Examining Cause

While making three Peanut Butter & Nutella sandwiches this morning (clearly nutrition is not my biggest worry), I was thinking about how fortunate I am to have my work tie so closely to what I believe. I get to work with some wonderful nonprofits on a volunteer and for-pay projects. More on my causes another day.

But then the kids went to school and I started reading and I saw a great post from Learned on Women Nonprofits As Examples of Humanization? We do need to think about what we’re doing and why. And is it sustainable?

Cause-related marketing has, over the last several years, really come into its own. Some people really do it well – Lee Jeans Denim Day has been hugely successful, the results of Live Strong have been in every mainstream newspaper and those ribbon magnets are everywhere. It’s all good stuff.

But here’s the thing. There is an entire segment of cause marketing that I don’t see enough. And that I wish I’d see. And that I think would make my life better. But before I go there, have you seen the The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s special report The Young and the Generous? Or the Kellogg Foundation’s Youth and Community: Engaging Young People in Philanthropy and Service focusing on the ways nonprofit organizations are engaging youth?

So why, as marketers, aren’t we doing more to encourage the involvment of our youth? The opportunities are everywhere. How are we going to create more charitable young people who are more willing to give of their time and their hard-earned money? We need to engage the parents now. To create cause-related opportunities where we can teach our kids how important they are to the process – now and forever.

Example. My boys, ages 6, 7, 9, wanted to contribute to help with tsunami aid. Passbook savings books in their little hands, we went to The Columbia Bank to withdraw some of that “birthday” money. WELL, come to find out that the bank is matching all donations. Think about it – if they had told us (or the thousands of other parents that use the bank!) – how many of us would have used to this as a chance to show the kids that the world does care and that look how much your contribution can do and that they are a part of something much bigger? A lot, I hope. But they didn’t. We didn’t know until we walked in the door. They did a great thing, but forgot to spread the word.

When we tie a donation to the sale of a product, the benefits are obvious. But what if we tied real tzedakah to the products and services? What if we really cared about the people of the world and everything we did reflected that?