subscribers, groups in this study have 149 Facebook Fans and 53 Twitter Followers.

And there’s more. The data this year also tells a second story about email performance, and you should put away your party hats for this one. Email response rates (the percentage of email recipients who took the main action in the email) were down in 2012. Way down, particularly for fundraising messages. Less so for advocacy messages, but still a noticeable decline.

The changes were not consistent across sectors—Rights and International groups suffered the largest drops, and we’ll get to the detailed numbers for this (and so much more) later in the study. But the important thing is this: Lower response rates, whether driven by drops in click-through rates (the percentage of message recipients who click on a link in the message) or donation page completion rates (the percentage of people who click on a link who then complete the donation form), have real implications for email program performance.

The Benchmarks Study is a partnership that relies on contributions, cooperation, and insight from a great many people. This year, 55 nonprofit study partners generously shared their data and their time, The 2013 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study was written by Will Valverde and Cameron Lefevre of M+R Strategic Services and Annaliese Hoehling of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN).

This post is based on the 2013 eNonprofit Benchmark Study, check out the whole study here.

If you’ve opened a laptop or turned on a TV in the last week, you know the Supreme Court has just heard arguments in two landmark cases involving same-sex marriage: a challenge to California’s controversial ban on same-sex marriage (Prop. 8), and to the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

And, if you logged onto Facebook or Twitter yesterday, you no doubt saw a lot of red and pink, thanks to a campaign by supporters of same-sex marriage. The campaign encouraged users to change their profile pictures to a red and pink equal sign to show support for legalizing same-sex marriage. Almost immediately, a new meme was born – even the famed grumpy cat made an appearance. Along the way, some major brands in corporate America started to jump on the bandwagon.

Online retailer Bonobos posted their own version of the image, replacing the equal sign with two pairs of Bonobos-brand pants. HBO’s popular series True Blood posted a version sporting vampire fangs. Anheuser-Busch’s take featured two frosty cans of Bud Light.

I wrote about support for gay rights causes from American businesses a month ago, but I want to revisit the topic as the spotlight shines squarely on the issue this week. What does all of this mean for cause-conscious companies? Here are three thoughts:

Issue-based approaches to communications aren’t going away.

There is a case study in clever viral marketing in here somewhere, but I want to reiterate the importance of companies approaching a social matter like same-sex marriage from an issues-based standpoint. Business that are willing to put their brand behind an issue are demonstrating their ability to engage proactively with stakeholders ranging from media to consumers. They are moving beyond a purely reactive stance to a position of leadership, and that’s good because…

Communicating successfully means staying ahead of the issues.

Technology, and social networking in particular, has created a constant two-way flow of communication between organizations and their stakeholders. Every good communications practitioner knows this has turned the world of communications on its head.

That’s why those omnipresent red equal signs are significant as more than just a marketing tactic.They’re an indication of how businesses can stay ahead of issues important to shareholders and consumers alike, and how they can thrive in this world of constant two-way communication.

Shareholders, stakeholders and consumers want brands to take bold, authentic stands.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz gave us a prime example of this last week when he doubled down on the company’s support for same-sex marriage at its annual investor meeting. When pressed by a shareholder critical of Starbucks’ stance on the issue, Schultz responded by encouraging the shareholder to take his investments elsewhere:

“If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38 percent you got last year, it’s a free country. You can sell your shares of Starbucks and buy shares in another company. Thank you very much.”

The room applauded, and The Washington Post’s Jena McGregor has a great write-up of the positive response Schultz has received for his leadership on the issue. She also discusses the business reasons for this kind of stance, like brand value, employee retention and of course, revenue.

We all can see the rising trendlines in popular support for same-sex marriage (a record high 58% according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll this month). As the country continues to evolve on this issue, so must the ways that businesses communicate.

Daniel Gabis (@danielgabis) is a communications consultant at APCO Worldwide, a global communications and stakeholder engagement firm. Daniel is based in Seattle, where he works on issues in CSR and sustainability and writes for APCO’s CSR blog, Shared Purpose.