Yesterday, Network for Good released the following 2012 Digital Giving Index Infographic. We're proud to share our findings on $163 million in donations to over 40,000 charities via the Network for Good giving platform. Donations are categorized via three channels: portal giving (like CrowdRise), charity websites, and peer-to-peer social giving.
Check out the infographic below and share with your social networks!
This infographic is created by Network for Good
We'll give you #5 on Monday, skip posting on Christmas, then countdown the rest.
Don't forget to share YOUR favorite cause marketing campaign of 2012 via Twitter with the hashtag #C4Gchat. We're pooling responses, and will share them in the new year.
Happy holidays from everyone at Network for Good.
Although it's amazing, it's not mine--the image was found here.
By Allison McGuire*
Giving good (aka donating to charity, volunteering, etc.) creates a euphoric chemical reaction in the brain known as the ‘helper’s high’**. That’s why you feel satisfied after taking time out of your busy week to support the causes you care about most or ladle soup with the homeless women’s shelter across the street.
The holidays are a perfect time for everyone to give back to local communities and favorite causes. From #GivingTuesday to ‘Secret Santa for Good’, there are myriad opportunities to get involved.
As you know, companies incorporate cause into their business models for reasons ranging from higher employee retention to increased customer loyalty. There are some compelling stats around cause being associated with corporate brands, and, as ‘tis the season of giving, consumers and employees alike are especially interested in feel-good events.
Don’t just take my word for it—the proof is in the pudding! According to recent research by Cone, Inc., nearly 90% of consumers want companies to support causes at the holidays and almost ¾ of employees wish their company would do more to support causes.
While corporate cause campaigns occur throughout the year, the holiday season is the perfect time for companies to spend remaining marketing budgets and/or philanthropic dollars.
Be a company that gives back.
For example, you can:
- Thank your employees with charity gift cards;
- Send motivating messages to keep up spirits through the end of the year;
- Illustrate the impact your corporate giving program has yielded.
Whatever you do this holiday season, make sure to keep it light, keep it fun, and keep it good.
*A version of this post originally appeared on Vitamin W Media. VitaminW is a social enterprise platform dedicated to addressing issues related to women. Check them out!
**Helper’s High: (noun): 1. The feeling of euphoria that people report after giving to charity 2. An activated psychological state induced by charitable activity
By Kate Olsen
The first half of December is primetime for charity rewards. Why? According to several studies profiled in the Washington Post[i], a bonus you spend on someone else is more motivating than a bonus you spend on yourself.
By letting your customers, clients or employees direct where your corporate philanthropic dollars get spent, you emphasize your commitment to cause and give them the thrill of a reward.
The gift of charity is an easy and ideal way to:
- Thank employee volunteers with ‘dollars for doers’ incentives
- Show customers & clients you appreciate their business
- Recruit fans to online and social campaigns
SnagFilms ‘Secret Santa for Good’ Sweepstakes[ii] December 2011
Our Good Card® - a gift card for charity – allows your audience to choose their favorite charities to support, but your company gets the tax credit. It’s an ideal way to demonstrate that your company is interested in what your customers and employees care about.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 27, 2012, Network for Good celebrates the spirit of the holiday season and joins partners The Case Foundation, Crowdrise, SixDegrees.org and others to promote the inaugural #Giving TuesdayTM, a national movement to add a day of charity and doing good to the lineup of national shopping days Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.
Founded by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, and supported by a host of corporations and nonprofits, #GivingTuesday™ is a campaign to create a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. As the campaign's mission statement asserts, "it celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support nonprofit organizations.”
The Case Foundation, Crowdrise and SixDegrees.org have joined together to host a one-day #GivingTuesday Match Challenge. The Case Foundation and SixDegrees.org, a charitable initiative of Actor and Musician Kevin Bacon in partnership with Network for Good, will match each donation made on Tuesday, November 27, 2012, through the campaign site on www.Crowdrise.com up to $35,000.
Network for Good also applauds the #GivingTuesday initiatives created by other corporate partners such as Capital One, Cisco and Microsoft.
Capital One
Capital One is encouraging its debit and credit cardholders to support #GivingTuesday and donate to their favorite charities through the Capital One No Hassle Giving Site (www.capitalone.com/give). Launched in 2008 with Network for Good, the Giving Site enables Capital One customers to donate cash or credit card rewards to more than 1.2 million U.S. charities. Capital One covers the transaction fees on all donations made through the Giving Site so that 100% of every donation gets to the customer’s charity of choice.
Cisco
Cisco's signature employee giving initiative is the Global Hunger Relief Campaign, which takes place from Nov. 1 - Dec. 31, 2012, and benefits hunger relief agencies worldwide. We multiply the impact of employee giving and volunteering through the Campaign by matching cash contributions twice, and providing $10 for every approved volunteer hour. Employees will be encouraged to give and volunteer throughout the Campaign, and we will focus volunteer activities at several local facilities on Nov. 27th specifically.
Microsoft & GlobalGiving
As it celebrates its 30th year of employee giving, Microsoft is proud to be a founding partner of Giving Tuesday. On Giving Tuesday, Microsoft will launch a major donor matching campaign on GiveforYouth.org – a new micro-giving portal designed to allow donors to fund and follow the dreams of young people around the world. While further details are forthcoming, Microsoft will encourage donors to “be the spark of change” for a young person by going to GiveforYouth.org and taking advantage of the matching offer. GiveforYouth.org is a Microsoft YouthSpark initiative offered in partnership with Global Giving.
How is your company celebrating #GivingTuesday?
I'm proud to report our latest #C4Gchat on Giving Good for the Holidays was a success. We were lucky enough not only to have our partners SnagFilms and CrowdRise join us, but also Chrysler and Build-A-Bear too. SnagFilms gave us a scoop on their 'Secret Santa for Good' program, CrowdRise talked about the Mozilla Firefox Challenge, Chrysler explained the thinking behind their latest food drive, and Build-A-Bear shared their work with Toys for Tots.
Make sure to mark your calendars for the next TweetChat on Creative Cause Campaigns: 2012 Highlights: Thursday, December 13 at 1 pm ET.
If you're a company or professional and worked on an unconventional cause campaign this year, please join! We love showcasing the work of our esteemed colleagues. Email us for more details.
Here are some of the highlights:
When we asked Chrysler why employees are a mainstay of their corporate giving programs, they replied,
We learned the scope of Build-A-Bear's work with Toys for Tots:
SnagFilms told us the importance of working with others in the cause space.
CrowdRise explained their thinking behind charity choice.
Chrysler shared their motivating factors in holiday giving.
And we all took home an important lesson: fun is underrated.
Here's a BIG thanks to all who joined us, especially our featured participants.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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I don’t know about you, but I’m bombarded with these exclamatory-laden messages all day, every day. So I know what you’re thinking. Not another newsletter pitch.
I promise you, this one is different. Social enterprise VITAMIN W Media is a platform dedicated to advancing causes related to women. Specifically, the newsletter focuses on women in philanthropy and business.
Here’s why VITAMIN W Media’s newsletter is worth joining now:
- It’s unique. This email is consistently chock full of articles you won’t find elsewhere.
- It’s easy. Enter you email and you’re good to go.
- It’s relevant. Even if you’re not a woman, it’s highly likely that you know and love one or many women in your life. If this is the case, joining the newsletter is a no-brainer. In the case that you are a woman, I suspect I need not persuade you.
- It’s free. It is. Really. There’s no catch.
- It will make you smarter. Doesn’t everyone want to be more intelligent? If you’ve been looking for a newsletter that is ‘100% Kardashian free’, this is the one for you.
- It’s for a good cause. Per new subscriber, VITAMIN W will donate $1 to each of its nonprofit partners. The company will donate up to a total of $10K.
- It’s timely. As a Thanksgiving treat, the deal above only lasts through November 27. That means you need to sign up now.
What are you waiting for? Sign up already!
And if you’re in the subscribing mood, join Companies for Good’s Quick Tips list too.
By Kate Olsen
We frequently talk about how employees and consumers alike want companies to support cause. Less frequently do we mention that their desire increases during the holiday season. Don’t just trust me—look at the research! According to Cone, Inc.:
- 89% of consumers want companies to support causes at the holidays.
- 78% of consumers want to be personally engaged in these efforts.
- 81% of employees want to get involved in their company’s cause-related efforts through giving and matching grant campaigns.
- 73% of employees wish their company would do more to support causes.
November is an ideal time to roll out your cause program and get your consumers and employees excited about unleashing generosity at year-end. Once December hits, many people are focused work deadlines, family holiday planning and the general chaos of the end of the year. If you reach your audience in November, you’ll have a better chance of securing their attention and participation and feed off their enthusiasm for Thanksgiving and the beginning of the holiday season.
Here are two campaign ideas that are guaranteed to wow your audience:
Idea 1: Host a matching grant contest
Doing good creates a chemical reaction in the brain, a feeling of euphoria known as the ‘Helper’s High’. When you enable that feeling in your customers and employees, they associate their passion for a cause or doing good with your company. Why not remind people about all the good they’ve done this year and help them recapture that ‘Helper’s High’? You can thank customers and employees who participated in a cause marketing initiative, giving campaign or volunteer program during 2012 and you can share the story of your company’s collective impact across the year.
Network for Good 10th Anniversary Gratitude Campaign December 2011
What are the next steps in your holiday cause campaign? Download our FREE eGuide to find out!
Check out our *two* new guests below!
This Thursday, November 15 at 1 pm ET, mark your calendars for our monthly #C4Gchat. We’ll be talking corporate holiday giving…with a twist. By giving good this holiday season, companies are tapping into the hearts of their employees and consumers. Learn about why companies choose to do good, get the skinny on how these giving programs work, and discover examples of successful campaigns.
Giving Good for the Holidays
#C4Gchat | Hosted by @Companies4Good
Thursday, November 15 at 1pm
We’re pleased to share our partners CrowdRise, SnagFilms, and the esteemed Chrysler will be our featured participants in this online-only event.
Last December, Mozilla Firefox offered a $25K prize donation to the charity that raised the most money on CrowdRise. Nearly a hundred charities competed for the grand prize as well as some celebs and, after just a few weeks, over $680,000 was raised for charity. And, they're going at it again this year. This kind of campaign is way better than a voting campaign because, in a voting campaign, the charities that don't win get nothing. Join the #C4Gchat to learn more! They'll be tweeting via @crowdrise.
Never been to a Tweetup? Here’s how it works:
1) At 1 pm ET on Thursday, November 15, go to Twitter (or Twitter platform such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite).
2) Search for #C4Gchat
3) Join the conversation!
4) If you want to ask our featured guests a question, tweet it to @Companies4Good.
You can participate from anywhere in the world, and connect with cause-marketing folks of different stripes.
We hope you’ll join us. If you have questions, email us.
See you on the Twitterverse.
Want tips on 'good' holiday giving before the TweetChat? Get our Holiday Good eGuide!
Chrysler image via http://www.chryslergroupllc.com/community/Pages/Ov
Companies are Giving the Gift of Charity in a Down Year
Kate_NFG
on - last edited on by
Companies4Good
Here’s a sneak peak of a media release going out this afternoon about the trend of giving the gift of charity this holiday season. If your company has not finalized its yearend reward program, don’t panic! It’s not too late to spread joy among your employees or customers with charity gift cards from Network for Good. Learn more at www.networkforgood.org/customgoodcard
Amid a down economy, many companies are choosing to replace conventional gifting with the gift of charity at year’s end. Network for Good is seeing strong corporate sales of The Good Card® - a gift card for charity. Further, companies are purchasing Good Cards at higher dollar values than last year: the average gift card value is up 13% at just under $70.
“More companies are choosing to reward employees, vendors and clients with a gift of charity this year,” says Network for Good CEO Bill Strathmann. “Our charity gift card product is a meaningful way to say thank you, especially in a down economy, because it allows recipients to feel generous and spread the joy of the season.”
Good Card recipients redeem the cards for a wide range of charities – anything from local PTAs, libraries, and animal shelters to large nonprofits like the American Red Cross and The Nature Conservancy. Network for Good sees very little overlap of charities selected by Good Card recipients. When presented with a choice in giving, individuals truly have unique interests and passions.
A gift card for charity is an ideal reward for employees or thank you gift for clients, customers and vendors that links their passion for a cause to a company’s brand. A new study by researchers from Harvard Business School, the University of British Columbia and the University of Liege recently highlighted in the Washington Post confirms that a bonus employees get to spend on others is more motivating than a bonus they get to spend on themselves. A Good Card recipient can redeem their gift card as a donation to any of more than a million nonprofits, an easy way for employees to share a their personal rewards with others.
“Cisco loves to reward employees with The Good Card®. Network for Good makes it so easy to design a custom program and their choice in charity means that each employee can give to an organization that matters to them,” remarks a Cisco Systems, Inc. Program Manager.
Good Card purchases, including fees, are tax-deductible to the company and are a creative way to spend funds ear-marked for philanthropy. In addition, because Good Card purchases are charitable donations, they do not fall under the IRS gift limit or policies around corporate gifts with cash value. Network for Good’s charity gift card program is turn-key, customizable and easy to implement - even at the last minute. The program is recommended for any company looking to put a special spin on their gift-giving this year.
