As the prevalence of social networking expands, peer-to-peer charitable giving continues growing at a steady pace. Network for Good finds a 20% increase in giving via social networks in Q1 2012 versus Q1 2011. In fact, giving has increased across all channels—charity websites, social networks, and portal sites—up 16% from the previous year.

The power of social networks

Donations via social platforms, such as Crowdrise and Causes.com, are catalyzed by giving events created by cause marketing campaigns, crowdsourced contests, and peer to peer activities like the Causes.com Birthday Wish to benefit the birthday person’s favorite charity in lieu of gifts.

Personal fundraisers are a powerful giving catalyst. For example, Crowdrise partnered with the Honda LA Marathon with the goal to raise millions for charities from participating runners and their social networks. Marathoners were encouraged to either fundraise for pre-vetted charities or choose their own. With Crowdrise’s platform, LA Marathoners encouraged social networks—via email, Pinterest, Twitter, Google +, and Facebook—to contribute to their causes and collectively raised more than $2.4 million for those organizations.

You can find more giving trends and observations in the Q1 2012 update to The Network for Good Digital Giving Index.  This Index builds on data and insights from the Online Giving Study, released in December 2009. This update includes trends and analysis on over $25 million in donations to more than 20,000 charities through the Network for Good platform in Q1 2012. The platform includes donations to Network for Good’s nonprofit customers through their own websites; other nonprofits through 35 corporate partner websites; and Network for Good’s giving portals, NetworkforGood.org and SixDegrees.org. 

Index highlights include:

• Overall giving, excluding disaster relief donations for Japan in March 2011, was up across all channels in Q1 2012 vs. Q1 2011, increasing by 16%.
• Charity websites continued to comprise the bulk—over 60% of digital donations.
• Following charity websites, social giving (19%) overtook portal giving (10%) for the second most used form of digital giving.
• Average gift size on social networks increased 90% in Q1 2012 vs. Q1 2011.

You can download this quarterly update at www.onlinegivingstudy.org/quarterlyindex

Our friends at YourCause create weekly insightful profiles of cause marketing campaigns.  Here’s their latest edition, which originally appeared on the YourCause blog.  YourCause is a provider of global employee engagement solutions.  You can learn more about YourCause’s CSRConnect platform and get additional CSRinsights here. 

Company: Hilton Worldwide  
Cause: Education
NPO Partners: Room to Read
Website: www.roomtoread.org/maymatch 

Program of Action 

Hilton Worldwide is participating in Room to Read’s Annual Spring Fundraising campaign by supporting the Girl’s Education program and matching all donations, up to $150,000, through May 31st. Each donation amount has an assigned gift that will be donated to a young girl. For example, a $50 donation will provide a young girl with a bicycle to get to school or $100 will give her the opportunity to attend an academic support camp.

Hilton Worldwide began their partnership with Room to Read this past January in India and pledged to establish thirty new school libraries over the next three years. In addition, Hilton Worldwide aims to gain participation from more than 75 girls in the Girl’s Education Program and publish six local-language children books that will be distributed to the network of libraries and NGO partners in India. Not to mention, Hilton Worldwide is expanding their partnership to support the Girl’s Education Program in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

Best Practices

Hilton Worldwide stays committed to supporting partners, employees, and consumers internationally by participating with organizations in multiple countries where they do business. The expansion of partnerships provides participating individuals the opportunity to contribute and help make a difference in their local communities. Additionally, Hilton Worldwide forms partnerships that are consistent with their responsible business practices and cause focus. The partnership aligns perfectly with Room to Read program mission and Hilton Worldwide’s purpose of creating opportunities for individuals to reach their full potential.

Along with supporting international causes, Hilton Worldwide targets an audience of women that may feel emotionally connected to the program’s efforts. The program focuses on young girls that women, teens, or children feel linked to based on shared experiences. According to research, women give to charity at a higher rate than men and demonstrate an increased level of cause-awareness in their high levels of philanthropic giving.

Incentives are provided to individuals in that Hilton Worldwide matches all donations contributed to the Girl’s Education Program. This approach not only motivates consumers but also Hilton Worldwide employees to donate any dollar amount and know their gift is providing double the impact. A 2010 Cone Cause Evolution Study reported that 81% of employees want to get involved in their company’s cause-related efforts through matching gifts. This is a great incentive to get everyone involved.

Program Outcome 

Hilton Worldwide and Room to Read began their partnership this past January and have committed to supporting the Girl’s Education Program in multiple countries over the next three years. We encourage you to watch, share, and support the program and dedicate your gift to young women across Africa and Asia. Visit Room to Read website and contribute your gift today, the program ends May 31st.

Full disclosure, I used to work for The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in their Innovation, Marketing and Communications group, and am pleased to share their insights on social impact, employee engagement and consumer marketing on this blog.  You can read about new BCG insights on employee volunteering from a post earlier this week.  The following is a guest post from Network for Good's CSO & COO, Katya Andresen and is adapted from an article that originally appeared on Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog.

The Boston Consulting Group has some interesting new research on millennials, including who they are, what they want and how to talk to them.

The highlights?  Among the most interesting findings is that millennials - who were taught to recycle in kindergarten - are more likely to take certain socially conscious actions during their daily life.  They are apt to buy products that support their principles and more likely than other generations to spread the word about a cause campaign or participate in fundraising events.  They are highly social creatures online (and off) are more likely than others to speak up online, whether it’s to rate a product or upload content.  Millennials expect companies to care about social issues and reward those who partner with the right causes, says the report.

On the other hand, their affinity for causes doesn’t necessarily translate into higher levels of volunteerism.  Millennials are slightly less likely to volunteer their time than non-millennials (31 to 26 percent).  But that’s still one in four who will give their time.  Don’t write them off!  They certainly view themselves as more active than others think they are:

The report notes another important universal quality of millennials: they are distrustful of corporate messengers and more inclined to believe their friends and peers.  Of course, not all millennials are created the same.  The report profiles several typical “types.”

The bottom line?  Make it easy for this generation to spread the word about your cause marketing initiatives and reach them through messengers they trust - their peers.  And as the report says, millennial attitudes are early indicators of more widespread future trends.  These folks will someday be your brand loyalists - or not - depending on how well you understand them and how well you engage.

Full disclosure, I used to work for The Boston Consulting Group in their Innovation, Marketing and Communications group.

“The key is to create a varied, equal-opportunity program that appeals to the diverse skills, interests, and availability of all employees at all levels of the organization.” – Brenda Thickett, BCG

Recently, the Boston Consulting Group released the publication “Designing Corporate Volunteer Programs to Create Value” to advise companies on how to build more value – for the company, employees, nonprofits and the community – out of employee engagement initiatives.  The report identifies four factors to consider when designing a meaningful volunteer program.

Set a clear mission and goals

In order to be sustainable and relevant to a broad base of employees, a volunteer program must work to achieve established objectives, whether they are goals of participation, social impact results, how resources are implemented, or all of the above.  Weaving success metrics and tracking into the program design, ensures that you can optimize it for the long-term and evaluate what’s working and what can be improved.

Choose the right nonprofit partners

This step may be done in concert with the goal setting step above, especially if your company envisions building a long-term deeper partnership with one or a few nonprofits.  Nonprofits are not always set up operationally to track results in the way companies are used to doing, so it may be helpful to work with nonprofit partners to figure out what can be tracked and how results can be communicated among partners.  Regardless of whether you involve nonprofit partners in the goal setting process, it is paramount to select the right nonprofit partners.  Factors to consider include: mission/brand alignment, mutual understanding of expectations and resource allocation, match of employee skill set with nonprofit needs, willingness to invest in the partnership.

Support the program with dedicated staff

Dedicated staff oversight helps ensure that the program is nurtured and evolved over time and that the participating volunteers’ time is used effectively.  Active management of the program also demonstrates that the company values the program and is investing resources to assure its success.  Knowledge management, capturing best practice and deeper relationship building with partner nonprofits are often overlooked benefits of having a dedicated staff managing volunteer programs.   

Develop a portfolio of volunteer opportunities

A portfolio approach is a key differentiator between an employee volunteer program that just checks the box that a company has a program and a truly dynamic program that speaks to the interests, skills and capacity of a diverse workforce.  BCG cites IBM’s On Demand Community and Microsoft’s Volunteer Manager website as rich examples of how to take a portfolio approach to volunteer engagement.

At BCG, a volunteer opportunity portfolio includes a mix of:

• One-time activities (low time commitment, often seasonal like food drives)
• Volunteering Days (organized group activities in the community)
• Ongoing, Monthly Activities (longer-term time commitment for mentoring, project work and more skills-based activities)
• Secondment or Temporary Transfer (loaning staff to nonprofit partners for a period of time with reduced salary)
• Vacation of leave of absence (spend vacation time or longer leave working with a nonprofit)

To this list I would add:

• Micro-volunteering (spending 15 minutes at a time performing digital tasks to support nonprofit needs)
• Pro bono/skills-based service (taking on nonprofit projects alongside paid client work that require the same skills set)

What mix of volunteer opportunities does your company promote?

In a recent Forbes The CSR Blog post, Paul Klein, founder of Impakt (@PaulatImpakt), discusses why genuine social change is a better goal than corporate responsibility (CSR).  He cites three reasons with three examples.  I understand Klein’s point of view, and agree with him in spirit, but tend to be more optimistic about the state and potential of CSR to drive social change.   Yes, the term 'CSR' gets thrown around a lot by companies these days and very few of them are taking an authentic and genuine approach to weave responsibility into the core of their businesses.  But when done right, the impact – both business and social – is compelling.  We need to celebrate the companies that are truly doing ‘well’ by doing ‘good’ and continue to prod (hopefully via carrot, but not discounting the stick) the laggards to get on board.

CSR programs that are based on the 'DNA' of a corporation don’t work.

Klein argues that most companies have aligned their CSR initiatives to core business goals of sales and profitability.  An example is Walmart’s approach to sustainability to reduce both the costs and environmental impact of the products it sources and sells.  An example of an approach more aligned to pure social change is McDonald’s support of Ronald McDonald House Charities to help families of sick children.

In my opinion, CSR is not a zero sum game and companies don’t need to choose one approach over the other.  At the end of the day, companies exist to create value for stakeholders.  The old guard would define ‘value’ as economic value for shareholders.  Economic value is still a fundamental goal of business.  However, we are learning much more about the potential for CSR initiatives to enhance economic value, while simultaneously creating social value for customers, employees, nonprofit partners and communities.  We need much more management science and research in this area to better understand how greening your supply chain, improving employee loyalty through cause initiatives and  boosting sales via cause marketing affect valuation.  But at the end of the day, CSR initiatives tied to business results are more sustainable and less likely to be cut during hard economic times.  I hope that companies also see the value in pure social change projects, too, but even those can have long-term business benefits.  Just look at Intel’s education programs.  One could argue that investing in education and learning around the world is pure social change.  The flip side is that Intel is cultivating the next generation of technically literate people who will need Intel products.  Investment in education is a ‘good’ thing to do as a corporate citizen, but also a ‘good’ thing to do to build a business for the long haul.

Employees aren’t actually engaged.

Klein argues that most employees are only responsible for business results and therefore don’t participate in social purpose programs because they distract from performance objectives.  The few employees that are genuinely interested, should have rich opportunities to engage in community programs like 3M’s Healthy Communities initiative.

In response to this argument, I return to the premise that CSR is not related to employee performance.  Companies that truly value CSR and weave it into the core of business, inherently tie CSR objectives to performance objectives.  That is how you achieve true employee engagement.  Optional programs for volunteering and giving are wonderful opportunities to reach passionate individuals, but that is not where engagement begins and ends.  Employee engagement begins by creating a culture and value system that reinforces CSR and then helping each employee understand how their role and work product relate to the higher social purpose of those CSR values.  For example, companies like IBM, and its Corporate Service Corps,  provide an example of how pro bono service can be used for cutting-edge career training, especially in building a workforce that understands business in a global context. 

Cause marketing has become ubiquitous and high risk.

Klein argues that while cause marketing can be a good thing, many campaigns are disingenuous and opportunistic.  He cites Starbucks’ Thriving Neighborhoods program as an example of a healthy campaign that is committed to long-term social change.

I don’t disagree with Klein’s take.  Cause marketing has gone mainstream and in with the tide comes a lot of garbage.  But that is not to say that when done right, cause marketing campaigns can’t serve both marketing and social impact goals.  A great example of a campaign that hits the right mark of promoting a cool product, greening a production process and helping a worthy nonprofit is Levi’s with its Water<Less brand.  Not only did Levi’s dramatically reduce the amount of water used in producing the jeans, the company also promoted that environmental stewardship with a cause marketing campaign aligned with Water.org to promote water conservation and sanitation projects globally.  You can read my full take on the campaign here.

The following is a guest post from Network for Good's CSO & COO, Katya Andresen.  The article also appeared on Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog.

PopTech has a nifty new edition on the science of unleashing social good in networks, and Fast Company has a great overview of James Fowler’s specific ideas for spreading the word.  Here are the ideas I think are most important to us, with my thoughts on how to apply them to our work.

1. Remember generosity is contagious.  Studies show witnessing acts of kindness or giving inspires others to do the same.  Use social proof to your advantage by highlighting people taking action for your cause.  That includes the amount of donation they give - if it’s one that will inspire more generosity.

2. Think of the network as a matching grant.  The effect described above actually continues through up to three layers of networks (from person to person to person to person).  Be sure you are giving your supporters ways to publicize their acts of support through social media so you get the benefit of all of those ripple effects.

3. Know that messages get amplified as they spread.  Says Fowler, “The indirect effect of a message on a person’s friends is about three times larger than the direct effect on the person who received the message in the first place. The more you can get people to deliver the message naturally, the greater this multiplier effect will be.”  Make it very easy for people to forward your emails, share information on social media and otherwise spread the word.

4. If you’re in the business of behavior change, focus on your target audience’s innermost circle.  Says Fowler, “When we studied behaviors like obesity, smoking, and drinking, we found that spouses, siblings, and friends had an effect on each other’s behavior, but next door neighbors did not.”

5. Keep in mind that “connected” doesn’t necessarily mean connections.  People with more friends and friends of friends aren’t necessarily the best champions.  Says Fowler, look for people “1) interested in spreading social good, 2) influential, and can persuade others, and 3) influence-able by their friends (they are persuadable). Without these other characteristics, even the most connected person won’t be of any help.”

In the world of sustainable products, marketing messages can be misleading and many consumers are confused about how to make ‘good’ choices when they shop for groceries, clothing, personal care items and the like.  From ‘natural’ to ‘organic’ to ‘humane’ to ‘Rain Forrest Alliance Certified’ to Greenpeace’s “International Seafood Red List’ to whatever the latest certification is, consumers face challenges in understanding how their purchases affect the greater good. 

Enter Unilever, which hopes to clear through that clutter and offer a one-stop-shop option.  Unilever plans to become THE company that stands for leading-edge sustainability. 

Unilever has undertaken a 10-year Sustainable Living Plan, launched in 2011, to embed sustainability into the company and its brand messages.  The latest effort within the program is a corporate advertising campaign to communicate the company’s sustainability efforts and the impact its brands are having on solving social and environmental problems.

As Unilever chief marketing officer Keith Weed told Marketing Week, “I don’t want people to have to worry about whether this product has a better sustainability profile than another, I want people to know that Unilever is leading edge in this area and if you see the Unilever ‘U’ logo on an ad or on a product, that gives you the reassurance that we’ve done our homework.”

I applaud Unilever for taking this approach and hope other consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies take a cue to think about how their product footprint can be improved.  That said, I do think it will be a challenge to make a connection between Unilever as a parent company and the brands that consumers know on market shelves.  While the Unilever logo may eventually become a shorthand for  smart, sustainable shopping, that result can only happen through tremendous consumer education and encouragement to read the back of the packaging – and that means swimming against the tide of irrational consumer behavior. 

Ratings systems and certifications can be very powerful, but their effectiveness becomes diluted when they compete to set the same quality standard.  Perhaps Unilver would better serve consumers by working with other CPG companies, or distribution partners like Walmart,  to set a sustainability certification system that can be applied across the sector.  Or even better, collaborate with an existing certification system and put the weight of a Fortune 500 company behind it to build adoption and momentum.

The latest company to adopt a crowdsourced cause contest is Starbucks with the ‘Vote.Give.Grow’ program.  Starbucks joins other such contest fans Target’s Bullseye Gives, Chase Community Giving, Lady Gaga, Tom’s of Main ’50 States for Good’, Pepsi Refresh  and others, which involve consumers in helping to allocate philanthropic dollars. 

Here’s how it works:

The Starbucks Foundation is giving away $4 million to help communities thrive.  Anyone with a registered Starbucks reward card can vote to decide where the money should be spent.  Individuals can vote one time per week in April and can choose from among organizations in their local communities.  Ultimately, 124 local nonprofits will benefit and the size of the grants will be determined by the voting results.

Why the campaign is smart:

• It rewards loyal customers (which supports the bottom line) by limiting participation to registered cardholders
• It promotes pre-selected nonprofits ‘already doing great work to help solve the unique needs of their communities’
• It provides grants to all participant nonprofits so they don’t spend limited resources and valuable social capital to compete in a contest with unknown rewards
• It makes the contest relevant to local communities by regionalizing the voting options
• It leverages technology (online, mobile), but reinforces a real world, in-store experience
• It promotes social proof by encouraging people to wear there ‘I Voted’ stickers as a badge of honor

The Georgetown University Center for Social Impact Communication features an insightful interview with Fenton’s Senior Vice President and Director of Global Marketing, Susan McPherson.  It's part of the Social Strategist Project and I encourage you to check out the series and access the full blog post and podcast here.

Here are a few of Susan’s thoughts on the future of corporate responsibility excerpted from the CSIC post:

• Open the kimono! “What we’re seeing now is companies realizing that by doing ‘good business’ they’re actually doing good business.” Open the kimono and use transparent communication to achieve both social and financial goals. 
• Turn the equation around. “Instead of asking how we can get funding as a nonprofit, ask: how can we tell the corporation what we can do for them?  
• Think about upcoming hot topics. Conflict minerals. Human trafficking. Those are two issues whose time has come, according to Susan. Susan recommends paying attention to what topics are particularly active in the public debate because they are natural areas for companies to join the conversation.
• Don’t forget employee engagement. “It’s time to find out from your employees who they want to get behind and have a contest to determine which cause makes the most sense…have your employees build that program.”

The following is a guest post from Network for Good's Chief Strategy Officer, Katya Andresen.  The article also appeared on Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog.

Silverpop has a free electronic essay, “The Best Marketing Advice I Ever Received, and the Best I Ever Gave: 5 Experts Share Their Wisdom.” I like the counsel, so I’m passing it on.

1. Consider Your Audience First, Then Manage Your Brand’s Place Within.  This is from Scott Monty, global digital & multimedia communications manager for Ford Motor Company.  As you’d expect, I’m a big fan of this advice.  Says Monty: “If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings and speak my words… Even though tools and technology and the medium may change very quickly, fundamentally, human nature stays the same.”

2. Do Your Own Thing, Then Do It Simply and Really Well. That concept comes from Andrew Kordek, co-founder and chief strategist for Trendline Interactive.  He warns against “digital ADD,” saying, “When you think you have to do everything everyone else is doing, you complicate things, rush things and don’t do them correctly or with any thought process behind it.”  Good advice.

3. The Zany Bird Gets the Worm, but It Must Work Hard to Earn its Audience. This is the advice of Peter Shankman, marketing consultant, author and founder of Help A Reporter Out.  He says not to worry about what people might think when you have a crazy idea.  “If they don’t like it, they’ll say so and you’ll start over, but more times than not, they’ll be intrigued and willing to run with it, and it will work.”  But, that said, don’t forget restraint and even decorum.  “Having an audience is a privilege and not a right. It’s like wearing Spandex,” he says.

4. Get to It Already, but Put the Brakes on the Hard Sell, says M.H. (Mac) McIntosh, founding partner at Acquire B2B and CEO of marketing and consulting firm Mac McIntosh Inc. Get to the point in your outreach with the what, who and why.  At the same time, stop selling and instead, help your customers buy.  Or in our world, help donors give.

5. When It Comes to Your Site, It’s About Usability, Usability, Usability.  That’s from Bert DuMars, vice president of digital marketing and e-commerce at Newell Rubbermaid.  “Pretty is as pretty does” he notes. It doesn’t matter how attractive, slick or sophisticated a site is if it isn’t user-friendly and functional.  Amen to that.  I’ve seen fantastic nonprofit websites that aren’t slick but are wholly effective.

What’s the best piece of marketing advice you ever got?