A New Look for Selfishgiving.com

Written on March 11, 2010 in Cause Marketing News
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Cause marketing news, advice and commentary just got better (looking). Welcome to the new and improved Selfishgiving.com!

Late last year I started thinking of refreshing my blog with a new look that I could extend to all my other social media platforms and offline activities. A lot had happened since the last redesign two years earlier!

At first I only thought about changing the look of my blog, but John Haydon was writing some great posts on how Headway Themes could enhance your blog. That’s when I came into contact with Grant Griffiths, who kindly gave up a couple hours of his time to talk about my business goals for Selfish Giving and how Headway Themes might help.

After talking to Grant and John, I was sold on the benefits of Headway Themes.

The next step was to find a designer who could take Selfish Giving in a new direction. Grant brought a talented woman to my attention, Mikhaela Craig. Mikhaela came up with some great designs, and while I ultimately chose a look that had a lot of similarities to my previous design, it was for no lack of options.

Mikhaela also came up with the Selfish Giving crest you see to the right. I love it. It’s something I can use on business cards, slides and proposals that isn’t clunky like a wide banner image.

In addition to my blog, Mikhaela also redesigned my Twitter page, email newsletter, Six Figure Cause Marketing landing page (which I’m still tweaking) and Posterous blog.

I highly recommend Mikhaela if you have an upcoming design project. She’s professional, twitterific (and active on Twitter too!), dedicated and very, very patient.

With my new Headway Theme and design in hand, it was time for John Haydon to put the two together. John did a great job, and you’ll never know how much work it was for him to get the devil’s tale on “Selfish” to hang just right!

The best thing about John is that he treats my blog like his own. He makes tweaks to it when I haven’t asked him to or expect it (like the Wibiya navigation bar at the bottom of my blog, which I think is just great). He’s making my blog better like he tries to do with his own every day.

You don’t need to be too familiar with my blog or tweets to know that John and I are good friends. We live just a couple miles from each other outside Boston and our kids play together.

But in this instance John treated me so much better than a friend. He treated me like a client. Now that’s a true friend.

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How to Market Your Cause Marketing Program

Written on March 9, 2010 in Cause Practices
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So your nonprofit has started a cause marketing program. Good for you. Here’s how you can let the rest of the world know it exists, especially the corporate prospects you want to woo.

Blog. You know this is my favorite. The good news is that it’s easy, doesn’t require a lot of work and will support all your other marketing activities. Think of it as an online bullhorn for your program that is fresh, dynamic, two-way and 100% accessible.

You don’t have to post three times a week like I do. Just post when you have a new program to promote, or when you see or read something you really want to share. The important thing is that this info is ready-to-go when a prospect wants to see it–or when they’re looking for it on Google.

Website. Not my favorite since it tends to be more static than a blog, a website nonetheless can be a great place to promote your cause marketing program. Here in Boston, The Jimmy Fund and Children’s Hospital both have cause marketing web pages. My development office will probably have a cause marketing page too when our new web site is finished. If for no other reason, it can boost search engine results. When you search on Boston Cause Marketing on Google, Children’s Hospital is the first program listed.

Twitter. With more and more companies embracing Twitter, the medium is becoming a quick, direct and informal way to connect with businesses. While Twitter is just starting to trickle down to the local and medium-sized retailers I work with, the number of business users is definitely growing. Take my advice: get on Twitter now so you’re not left behind.

Newsletter. These can be print or email. My two favorites are Komen and The Jimmy Fund. The former is so completely juicy for cause marketers that I’ve described it as cause marketing porn. Newsletters are a great way to keep donors and prospects abreast of your latest programs and to plant the seed with prospects for how a program might work for them.

Speaking. Find the places where businesses are curious about using cause marketing (e.g. chambers of commerce, rotaries, marketing and business groups) and share with them the details of your program and how you can help each other.

That’s because of all the ways you can promote your cause marketing program, speaking may be the best. You are your best visual aid. No PowerPoint or handout or web page can beat an engaging man or woman. And what you achieve speaking is what you hope to accomplish with your website, blog, Twitter, etc. (i.e. face time with a qualified prospect).

So don’t be shy. As my friend John Haydon found out this morning after he spoke to 70 people, your next client (in John’s case two!) might be waiting for you when you’re done.

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What Carol Cone Means To Me

Written on March 4, 2010 in Capplause
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Carol Cone announced this week that she is leaving the firm that she founded in 1980 and that bears her name to pursue new interests.

As a cause marketer who lives in Boston but never worked at Cone, I nonetheless always benefited from her leadership and enjoyed her warmth.

I first met Carol back in 1997 when I joined the Vice President of Corporate Relations for the Arthritis Foundation National Office on a sales call to Cone’s old offices on Canal Street. The person from Cone we were suppose to meet with wasn’t there, and my colleague was none too pleased about it. I remember being very nervous. Then Carol appeared. I thought she might ask us to leave! But instead she invited us in and heard us out. Gracious, curious, no-nonsense, and she talked as much to me as to my more senior colleague. That’s what I remember about Carol.

I didn’t see Carol a lot over the ensuing years, but I felt her influence. I read her Cone/Roper reports, which led to my interest in cause marketing. I also learned from her team. Alison DaSilva taught me about point-of-sale cause marketing and how a program between The Jimmy Fund and Jiffy Lube had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. “Wow, what a good idea!”, I thought.

After I started my blog, Selfish Giving, in 2004, Carol was a frequent visitor and to this day she still reads all my newsletters (which is more than can I say for my real mother). She also invited me to her office a couple years ago to talk about blogging and cause marketing. Carol was really interested in what I had to say, and she never made me feel like she knew more (or better) just because she was the “mother of cause marketing.” I’ll never forget that.

Whenever I saw Carol at Cause Marketing Forum she always had a kind word, a nice comment, a flattering introduction. She made you feel special, even when you knew there was a crushing line of people behind you waiting to meet her. You only needed to meet Carol once to know why.

Yesterday I wrote to Carol “Bye, Mom.” “Not bye. But evolving to the next level,” she wrote back. I’m happy that Carol is ready to take her life to the next level. It’s a good time to do it.

But I’m most thankful she took the time through the years to come down to my level and be kind and encouraging. It’s no surprise she’s ready for something more.

Do you have thoughts or memories you want to share about Carol? Feel free to leave them in the comments section. I would love to hear them.

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