For Watch City Brewing Company’s owner Jocelyn Hughes and brewers Aaron Mateychuk and Kelly McKnight, it all started with a desire to help a family that had lost its husband, father and provider in a terrible fire.

It was December 8, 2011, when firefighter Jon Davies ran into a burning building in Worcester, Massachusetts to search for a missing tenant. He never came out. Jon left behind a fiance and three sons. Brewer Aaron Mateychuk’s brother, Jamie, a member of the Worcester Fire Department, was looking for ways to help Davies’ family and Aaron offered to help. Together with Jocelyn and Kelly, the Waltham, Mass. based pub brewed Rescue One Kölsch to honor Davies and raise money for his family.

To date, the German-style golden ale named after Worcester’s Rescue One Fire Company has raised $3,000 for Davies’ family. It’s raised thousands more as supportive firefighters from across New England have purchased the beer in bottles and kegs and auctioned them off at local firefighter events.

The response has been tremendous. “We’ve brewed and brewed and brewed,” said brewer Kelly McKnight to Boston’s local Fox News affiliate. “We can’t even keep up with the demand almost.”

Rescue One Kölsch isn’t the pub’s first beer for a cause. In 2004, they worked with Red Sox ace Curt Schilling on a Scottish ale to fight ALS. Watch City has even brewed ale to help the Bermuda Family Centre. “There’s more poverty on the island than people realize,” said Hughes. “We responded to where the need was.”

However, most of Watch City’s giving is local, and Hughes said they’re looking at animal charities to help next. Will it rival Rescue One Kölsch, which owes its success to the firefighters that flocked to its tap? Hughes isn’t so sure, and neither am I. Watch City tapped a deep vein of loyalists with Firefighters. As someone who started his career working with firefighters, I know firsthand how dedicated they are to each other.

While dog and cat fans may not match firefighters, the larger lesson for businesses is to commit themselves to causes they care for first, and then to target causes with loyalists that bring energy and money to the effort. A big reason why we see so many pink products and ribbons in October is because companies know they sell more with pink than not.

For Watch City Brewing Company, the priority is making a difference first, but the benefits of cause marketing are clear. They’ve sold a lot of beer and a distributor has already approached them about expanding their business. At the very least Watch City has earned a few karma points.

According to John Craven, founder and CEO of BevNET, a recognized authority on the beverage industry, Watch City won’t be the last local brewery to mix malt and hops for a cause. ”With almost 2,000 breweries in the U.S. craft beer market, connecting with the local community is very smart business on the part of local and regional craft brewers,” said Craven. “And what better way to do that than to support a good cause. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Watch City is a great example of how cause marketing is trickling down to local businesses. The trend is being fed by a larger desire for all things local. Hughes was quick to point out that the community is a priority for Watch City. They source as much as they can from local suppliers. “The less the food and ingredients travel the better.”

Small businesses that buy and give locally are something we can all raise a glass to.

The Arby’s Foundation, the giving arm of Arby’s Restaurant Group, the second largest sandwich shop chain in the United States, did something last week that rivals the good deeds of Santa Claus himself. It gave Share Our Strength’s (SOS) No Kid Hungry campaign $2 million dolllars.

Arby’s customers kicked in most of it. $1.7 million to be exact. The Arby’s Foundation rounded it up to $2 million with a $300,000 gift.

Arby’s campaign for SOS was impressive – and not just because it doubled its initial pledge of one million dollars.

In addition to the national fundraiser in-store and online, Arby’s hosted a Foursquare challenge, donating $1 for every “check-in” at its restaurants nationwide. On Facebook and Twitter, Arby’s provided a meter allowing fans to monitor their fundraising success. Arby’s employees chipped in as well, participating in a series of events, including Bag Hunger Day to champion the cause.

A model campaign for sure. Successful, lucrative, lots of involvement for stakeholders, a digital component. I love it.

But there’s a nagging question for me. Should Share Our Strength, a national leader in anti-hunger programs, have a partnerhip with a fast food chain that sells mostly anti-nutritional foods that should be served to families with a side of Lipitor?

Is this cause marketing program really The Grinch dressed up like Santa?

Don’t get me wrong. I want to like this campaign.

• Unlike the dreaded Buckets for the Cure in 2010, and, this past year, KFC’s crazy soda promotion for JDRF, this cause marketing promotion wasn’t connected to any menu items. Not having to buy a bucket of greasy, fattening chicken to make a donation makes this program a little more tolerable. But we can say with certainty that most of Arby’s guests aren’t donating when they’re ordering salads and water.
• Unlike Buckets, this campaign wasn’t heavily promoted. I only first heard of it last week, probably because I don’t eat at  Arby’s. Buckets had more paid advertising, including this TV ad. KFC used the Buckets campaign to attract new customers. Arby’s campaign is for existing customers. I’ve made this point before about a White Castle cause marketing promotion created specifically for fans of the chain.
• Arby’s has made improvements to its menu, especially to its kids menu. One thing I hated about Buckets was that KFC/Komen seemed to be thumbing its nose at people by serving some of their worst foods in pink buckets that supported a health cause. Not to mention KFC launched the heart-stopping Double Down alongside Buckets. Kudos to Arby’s for a showing a semblance of sincerity.

There’s another reason I like this campaign: I’m an unabashed fan of SOS and its founder Billy Shore. Shore’s first book, Revolution of the Heart, had a big influence on me and sits right beside Emerson, Seneca, Lincoln and Thoreau (okay, and my biography on P. T. Barnum) on my bookshelf.

I even included SOS’a cause marketing – some of the best in the industry – in my own book, Cause Marketing for Dummies.

SOS is nothing if not consistent. They’ve accepted money and product from ConAgra and Tyson, two other food companies often criticized for their health and environmental issues.

Of course, it’s hard to be a big company and NOT be a lightening rod for controversy (e.g. Walmart, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Nike). It begs the question: if a nonprofit didn’t accept money from companies with questionable practices, would there be any companies left to work with? The same could be said of gifts from individuals.

SOS has made its choice and makes no apologies.

It funds Cooking Matters, a program that shows families how to prepare healthy meals, with money from ConAgra.

SOS is also set on growing its partnerships with the fast food industry. It’s currently recruiting for a Senior Manager of Restaurant Partnerships to “Build Share Our Strength’s restaurant multi-unit partnerships through extensive business development and creative and entrepreneurial approaches, leading to growth of revenue sources for the organization for the child hunger strategy.”

When SOS says “multi-unit partnerships” and sets a $3 million goal, it’s not talking about working with vegan restaurants.

Despite some reservations, I give the SOS/Arby’s cause marketing promotion a passing grade. It’s like the fertilizer I add to my gardens in the spring. I hold my nose, but it serves the greater good. I’m hopeful that SOS’s long term involvement with Arby’s will produce more good things in the chain’s menu. I sleep better at night knowing that SOS and Billy Shore are in the world.

What do you think? Should gifts from fast food restaurant chains such as Arby’s be marked “return to sender”?

My friend David Neff is a pretty incredible guy. He’s an author. He’s a fright master during the Halloween season. And he starts cool things like Lights. Camera. Help., a nonprofit that helps other nonprofit use film and video to tell their stories. David even hosts an annual film festival in Austin, TX to showcase films-for-a-cause.

A big winner in the festival this year was the documentary On Coal River. Shot over a period of five years, the film follows a former coal miner and his neighbors in a David-and-Goliath struggle for the future of their valley, their children, and life as they know it.

Watch the trailer and you’ll see why this film was so highly regarded. I’m going to check it out myself. But the reason David thought of me was the cause marketing partnership the film has with apliiq is a new media fashion company that collects rare, vintage and recognizable textiles and applies them to everyday garments (I’m thinking of getting one of their hip hoodies so I can be, well, more hip.).

Ten percent of proceeds goes to Coal River Mountain Watch featured in the film, On Coal River. Apliiq donates an additional 10% of sales to Lights. Camera. Help. to encourage more non-profits to share their causes through film.

A great film. A great cause. A generous company. This is one triple feature you don’t want to miss.

The gang over at For Momentum had a great post yesterday on a new cause marketing program that Better Homes and Gardens is launching on their website this fall.

Of course, I’m a self-professed Halloween junkie (along with David Neff) so I love stuff like this.

Every fall, pumpkins and pumpkin stencils are the most popular content on BHG.com. This year — for the first time ever — Better Homes and Gardens is tapping into the popularity of its stencils to support five nonprofit partners, including For Momentum client Rebuilding Together.

This cause marketing program includes both message promotion and action-triggered donation components.

BHG projects that the Carving for a Cause campaign will generate nearly 23 million impressions (both in print and online) for its five nonprofit partners. In addition to the awareness campaign, a $2.00 donation to the charity will be made for each stencil downloaded, up to a maximum of $5,000 per charity ($25,000 total).

This is a great cause marketing program to kick-off the Halloween season. Do you know of others? Please share them with me!

I came across this appeal at my local Whole Foods Market. These types of cause marketing promotions are common at Whole Foods. I call them passive cause marketing because they don’t involve an ask from the cashier, unlike active cause marketing.

The signage is strategically placed right where you swipe your credit card.

This is the first time I’ve seen a QR code at the register at Whole Foods. As I’ve explained before, QR codes are a good idea. They allow consumers to better connect with the causes they support at the register.

Unfortunately, this QR code is not in a great spot. You see it but you don’t have time to act on it! I didn’t have time to get my smartphone out and scan the QR code. A better idea would be to include it on the shopper’s receipt as well.

Nevertheless, it’s good see QR codes expanding their reach. Do you have other examples to share with me?

More Information: Page: 11 – 12, 120 -122, 287 – 288, Cause Marketing for Dummies 

FYI: My wife got the grandinroad/Frontgate catalog and they had a QR code on the back that linked readers to something different, relevant and interesting. Scan it and see for yourself!

It’s just not fair. Worldwide there are only a handful of serious, but very well publicized, shark attacks on humans.

Seems like the bloodbath is on our hands, not on their teeth.

Bath and body product maker LUSH is sinking their teeth in to the problem with a shark fin soap that I plan to terrorize my kids with in the bathtub.

All proceeds benefit Shark Savers, an organization committed to saving these toothy predators – let’s hope the ones that eat obnoxious Yankee fans and guys that wear speedos on the beach. If so, God bless their work.

I didn’t find these promotions. I asked you to send me your examples of Indendence Day cause marketing and you responded!

These three were the best.

In first place, Joey Leslie in San Luis Obiscpo, California sent me this promotion from Which Wich Superior Sandwiches. Which Wich will be filling the decorated bags with treats for troops overseas. This is a great example of cause marketing and shows that ANY company can find a creative way to support a cause.

Congrats to Joey Leslie and Which Wich! Joey will be receiving a copy of my new book Cause Marketing for Dummies. Which Wich will be featured in the second edition of Cause Marketing for Dummies in the chapter Top 10 Cause Marketing Promotions We Wish We Could Take Credit For.

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In second place, Colleen Cronin of South Boston who’s a huge fan of Great American Cookies, shared this promotion with me. When you buy the “Uncle Sam Hat” or “US Flag”, GAC will donate $2 to the Yellow Ribbon Fund, a nonprofit committed to helping injured troops and their families.

This promotion kicks off TODAY and runs through September 16th!

This program is a model example of a purchase-triggered cause marketing program. A cookie purchase triggers a $2 donation to the Yellow Ribbon Fund. While Great American Cookies, not the consumer, ultimately makes the donation, the company hopes the program will make cookie sales rise, which in turn increases the donation to the fund. It’s a win for the company, for the cause and for consumers.

In third place is Chris Mann, a cause marketer at Boston’s Cone, Inc. who pointed me to a client promotion involving Budweiser and Folds of Honor Foundation. FHF supports the families of fallen soldiers with scholarships and other kinds of assistance. Budweiser cans will display the flag this summer, and for every case sold, Budweiser will donate five cents to Folds of Honor. This ain’t no tin can promotion. Budweiser’s goal is to raise $2 million for Folds of Honor.

Congrats to Joey, Colleen and Chris for great submissions!

Monday is Independence Day and I’m in search of cause marketing promotions that will help me celebrate the day! Share them with me via email, Facebook or Twitter and the person with the best submission will get my book when it hits stores the end of July!

The Fourth of July promotion that got me thinking about holiday cause marketing was Old Navy’s Operation: Care and Comfort, a program I remembered from last year. This program collected items needed by the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to ship to deployed troops by Operation: Care and Comfort. In return, customers received a discount on their purchases in-store that day. They also offered a “Buy One, Send One” special on their flag tees that sent hundreds of thousands of flag t-shirts overseas.

It was a good promotion, but this Independence Day Old Navy is putting all its marketing muscle behind the new Captain America movie. It’s too bad they didn’t tie-in the troops in some way. But cause marketing promotions come and go and Old Navy should be commended for its support of the troops for two years.

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One active promotion I found for the holiday was Pizzas 4 Patriots, which with the help DHL Express have delivered more than 60,000 pizzas to U.S. servicemen and women stationed all over the world. The idea was the brainchild of Ret. Master Sergeant Mark Evans and his 15-year-old son, Kent, who got the U.S. and Canadian military to authorize pizza deliveries on the Fourth of July (and the first of July for Canadian independence day).

With the support of DHL Express, 6,000 ready-to-bake, deep-dish pizzas from UNO’s, and Romeoville, Illinois-based Great Kitchens, will be packed and loaded into a donated DHL cargo jet this week and shipped to service men and women.

Not to be outdone, Pemmican Beef Jerky is donating a bag of its jerky to Operation Gratitude for every bag consumers buy through Independence Day.

I know there are other examples of Independence Day cause marketing out there! Will you help me find them?

Send me a photo of the promotions you see this week (post it here, Facebook, tweet, email if you must!) and the best one will get a free copy of Cause Marketing for Dummies when it’s out at the end of July! Remember, it can be any form of cause marketing (cause promotion, point-of-sale, etc.), but the promotion must be a partnership between a cause and a company (because if it’s not, well, then it’s not cause marketing).

I’ll announce the winner next week. Good luck!

Other holiday cause marketing posts you should check out:

• Puma Runs Wicked Fah with Cause Marketing (Patriots Day)
• Happy New Year, Cause Marketing! Love, SCVNGR
• Target, JAM’N 94.5 Use Cause Marketing to Help Kids Lift Heavy Load (Christmas)

I had these seven cause marketing promotions saved in my “favorites.” They offer something for everyone. Pay attention!

Toys “R” Us Speaks Up for Autism

Since 2007 this point-of-sale campaign has raised a whopping $8.4 million for Autism Speaks. Shoppers that donate $10 or more receive a free reusable shopping bag designed by artist James Hogarth (who has autism).

What you can learn: With over 800 stores in the United State, Toys “R” Us highlights the key ingredients of point-of-sale success: lots of locations and lots of foot traffic. The program also uses a small incentive to encourage and reward gifts.

Be a Hero at 31 Cent Scoop Night

On April 27th Baskin-Robbins stores across the country held a 31 Cent Scoop Night to honor America’s firefighters. The ice cream chain reduced prices of small ice cream scoops to 31 cents creating an opportunity for customers to donate to local fire charities.

What you can learn: Cause marketing just doesn’t raise money, it provides causes with a platform to succeed. The Baskin-Robbins promotion drives traffic to stores where local firefighters can collect donations and visit with the community. Corporate partners have more to offer than just money. Look for the larger opportunity the partnership offers and plan your program accordingly.

Barnum’s Animal Crackers Teams Up with Lily Pulitzer for Urban Arts

This year 1.5 million boxes of animal crackers are being distributed in Pulitzer-branded outlets. Barnum’s will make a donation to the Urban Arts Partnership, reflecting the Pulitzer brand’s 2011 “Lily Loves the Arts” theme. The Urban Arts Partnership sponsors interdisciplinary arts programs through school, professional development and summer programs, as well as other venues.

What you can learn: This is fun, whimsical cause marketing promotion. The fact that you can get the animal cracker boxes in Pulitzer’s stores is offbeat and will be win-win-win for company, cause and consumer. Have you heard of the Urban Arts Partnership? Neither have I. It demonstrates that you don’t need to be a household name to do cause marketing. But you do need what every cause marketing program requires: a corporate partner that wants to help you. Any nonprofit do cause marketing, if you have a partner. If you do, what are you waiting for?

Popeyes’ “Appetite for the Cure” for MDA

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen’s “Appetite for a Cure’’ coupon book program in 143 restaurant locations raised a record $421,917 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association during the first quarter of 2011.

What you can learn: “Appetite for the Cure” could just as well taken the place of Toys “R” Us’ campaign for Autism Speaks as it too illustrates the power of partnering with busy stores with lots of locations and adding a little incentive for shoppers (in Popeyes’ case coupons). But there’s a more important lesson here: there’s nothing wrong with working with quick serve businesses like Popeyes. You may point to Buckets for the Cure to caution causes in their choice of partners. Please, there were many good, productive ways Kentucky Fried Chicken and Komen could have worked together. But selling pink buckets of fried chicken and launching the promotion the same week as the dreadful Double Down wasn’t one of them. What Komen did in partnering with KFC was no different than what dozens of other causes have done. The issue was how the program was executed.

Like Woodchuck Cider on Facebook and They’ll Plant Two Trees with American Forest

During Earth Week, Woodchuck Cider scored 6,809 new likes and will plant 13,618 trees through American Forests.

What you can learn: Facebook cause marketing can be very successful for cause and company, but it won’t happen unless you already have an engaged online community. Prior to the promotion, Woodchuck Cider had 27,000 “likes” while American Forest had fewer than 1,700. This gave Woodchuck a running start. Cause marketing can’t make a new Facebook page successful, but it can take a good one to new heights.

Cut-a-thon at G20 and Emerge Spa & Salon to Raise Funds for Children’s Hospital Boston

For a minimum donation of $40 on Sunday, May 15, Hair stylists from the spa and salon will be hosting a HAIRraising and donating their cutting and styling services to raise funds for Children’s Hospital Boston.

What you can learn: This reminds me of the PUMA promotion I profiled on marathon day here in Boston. My point here is the same: any business can do cause marketing, although it works best with business-to-consumer companies that have storefronts and foot traffic.

There’s always way for a cause to work with a business and engage consumers, employees, even vendors. It just takes a little knowledge, imagination and a few good examples from which to learn.

Andrea Rosen puts in a few miles at PUMA's Boston store and raises a few bucks and shoes for needy people around the world.

Marathon day in Boston always inspires fun and interesting promotions. This year footwear and apparel maker Puma is promoting a cause marketing promotion that benefits Soles4Souls, a nonprofit that provides shoes to poor people around the globe.

Throughout marathon weekend runners have been putting in miles on the treadmill at PUMA’s 333 Newbury Street location. For each mile recorded on the in-store treadmill PUMA will donate $100 and a pair of shoes to Soles4Souls.

This promotion runs right through marathon Monday so lace up your shoes and head to Newbury Street!

What’s great about this cause marketing promotion is that anyone can do it. You needn’t be a big international footwear company like PUMA. It’s a simple action-triggered donation program that could be executed by any business that wants to help a good cause by having a run for good on a treadmill.

Sure, a store that sells running footwear and clothes is perfect for this promotion. But the idea could work at a bank, health club, the lobby of a skyscraper or where gym equipment is sold.

Just because the elite runners set the pace doesn’t mean you can’t trod the same course.

The hospital has its own marathon day promotion. We recently partnered with LevelUp, a Google-funded company, which has launched the first local deal site that drives loyalty and brings in new customers who keep coming back again and again.

Today’s deal is at Laced, a sneaker boutique in the South End. For anyone that buys the 1st Level/deal at Laced over the next 7 days, BMC will receive 25% of the proceeds.

The LevelUp Street team is promoting this opportunity all day along the marathon route with our very own Ashley Zolenski who will be decorated in LevelUp tattoos on each arm (shhhh…we’re not sure they’re temporary tattoos).

If you’re out on the marathon course today be sure to watch for Ashley “LevelUp” Zolenski!