We all love Groupon, right? They offer us great deals with savings from 50% to 90% and if enough people sign-up for the deal everyone wins. Now a Portland-based company has launched Causeon. Same concept as Groupon, but Causeon offers up to 20% of its revenues to causes.

When Causeon launches in Portland this week the local chapters of Komen, YMCA and Girls, Inc. and others will be in line to receive checks.

I love the concept of Causeon. As a cause marketer, I think it represents a great alternative to point-of-sale programs and is a great step toward building a cause marketing community.

But can Causeon work?

Groupon works because they get tremendous deals and have a large, rabid following, which leads to better deals, more followers, etc. Oh, and one other thing: Groupon is a one-of-a-kind gee whiz phenomenon, much like the Daily Candy was a few years back. And while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, it’s no guarantee of success. No one ever approached the success of the Daily Candy, and Groupon is way ahead of its 500+ competitors.

Will Causeon’s cause focus be enough to distinguish it in a crowded field?

History says no. From GoodSearch to CauseWorld, the Internet is littered with cause-centric businesses that were founded on the belief that generous consumers would drive success but didn’t. As I said with CauseWorld, people don’t want a cause world, a dedicated cause product or service, they want a world with causes (e. g. Facebook Causes and the Groupon/Donor Choose partnership I describe below).

That said, here are some ideas on how Causeon might stand out from the pack and really work.

Groupon/Causeon mashup.This would be ideal because it’s the best of both worlds. Groupon has already shown that it can raise money for causes. In May, Donors Choose raised $162,000 when it was Groupon’s featured daily deal. It would be great if causes were a regular (or more regular) part of Groupon’s daily deals. Maybe Causeon can show Groupon that causes should be a more prominent part of its business.

Branded deals. Retailers like Macy’s and Bloomingdales host charity shopping days to help causes raise money and gain access to their supporters. Retailers could achieve the same results with a branded deal via Causeon. Working with Causeon, Macy’s could partner with Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts for a special one-day deal. Causeon provides the branded medium and deal from Macy’s, and the MFA provides the large donor base that are motivated to help the the museum and eager, like everyone, to get a deal.

Dedicated partner. Causeon hopes to quickly expand to other cities. If I was them, I’d identify a nonprofit in each major city that has the best and most experienced cause marketing team and recruit them to solicit great new deals for Causeon. In exchange for their efforts I’d make them the sole recipient of Causeon’s 20% donation. Here’s why.

• There are only a few cause marketing teams in each city anyway (3 here in Boston) and they tend to be housed in well-known nonprofits with strong emotional messages (kids or cancer, sometimes both). You’d gain a sales team with lots of local business contacts and be aligning with a mainstream cause that most people would give to.
• Anyone who thinks that aligning with more nonprofits in any given city will mean more promotion for Causeon is, well, a damn fool. Fact: nonprofits have failed again and again to help any business that has promised to help them if they will only promote them. Most causes can’t market themselves, you expect them to market you? Causeon should focus on those one or two nonprofits within each city that “get it.”
• Ultimately, Causeon will succeed or fail based on the quality of its deals. A dedicated partner means an instant sales team in each city, more local deals, and a partnership with a cause that people recognize, respect and empathize.

I really wish Causeon the best and look forward to their arrival in Boston. But just as Groupon’s CEO keeps on saying that his business concept is a very simple one, Causeon needs a simple value proposition to be successful. And being the cause version of Groupon isn’t it–unless they merge with Groupon, do branded deals with nonprofits or focus on dedicated partners in key cities.

What do you think?

The numbers are in from our new “Meal Deals” cause marketing program with iParty, Ocean State Job Lots & Phantom Gourmet and it was a big success.

The program raised $87,000.

Proceeds will benefit my hospital’s Food Pantry, which last year fed 75,000 people.

You can read all about the details behind the “Meal Deals” program here.

We’re excited this program had a great finish, and we’re already planning our fall pinup program.

Check out the preliminary design, which includes a QR Code. When shoppers pass their smartphone over the code it will link them to our new Halloween web site. This will give shoppers easy and instant access to online content about the event and our cause.

Would you like to learn how to raise an additional $50,000, $70,000 or more for your nonprofit through cause marketing? The Six Figure Cause Marketing Program returns September 14th.

This three-hour course is a tell-all program on the best practices for ordinary nonprofits to raise real money from cause marketing. Hope to see you there.

If you’re a cause marketer or fundraiser that’s been waiting to check-in to location-based services, now may be the time as the biggest and most popular social networking site, Facebook, has just rolled out Places.

All you need to get started with Places is a Facebook account, which like 500,000 million people out there you probably already have, and an iPhone.

I like Aaron Strout’s point that Place was made for the masses, not the early-adopter geeks who jumped on to Foursquare, Gowally and Whrrl. So it’s very easy to use.

However, there are some things you should know.

Watch this video from Facebook. “Why Check-in”

Safety-first. Do you want the whole world to know where you are? It’s a good question because on Facebook there is no opt-in to Places. All your “friends” will know where you are, unless you tell Facebook otherwise.

Check out Beth Kanter’s post on privacy concerns and, if you’re in the Witness Protection Program, how to disable Places.

For a squeamish tale on the downside of Places read How to Almost Sabotage a Dinner Party with Facebook Places.

Places will be a good thing. For both businesses and nonprofits. Check out this post from Duct Tape Marketing on why Places is kind of big deal.

Claim your nonprofit. Whenever someone check-ins to a location or adds a new one to Facebook places, it creates a page for that business or nonprofit that can then be claimed. Not just anyone can claim a page. You have to submit the right paperwork to Facebook for approval. Here are some details.

Follow the guru. I’ve written a lot on location-based services, but the person to follow and learn from on Facebook Places is John Haydon. He’s the expert on how nonprofits can best leverage Facebook for fun and profit. His site is sure to have the latest and greatest info on Places.

What questions do you have about Facebook Places? How do you plan to use it for fundraising?

“Men might do these things first, but women will take it over because they remain the primary shoppers,” said Kathryn Koegel, of Primary Impact. “Especially when there are children, it all becomes about convenience.”

While young men used to be the most active demo for location-based marketing (e.g. coupons, offers) via smartphones, that’s quickly changing, according to a study by Harris Interactive.

Of people with kids younger than 6 in their household, 35% are at least somewhat interested in getting opt-in text alerts from favorite businesses, compared to 32% of households with older kids and 25% of homes with no children. (The study, conducted in May with 2,000 adults, does not distinguish between childless adults and empty-nesters.)

The growing shift of women to mobile offers and coupons is important for cause marketers like me who rely on in-store programs and the women that support them.

The furture is certainly not coupon clipping and Sunday papers as more retailers try to make it easier for consumers to find deals, boost customer loyalty and drive traffic to their web sites. Kroger has just rolled out the Digital Coupon Center.

So what’s this all mean for you? Start learning more about location-based marketing and the mobile web.

• I’ve written a whole series of posts on LBM and particularly Foursquare to get you going.
• Immerse yourself in the subject at the LBM Summit in NYC in September.
• Some great people to follow on LBM include @charityestrella, @schneidermike, @waynesutton, @lbmarketing, @nolandhoshino, and a must follow is @ericleist. One other addition. When Facebook launches its own location-based service this week, you’ll want to follow the FB Monster @johnhaydon as he will have all the news and tools to report. I’m sure I missed someone. Who would you add to this list?
• There are a couple great Twitter chats on LBM. The first #LBSchat happens on August 26th at 9pmEST. Also, check out #4SqChat.

What other resources or tools would you recommend to get people up-to-speed about LBM in general and LB[cause]M in particular?

Fundraisers ask me all the time how they can have a successful cause marketing program, or build upon the one they have. I tell them the answer is simple. They lean in. The key is actually three things, I whisper. They reach for a notepad and pen.

The key, I say, is BRAND…..BRAND…..BRAND.

While they initially shrug off my answer, they come around when I explain it to them.

Powerful nonprofit brands are like magnets. They do good things and good things are in turn attracted to them. Take national causes like Feeding America, Product RED, St. Jude and Children’s Miracle Network. They do great work, and companies flock to partner with them.

And locally here in Boston I don’t have to look any further than The Jimmy Fund and Children’s Hospital. Both attract companies that want to support their mission and bask in the aura of their well deserved and well known goodness.

Unfortunately, and probably like you, I’ve witnessed this from afar because my nonprofit’s brand doesn’t have a particularly strong pull. It’s just as strong as any other brand out there, but it’s weakened by a cloak and anonymity and relevance that’s deadly to causes.

I got thinking about this whole topic after I read Jeff Brook’s post in Fundraising Success on nonprofit branding. In You’re Not Nike – Get Over It Jeff highlights the perils of corporate branding and why they shouldn’t be adopted by nonprofits. I don’t agree with everything Jeff says, but I do agree with what he suggests for nonprofit branding.

For me, a brand is what you experience–what you feel–when you come into contact with someone’s product or service. For example, when I see a Zipcar my thoughts turn to urban-eco-hipsters. When I use my new Apple iPhone 4G I feel trendy geek.

Last week my wife asked me if I could live a bit less without my beloved Starbucks so we could send our kids to a good private college one day. She even suggested we invest in a nice espresso machine.

“I think I would miss going into my favorite Starbucks more than I miss the coffee”, I told her. I just like the feeling I get going into a Starbucks. The smells, the conversation, the different products, the atmosphere, etc.

Good brands, whether for-profit or nonprofit, generate strong, visceral energy that’s as strong and addictive as anything Starbucks serves.

But as a nonprofit, how do you create that powerful brand? Jeff Brooks has a suggestion.

An effective nonprofit brand takes a different approach: Instead of a look-at-me brand, it’s a look-at-you brand. It recognizes that donors give to make good things happen, not to support an organization. Instead of promising to be the coolest charity on the block, it promises a fulfilling, information-rich experience that will maximize the donor’s impact. It says two things:

● You’ll have a lot of impact.

● You’ll see that impact, clearly and dramatically.

I like Jeff’s thinking because he’s talking about creating and communicating a powerful experience, a powerful feeling for the donor.

That’s one thing we’re trying to do a better job of at my nonprofit.

As many of you know, I work for a safety-net hospital and we serve a very poor population. Many of our donors have never been patients at our hospital, which, by the way, is the exact way most hospitals raise money. Grateful Patients With Capacity as we call them in the biz.

They’re like alumni. In our case our donors share our ideals, but not the campus experience. And experiences matter; connection and identification drive giving. I like to tell people that asking for money for my cause is like asking people to give to a college they didn’t go to. Would you give to your local community college even though you went to Harvard?

Asking people to support quality healthcare for everyone is less magnetic than the appeals from cancer and other health causes that truly tug at people’s lives.

Part of our branding efforts includes sharing the work of the hospital personally, powerfully so supporters can put faces, mainly those of women and children, to our tagline exceptional care, without exception. Social media has been a big help.

With a stronger brand we’ll have a better and bigger cause marketing program. I know of causes that raise a lot of money that don’t have well known brands. But I don’t know of any causes that are successful in cause marketing that aren’t also well known brands. Do you?

How is your cause building its brand? What challenges have you faced? Who in the nonprofit world do you admire for their brand? Are they doing cause marketing?

Jason Falls wrote a great post recently on how a lot of companies are scared to death to allow employees to represent them online.

“What are you crazy? Who knows what they’ll say about us.”

What Jason says is so true. It certainly is one of the reasons why my 6,000 employee nonprofit is hesitant to give employees access to social networks.

But uncertainty about what to expect from employees is also a big concern for companies that are considering a cause marketing program as well. When you start talking about a campaign that involves frontline employees (i. e. cashiers, sales associates, etc.) being the face of the program, management will begin to doubt that the rank and file will be “on board” for the program.

Here are some of the things we’ve done to make sure that employees are on board and know they are the key to cause marketing success.

Involve them from the start. We make a point to be on hand to roll-out  our cause marketing programs to as many frontline employees as possible. This gives us a chance to tell them about our cause, how the program will work, to answer any questions, and, of course, to say thank you.

Show them how it impacts them. One of the reasons cancer causes are cause marketing powerhouses is because cancer impacts everyone. Frontline employees push the program to help a loved one. That’s a powerful connection. But if you’re not a cancer cause, what’s your powerful connection? I work for a safety-net hospital and explain to people how easy it is to lose your health insurance and fret about getting the best health care, including cancer care. How do you plan to get frontline employees to care enough about your cause to ask shoppers to support it?

Don’t stop managing them. A cause marketing program is like any other in-store promotion. Managers need to train employees in it, encourage them to promote it, reward them when they do and measure the results so they can be compared to the performance of other stores within the chain. Giving a cause marketing program “special treatment” tells the rank and file that it’s not special at all.

Incentives work, sometimes. I’ve written about this already.

Keep it simple. The ask at the register has to be a one-sentence ask that the customer can understand and act on. When we first started our cause marketing programs in stores, our one-sentence ask included the name of our hospital. Unfortunately, that confused a lot of consumers because they weren’t familiar with our hospital. Later, we switched to “Would you like to donate a dollar to feed a sick child?” This was a simpler ask that was less frustrating for the shopper and the cashier. Easy to ask. Easy to understand. Easy to give.

Don’t make them choose between making money and helping you. A lot of times frontline workers are incentivized for signing shoppers up for a credit card, selling them an additional service, etc. You need to make sure that during your cause marketing program these other offerings are either suspended, or as we’ve done in several instances, incorporated right into the point-of-sale program. In one instance with a quick lube partner, we included a coupon for a transmission fluid change right on the pinup so the cashier could sell the two together.

Frontline employees want to help good causes. They also want to earn a living. Their time with shoppers is also limited. Don’t make them choose.

Cause marketing success at the register with frontline workers is a key topic of the upcoming Six Figure Cause Marketing webinar, which begins on September 14th. This three-hour course is just $149!

The Six Figure Cause Marketing webinar begins September 14th from 2pm to 3pm EDT. It’s a three-part program. The subsequent sessions will be held September 16 & 21 at the same time.

All the information you need about the program can be found here.

This program will be hands-on, practical and each hour will be jam-packed with advice (All delivered with a bonafide Boston accent that will have you giggling for days. But no worries. Here’s your Boston dictionary.)

Fortunately, neither mine nor Joanna’s accent didn’t impact the usefulness of the webinar for our participants. Here’s what some of them had to say.

“I’m so glad I signed up for this program. I’ve already identified businesses in town that I’d like to partner with, and now I know how to approach them, and with what ideas.”

“I have thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and have learned much.  Now to put what I have learned into action which will translate into dollars!”

“You guys are awesome! Nice, nice job of offering a comprehensive overview of your cause marketing programs. Your generosity is amazing, thanks so much!”

“YOU ROCK Joe and Joanna. Thanks so much!”

Better yet, here are three organizations that have set themselves on the path to Six Figure Cause Marketing success.

Cause Marketing Success Story: Jake’s Ride

Check-Out Line Charity a Perfect Fit for New Balance, Komen

B2B Cause Marketing

This is the only cause marketing program out there that’s focused on raising money through win-win partnerships with businesses in your area.

If you’re interested in the marketing of causes, look elsewhere. If you’re interested in cause marketing as I define it here, this is the program for you.

Over the past few weeks I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how to prepare and use cause marketing proposals. Here are some answers!

First, know when to use them. Proposals are not for first meetings. We greet prospects with paper in hand, but it’s blank. It’s time to listen and explore. We save our proposals for later after we better idea of objectives.

Be transparent on responsibilities. Everyone wants to know what they have to do. We always make sure partners have a checklist to work from. This list is generally must-do items that only they can execute, like monitoring and motivating cashiers to sell pinups. We handle the rest. The key is for partners to understand what they have to do that’s critical to the success of the program that no one else can do except them.

Include everything. Our partnerships tend to have a lot of moving parts (e.g. point of sale, event, cross-promotion, etc.). Make sure this is all broken out and explained in the proposal.

The proposal isn’t about you. Save that for the agreement. It’s about your partner. So make sure to include the examples, the metrics and the benefits a partner needs to turn your proposal into an agreement.

Be clear on money. How will they raise money? Put it in the proposal. Do you have agreed on amount? Put it in the proposal. What if they don’t reach that amount? Put it in the proposal. How long after the promotion will you to wait to receive the money? You get the point.

Learn from others. I share my cause marketing proposals in my Six Figure Cause Marketing webinar. And since I just completed a webinar, and am planning another for September, I’m reserving those for my clients. However, I did find several good examples on the web. The first is from Make-a-Wish/Michigan. This application for a cause marketing program has a lot of the fields you’ll need to cover in a proposal. Also, check out the terms and conditions, which you might find useful to your own proposal.

The next one is from Livestrong, which reports they are not currently accepting applications for cause marketing partnerships (must be nice!). Nevertheless, they have an extensive application that will give you a lot of great ideas for your proposal.

Have legal review it. Fortunately, we have a legal team at my nonprofit that can review the language of our proposals, when needed. If you don’t have onsite legal counsel, ask a lawyer on your board for help or invest in it. It sometimes seems like overkill, but it’s worth it, especially when you’re new to cause marketing.

Proposals don’t close deals, you do. Too often people think if they wallpaper their contacts with proposals they’ll eventually land a sale. That never works. You’re the most important piece in presenting and closing the deal with a prospect. The proposal is just a nail. You’re the hammerer. That’s one reason why you should never ever mail or email your proposals. You need to be there to drive them home.

What other questions do you have about preparing and using cause marketing proposals?

Few users. Mostly male. Educated and influential among friends and family. It’s great, but wait until it becomes more mainstream before jumping in.

Those are the findings of a recent Forrester study on location-based services like Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt.

You can check out the executive summary here.

Forrester’s “wait and see” findings on location-based marketing (LBM) are not new. Hesitation has always preceded major cultural shifts.

Steel swords will never work. Besides, iron is non-stick. ~ King of the Gauls, 1 B. C.

Printing press? But what will we do with all the monks? ~ Pope Sixtus IV, 1501

I bet I can shoot this arrow faster than you can shoot that gun. ~ Dead Wompanoag Chief, 1676

Take the automobile. In 1900 there was just over 4,000 built in the United States. At the time, the U. S. had a population of 76 million. That’s well less than 1%. Makes the 4% using LBM look like a crowd.

Few drivers. Mostly male. Educated mavens. Not a great time to jump into the car business. But smart people like Henry Ford recognized the opportunity automobiles presented and the shift that was about to happen.

While not as dramatic as the emergence of the automobile or plane or electricity, LBM will nonetheless change marketing, advertising and cause marketing forever. Now isn’t the time for nonprofits to let the future drive by them, especially when change in 2012 is moving a lot faster than a Model T.

Here are a five reasons why nonprofits should stick with location-based marketing.

Forrester didn’t say never, they said not right now. They even went as far to say that brands in the gaming, consumer electronics and sportswear industry should test LBM. Just as Foursquare may be great for male-oriented brands, what about male-oriented causes like City Year, testicular cancer groups and charities that raise money for police officers and firemen. Even if you’re not a male-oriented charity, Forrester isn’t calling LBM a fad that should be ignored.

The web is dead. Long live the mobile web. Steve Rubel cited a Morgan Stanley report earlier this month that said within five years global internet consumption on mobile devices will surpass the same activity on PCs. No one knows for sure how much Internet use on mobile devices will grow, but I these pocket devices will play a bigger and bigger role in web surfing. And with it how products and services are marketed to us when we are in or near our favorite businesses. Forget the players. Foursquare, Gowalla and other location services will come and go. But location-based marketing will be a mainstay of the mobile web.

Pinups won’t last forever. No one is sadder than I am about this since Noland Hoshino has crowned me the “Pinup King.” But the bloom is already off pinups, which have been around since at least the 1970′s, and their bar codes are numbered. Location-based marketing is a new opportunity for cause marketers to engage consumers where they shop and where they care. Shoppers that check-in to a retailer will be asked to support a cause, possibly in exchange for savings at the register. If they agree, they can make the donation right on their smartphone independent of the cashier. Or perhaps they’ll get a reminder when they check-in that a favorite shampoo in aisle four supports a cancer cause.

Don’t wait for users. Enlist them. Don’t wait around for Foursquare to become Facebook. Create your own success now. Last week I wrote on QR codes–a new concept to most people–and how a UK nonprofit didn’t wait for supporters to show-up at their second-hand clothing stores with smartphones with QR readers. They made QR readers available to their customers so they could try-out the new technology for themselves. Find ways to integrate LBM into your existing programs and events. If you do a walk, ask walkers to use Foursquare to check-out all the tips you’ve gathered on interesting landmarks, water stops, prize areas, etc. along the route. Motivate and incentivize people to become users, instead of just waiting around for them to catch-up.

We’re not talking about a huge investment of time. It’s not like dropping LBM activities from your social media portfolio will save you 10 hours a week of work. Foursquare may be tiny compared to Facebook, but it’s also a lot less sophisticated. That will change as the platform evolves but right now you need to (1) use LBM, (2) encourage others to use it and (3) stay abreast of new developments (which in the cause arena I’ll share with you here so that’s really no very hard ). Of all the social media tools my organization uses, LBM requires the least amount of work.

It also currently delivers the smallest return. But like the seeds you plant in the spring, I know that’s going to change. And one day I expect to harvest a bumper crop.

Hi. My name is Joe and I have Shiny Object Addiction.

I naturally reach for the hot tool of the day. The latest devices, the iPad, the iPhone 4G. The cool services like Twitter, Foursquare and now QR codes. The techie productivity tools like Evernote and Dropbox.

I do this because of peer pressure, buzz and the desire to be first. I have little regard for need or utility. I waste time and money, especially when it’s yours.

I’m guilty of fondling the hammer too much, and I guess I should have been struck with blindness years ago.

Last week when I wrote about QR codes Estrella Rosenberg wrote what I think a lot of us were feeling.

Great Joe….something new for me to obsess over, investigate and plan campaigns around!!

I write about these new shiny objects with gusto, but I feel Estrella’s anxiety and pain.

Fortunately, I spent years in Alcoholics Anonymous. Not for me, but with my Dad, who achieved sobriety thanks to AA.

Like alcohol, shiny objects are an addiction that need their own step program. Here’s mine.

Step 1: I am powerless to shiny objects. I admit I’ve kissed my iPhone before I kissed my wife before bed each night. That’s wrong. (I have since reversed the order.)

Step 2: I believe that a power greater than myself can restore my sanity. That power is a strict adherence to the bottom-line benefits of these shiny objects. If I’m clear on how they can or will raise money for my cause, make me more productive and enhance my professional development they will serve me well.

Step 3: I’ve made a decision to turn my life over to the care of a divine being. Actually, two: my wife, Deb, and my closest colleague, Joanna MacDonald. Because if Shiny Object Addiction doesn’t kill me, they most certainly will. I’m committed to taking their advice on which shiny objects I should stick with and which ones I should shelf. Since my wife introduces herself to people as a “Twidow” whose husband drowned in the stream of Twitter, and Joanna who thinks email is social media, this should be interesting. But I am all trusting. It will be good to get advice from two people outside the beltway of tech and social media.

Step 4: I’ve made a moral inventory of my offenses. I’ve bought new tech I neither needed nor could afford. I’ve checked-in to places I never visited. I’ve tweeted at funerals. I’ve praised shiny objects that I’ve never even tried. I’ve ridiculed people who carry planners. There’s a place for people like me in Hell. And there are no bars.

Step 5: I’ve admitted to others the error of my ways. I plan a full confessional to Geoff Livingston as he was the one who prompted me to reform my wicked ways. Like the public outcry that followed the Komen/Kentucky Fried Chicken cause marketing pact, my chickens have come home to roost. At least I didn’t compound my error by deep frying my chickens and selling them as health food.

Step 6: I’ve created a list of people I’ve offended, and plan to make ammends to them all. My family will be first. As for the rest of you: don’t call me, I’ll call you.

Step 7: I want to bring these steps to others afflicted with Shiny Object Addiction. Surely I’m not the only one who’s trod to the edge of the abyss.

Have you taken similar steps to curb your use of these shiny objects?

What’s your step program to control your addiction and avoid possible blindness?