Black and White and Pink All Over

I admit it! I love women's magazines, and love to look at the latest fashions and read tips on how to live my my best life. So I pick up the latest O Magazine around Sept 20th, with Oprah in her hot pink outfit on the cover and I leaf through this issue fairly rapidly. Guess there wasn't that much that caught my interest. But after I finished, I had a strange image of the entire magazine as one big pink blur from cover to cover. Going back through the magazine my impression was verified with the images of pink clothing and lipstick interspersed with pages and pages of  pink ads promoting breast cancer awareness and research. So okay, October is coming up, which is National Breast Cancer Month and this was the October issue of  "O", but the odd thing was that for all the pink advertising there was not a single mention of  the specially dedicated month in any of the editorial pages.

Here are the companies and their ads in support of helping prevent and cure breast cancer.

Hanes Company and their support for the Susan B Komen's Pink For The Cure
Warrior in Pink, by Ford Motor company
Breast Cancer Research Foundation sponsored by Kmart
 "Shop Till You Stop Breast Cancer" page about products that contribute a portion of sales to support research, detection and treatment.
Ralph Lauren, Pink Pony
Vera Bradley with a note about their 10 million dollar contribution to breast cancer research

And to  "O" Magazine's credit, they ran a story about the latest advances on breast cancer research with a cover page of hundreds of female figurines standing  in a pink colored shape of a ribbon.
 
That's quite a lot of pink advertising-maybe not enough to provide the necessary resources to knock out a real killer of a disease. But as a consumer the effect of all this pink advertising interspersed with a lot of pink color on the fashion  pages, destroyed any impact that any one ad could have had on me. After my first skim through the magazine, not one company nor one non-profit stood out in my memory.

I applaud these companies like Ralph Lauren and others, doing whatever they can to help fight breast cancer, and I believe that "O" Magazine's intentions were to help promote this cause by having a such a pink colored issue. I would have preferred a little more thought to what the effects of creating this pink blur might have and a little more information about how to help beat breast cancer.

For more information on how you or your business can help support this cause in October, check out the site for the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Change the World and Look Good Doing It-GeboMana

Giving gifts the GeboMana way - fashionable organic T-shirts

With GeboMana, changing the world is as simple as changing your T-shirt.
GeboMana ships limited-edition, organic T-shirts; highly fashionable and handcrafted in Bali, Indonesia.

Each T-shirt comes hand-numbered as part of a limited edition range.

But what happens next is what has already caught the attention of people across the world, many weeks before the official launch of Gebomana.com. Every time 5 T-shirts are shipped an underprivileged child can start an education.

“It’s great receiving things from others but it feels so much better to be the one giving. So, here’s to 2010 the year for JOY to give!!! Watch my GeboMana giving tree grow!!! ;)” Joy P, London, UK

For the inaugural series of GeboMana T-shirts, “Bali Art goes to New York”, designers were briefed to incorporate traditional Eastern culture fused with fashion-forward, modern designs. Each design is screen printed by hand, then embellished and decorated by experts in Bali. The most elaborate GeboMana designs take a full eight hours to decorate!

Each T-shirt is handcrafted using certified organic Indian cotton, knitted to a superior cotton jersey for GeboMana. It’s shipped in an exclusive gift-box, direct to consumers in over 65 countries.

So wherever you are, it’s easy to start changing the world.

“Overall, great job guys! The T-shirts are lovely (very unique designs) and the packaging simple but very effective!" Marian F, Red Deer, Canada

The brainchild of Mike Boorn, of Sydney, Australia, GeboMana has been in constant development for the past four years. As such, the organisation has been launched as a strong collaboration that stretches across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia; with contributions from graphics artists, fashion designers and
craftspeople on different continents.

But that’s just where the giving starts. When you give the gift of GeboMana, you’re giving the gift of on-the ground education to underprivileged children in developing countries. You’re giving them the chance to lift themselves out of poverty and into prosperity.

All it takes is 5 T-shirts to give a child that gift of education in sustainable practices for a full year.

GeboMana makes it easy and convenient to give great fashion gifts and change lives at the same time. All you have to do is visit the site, www.GeboMana.com and click “New to GeboMana”. Within minutes you’ll be on your way to turning gift-giving into education!

"…just wanted to say a big thank you for my T-shirt.. It’s by far my favourite... Love your work, I'm a big fan."
Frank C, Sydney, Australia

For further details, please contact Mike Boorn, Founder, on mike@gebomana.com

Submitted by Mike Boorn. 

Thank you Mike!

7 Ways Small Business Can Embrace Social Responsibility

Small businesses may think that social responsibility does not apply to them because of the "C' word , the corporate, that stands in front of the "SR".  If one considers the fact that small businesses account for 70% of the work force, it is easy to see how small businesses have great potential for impact on social responsibility and philanthropy in their communities. Just as one example, consider the magnitude of the environmental impact alone of 70% of the people in the workplace.

By taking out the "C"  word out of Social Responsibility, small and mid-sized businesses can embrace social responsibility with the assurance that their contribution to society will have impact and will add value to their communities and to their business.

Here are seven ways that any sized business can embrace Social Responsibility.

1. Recycle
One just needs to go behind any business or business area to see  dumpsters full of  waste. Businesses generate all kinds of waste: electronic, paper, plastic,cardboard, food waste, printer ink cartridges, batteries, and office equipment that can all be recycled and saved from the landfill. Handing out recyclable bags to customers for their purchases and giving customers incentives for bringing in their bags can help businesses and communities stay green.

2. Reduce Your Energy Consumption
Turn off unnecessary lights in your business overnight. Replace light bulbs with energy efficient ones. Power down your computers when not in use. If you own your own building, install solar energy panels. Your energy reduction will also result in long term savings.

3. Volunteer Locally
While small businesses may not have the large employee volunteer pools of big business, small businesses have closer connections with their employees and are likely to engage a greater percentage of them in volunteering. Small businesses are also closer to their local community needs and are better able to match volunteers to the right causes. Small business can support the community by volunteering for fundraisers, for environmental causes like cleanup days, or pitch in to help build homes or in soup kitchens. 

4.Establish Your Own Grant Program
Although small businesses account for the majority of the workforce, they cannot match big companies in revenues. Large companies are able to endow foundations that can make huge donations to support nonprofits or social enterprises. Small businesses may not have the kind of funding that large businesses have, but they can set up an application process for small local non-profits that helps charities in their fundraising process as well as helps the business control the deluge of requests for donations. 

5.Collaborate With Other Businesses
Small businesses can more easily find inventive ways of collaborating with other small businesses, either through their Chamber of Commerce, local branches of associations, networking groups, or just in their local business community. Helping each other to develop a healthy local economy and sustainable business practices is the kind of community involvement that can help the entire community grow.

6. Help Global Causes
Should global causes be more interesting to small business owners, they can invest modestly in micro-lending enterprises such as Kiva. Some small businesses have started their own social enterprises directly supporting local or global causes, with part or all of their profits, (see postings about In Her Shoes and Mission Street Food) going to both local and/or global causes.
There are also opportunities to support the many 501c3 organizations located in local communities that support global causes such as building schools in Africa, or sending supplies to underprivileged communities.

7. Start Your Own Cause Marketing Campaign
Businesses have great resources to involve their customers with well thought out campaigns that can help raise funds and increase community involvement in their favorite causes. Cause marketing for small businesses can be as simple as posting a flier in your window, collection spare change, giving discounts to customers who support a charity, or mentioning your favorite charity on your website.


Increasingly customers are expecting large corporations to be more philanthropic and socially responsible.  That level of expectation will soon trickle down towards smaller businesses. Maybe it’s time for small businesses to realize that collectively their impact can be as important as that of big business, that there customers will appreciate their commitment ,and their responsibility may be even greater.

The Latest Scorecard in the CSR Debate

There has been much ado lately about the rights or wrongs of Corporate Social Responsibility. Although the debate about whether business should or should not be concerned with social responsibility has been around for quite a long time, it seems that with the increase of business concerns about the environment, interest in the welfare of their surrounding communities, and involvement in the solutions of social problems, coupled with the recent explosion of social media, this debate has seen renewed energy.

Tomorrow, Friday, there will be a debate hosted by Fenton Communications: CSR and the Role of Business Today – A Spirited Discussion with professor Kamani, the author of a recently controversial article in the Wall Street Journal and Chrystia Freeland, the author of another recently published controversial article, as well as other notable CSR practitioners and proponents.Click here to get more information about the webcast.

This debate will add to the overall scorecard that has been mounting bit by bit on each side.

In this article written  in the Reference for Business, Encyclopedia of Business is a straightforward framework that lays out the pros and cons of the CSR arguments that can be used as a guide for the upcoming debate.

It's also useful to get a view of how each side has been stacked up from some notable business leaders, economists, professors, and journalists.  Katherine V. Smith, executive director of the Boston College Center of Corporate Citizenship suggested in her article that: Comments that cause CSR stir can spark valuable dialogue. 

Reading some of these articles that take either position can help in creating more of this kind of valuable dialogue.  

Pro
Aug. 25, 20102. The Case for CSR: The CEO Perspective by Margaret Coady,Director Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy

August 27, 2010. Why Corporate Responsibility Lives (Despite The WSJ Trying To Kill It) by Mike Lawrence of Cone, Inc.

Aug 31, 2010. How to Do Well and Do Good
By Rosabeth Moss Kanter in Sloan Management Review

Con
Oct, 2005, Con, (Milton Friedman, T.J.Rodgers), Pro, (John Mackey)
Rethinking the Social Responsibility of Business A Reasoned debate featuring Milton Friedman, Whole Foods' John Mackey, and Cypress Semiconductor's T.J. Rodgers.

Sunday, July 18, 2010 . What's BP's social responsibility? By Chrystia Freeland. Washington Post

Aug. 23, 2010. The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility, By Aneel Karnani, WSJ



I would love to hear about any more articles, blogs, or posts that have taken either the pro or the con side of the debate, to add to this list. 

Look for a report of this upcoming webcast in future posts.

Help Support This Blog For A Cure and Beat Blood Cancers

Nearly a year ago, I helped support Lani Lyons in her Blog For A Cure fundraiser for The Leukemia Lymphoma Foundation. Lani joined Team In Training to raise funds to help stop Leukemia,Lymphoma,Hodgkins and Myeloma from taking more lives.
With the support of numerous bloggers, Lani had raised well over her goal of $2,400.00.

Now this year she is back again in training for a run in January and offering her popular giveaway contest to those who support her.

Lani’s popular blog: Who Knew? Reviews, is an example of blogs that have become enterprises of their own right and she is using that enterprise in an inventive way to raise money for a good cause.

I am supporting Lani again this year-won’t you please join me by blogging and donating to this great cause and help support individuals like Lani who are making a difference in every way they can?

Click on these link to donate and to get more information about how you can help.
Blog Party website: www.whoknewreviews.blogspot.comhttp://whoknewreviews.blogspot.com
Links to donate: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ncfl/wdw11/lanik58 http://pages.teamintraining.org/ncfl/wdw11/lanik58
or to donate via PayPal, use address lanik58@yahoo.com

Philantronomics, a New Philanthropic, Pay It Forward, Business Model

uServio, is a network marketing company that provides a subscription service for Motivational Cd’s. uServio’s philanthropic business model is to give 50% of all subscription sale revenues to non-profit organizations across the United States. Subscription members are considered partners in the philanthropy.

They call this model, Philanthronomics. Their motto is "earn a living, by giving."

uServio’s cause supports children and families in need, and donates to charities such as The Ronald McDonald House Charities, His House Children's Home, Angel Pediatric Heart House. All of the philanthropies they donate to are well vetted and must apply for donations.

For more information about uServio, their philosophy, the charities they help, or subscriptions, contact: www.uservio.biz

e-Cycle Named to Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing, Private Companies in the U.S.

Wireless buyback and recycling company ranked in nation’s top 1,000 after achieving 400 percent growth in three year span


Hilliard, Oh., August 31, 2010 – Inc. magazine has named e-Cycle number 763 in its 2010 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing, privately-held, for-profit companies in the U.S. e-Cycle, which has created more than 60 green jobs in the Columbus area, was listed 8th overall among the nation’s environmental services companies. The ranking is based on business growth achieved from 2006 to 2009, a difficult economic period during which e-Cycle quadrupled its revenue. e-Cycle is the leading provider of wireless buyback and recycling services for businesses and major organizations.

“The leaders of the companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 have figured out how to grow their businesses during the longest recession since the Great Depression,” said Inc. president Bob LaPointe. “The 2010 Inc. 5000 showcases a particularly hardy group of entrepreneurs.”

“We are honored to be named as one of the top environmental services companies on the Inc 5000 list,” said Chris Irion, founder and CEO of e-Cycle. “Our ranking is evidence that more companies are becoming concerned about the growing threats that out-of-use cell phones pose to the environment and to data security. Our ability to help address these issues in a way that is financially beneficial for our customers has been the key to our growth.”

This year’s Inc. 5000 employ a record 1.4 million people, up from one million on last year’s list. With unemployment remaining stubbornly high, policymakers and business leaders will do well to look to the Inc. 5000 companies for fresh ideas on achieving growth and creating jobs.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles can be found on www.inc.com/5000.

About e-Cycle
e-Cycle helps organizations take a more responsible, secure and cost-effective approach to wireless recycling. The company collects wireless phones from businesses and major organizations, reimbursing them for devices that retain value and recycling all others at no charge through an EPA approved facility. The information on every phone is either deleted or destroyed through the industry’s most rigorous data security measures. e-Cycle is the market share leader among the Fortune 1000, serving financial institutions, manufacturers, healthcare organizations, wireless and telecommunications providers, transportation companies, educational institutions, and public-sector agencies, among others. Since its founding in 2005, e-Cycle has managed secure wireless buyback and recycling for more than 5,000 organizations, purchasing millions of dollars of retired wireless phones and recycling more than 4 million devices. e-Cycle is based in Hilliard, Oh. Please visit www.e-cycle.com.


About Inc. Magazine
Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc. is the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies that delivers real solutions for today’s innovative company builders. Visit us online at Inc.com


Contact:

Kyle Trompeter
Sheffield Marketing Partners
630-310-5190 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              630-310-5190      end_of_the_skype_highlighting
ktrompeter@sheffieldinstitute.com

How Corporate Giving To Haiti Disaster Has Inspired More Giving

Now nine months after the earthquake in Haiti, a report has come out via the aid agency,World Vision, about the overwhelming corporate response for sending aid to victims of the earthquake. Back in January we wrote: From Cell Phones To Shoes, How To Use Your Business To Help Haiti, where we highlighted stories about businesses large and small that were pitching in with helping out in a huge variety of ways. Following my post, I received a twitter message from Jeffrey Montgomery, the Managing Partner of Omatic Software, asking whether Omatics' contribution to this disaster, donating their Import-o-matic software solutions for free to organizations that are providing aid to Haiti, counted as a worthy example. What ensued was a conversation, "Does Giving Inspire More Giving" about how a company's involvement in aiding a disaster inspired the company to become more philanthropic in the future.

World Vision has seen this type of increase also as this tragedy has been a catalyst for businesses to respond  to the need for sending aid more nimbly and for partnering with aid organizations more effectively. While World Vision commends their corporate partners for their generosity prior to this and other more recent disasters, they are lauding the surge of giving and partnering from the corporate sector that has grown since then.


Haiti Quake a 'Game Changer' for Corporate Philanthropy
Leading aid agency expects to see greater corporate involvement in future disaster responses

SEATTLE, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As Haiti marks nearly eight months since its devastating earthquake and Chile sees the six-month mark since its own destructive quake, international aid agency World Vision has seen a notable increase in both corporate donations and level of involvement and interest in disaster relief from companies in a broad range of industries.

"Haiti was a catalyst for American companies to look at broader and deeper ways they could partner with aid groups that are on the front lines. Now, with companies like P&G and Verizon contributing to the Pakistan flood response, we're continuing to see this trend," explained David Owens, vice president of corporate development for World Vision.

"While we had indisputably one of the most generous set of corporate partners before the Haiti quake, we've been humbled by the overwhelming corporate response in the past nearly eight months," Owens continued. "And with the current hurricane season kicking into high gear, we realize there's a greater demand for charitable partnerships that can serve an enterprise in all the ways it may want to give back—from employee initiatives to corporate foundations to product donations to relevant expertise it can share."

Verizon's financial support for Haiti came through a variety of areas including grants from the Verizon Foundation and a program to match employee contributions dollar-for-dollar. The company also created a Haiti donation micro site where its customers could contribute online to relief agencies' responses.

Best Western International invited its guests to donate reward points from the hotel chain's loyalty program to help survivors of the Chile quake. The company notified customers by email and on its website of the opportunity, which complements the company's ongoing campaign that invites both guests and hotel employees to sponsor children in need through World Vision.

JPMorgan Chase, Symantec and Johnson & Johnson provided their staff with a hands-on way to give back, by partnering with World Vision to assemble relief kits for delivery to Haiti. Overall, World Vision's corporate partners have assembled 25,000 kits since October for use in disaster zones and other high-need areas around the world.

The Salesforce.com Foundation responded to Haiti based on the company's 1/1/1 integrated corporate philanthropy model, where 1% of the company's time, 1% of its equity and 1% of its products are given forward to the community. Salesforce.com leveraged its website to World Vision's relief effort by providing its customers a link where they could make online donations and encouraged other corporations to make their own contributions. In addition, salesforce.com matched all donations dollar-for-dollar to World Vision's response and used Twitter to spread the word. Further, salesforce.com employees mobilized and assembled more than 500 emergency relief kits for Haitian earthquake survivors.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) has also recently noticed a similar trend of increased business involvement in disaster response and global development, particularly since Haiti's January quake. "We have seen that Haiti rebuilding is a catalyst for corporations to offer both financial support as well as sector expertise," explained Stephen Jordan, BCLC's Executive Director.

In addition, the BCLC together with Executives without Borders is establishing a Haiti Business Corps. The pilot project aims to make it easier for companies to effectively leverage their talent and expertise in the delivery of social good to Haiti.

"I'm grateful to all our corporate partners who have given so generously in this extraordinary year of disasters. But I'm also confident that in future global emergencies, the corporate sector will continue to leverage their influence and stakeholders in ways that make a bigger overall difference," explained Keith Kall, World Vision's executive director for global partnerships.

Given Haiti's high rate of poverty and the massive loss of infrastructure and human capital, this earthquake has proven to be one of the most difficult disaster responses in recent memory. While working to scale up construction of transitional shelters, World Vision is also beginning to implement more sustainable large-scale programs in the areas of livelihoods, water and sanitation, health and education. To learn more about World Vision's work in Haiti, please read our 6-month report at http://www.worldvision.org/resources.nsf/main/press-haiti/$file/Haitisix.pdf or call 1-888-56-CHILD.

Corporations may contact World Vision at 1.800.642.1616

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tacking the causes of poverty and injustice. For more information, please visit www.worldvision.org/press

SOURCE World Vision U.S.
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