The Foursquare Checkin for Charity campaign at SXSW 2010 I first reported on last week was a big success for the Save the Children Haiti Relief Fund.

• By the end of SXSWi, attendees had logged over 135,000 checkins on Foursquare.
• The effort was  supported by over 2,400 tweets that included the #sxswHaiti hashtag.
• The 25 cents per login PayPal and Microsoft pledged for a maximum gift of $15,000 was achieved in less than 48 hours!
• The campaign also got some good press, including in WSJ.

The campaign was a great boost for Foursquare as location based services were all the rave at SXSWi this year. Checkin for Charity also showed this tech-savvy crowd what was possible with Foursquare in the cause world.

Kerrie LeBourveau, a member of the StudioGood team that executed the campaign, explains.

“It was a great way to energize an already active community.  Sometimes when I told people about it, they were taken aback and had no idea that something like this was even possible with Foursquare! It was pretty cool to see.  Also, we saw a lot of people actually SHOWING each other their little foursquare messages. Kind of neat to see a guerrilla kind of thing that was not totally forced or pushed on by some big brand.”

This may really be the lasting impact of Checkin for Charity. Foursquare ambassadors who can share best practices with causes that will finally have a  social media platform for cause marketing they can truly call their own.

Looking for more ideas of how you can launch a Foursquare cause marketing program for your local nonprofit? Check out this one. Must be a good idea. I got it from Boston’s own Harvard University and I’ve heard they’re wicked smaht!

The Boston Bruins are teaming up with iParty and Fuddruckers again to raise money for The SPARK Center. This program was a great success last year, raising $45,000. You can read all about it here.

The B’s have been a great partner, as have iParty and Fuddruckers. While this year hasn’t proven to be the dominating season last year was for the Boston Bruins, the team is still first in the hearts of all the kids, parents and staff involved with The SPARK Center.

I hope you didn’t give Chris Brogan your business card at SXSW this week. He didn’t want it, and with good reason.

Unless you want to do business with me, don’t give me a business card. We both know how to reach each other, so unless one of us asks for one, let’s not hand them out. We tend to give out business cards because we’ve been taught this is what to do. It’s not. It’s the old way …. In the new way, you and I should only exchange cards if we’re looking to do future business. Otherwise? We roughly know how to reach each other, don’t we?

The crowd at SXSW is probably one of the most wired crowds around so Chris is right: business cards are unnecessary. But in many industries, including nonprofit, they’re still more the norm because they serve a real purpose.

That doesn’t mean I haven’t tried to cut back on handing out business cards, or to be more strategic in how I use them. As Chris notes, business cards “just blast people with messages whenever WE need something.”

Here’s how I’ve tried to use mine to make better cause marketing connections.

No business card. When I’m the speaker at an event I never hand out business cards. They distract the audience from what I really want them to do: go to my blog, which I always talk about in my presentation. At my blog, people can find answers to their questions–without bombarding me with emails–and can connect with me six different ways. Besides, if they get home and can’t remember my blog or can’t figure out how to find me, including just doing a quick search on Boston cause marketers on Google, I’m not sure I want to talk to them anyway!

Their business card. I don’t hand out business cards to everyone I meet, but I will for theirs.  Not to track them down, mind you. I can figure that out. The card is a reminder, something to jot notes on. Nowadays I usually take a picture of the card with my iPhone and give it back (Evernote is a handy place to store these pictures as the text in them becomes searchable). A lot of these same people ask for my card in return. I redirect. “I’ll email you my information.” This allows me to better manage my initial communication with them. I’ll send my contact info via email, but I’ll also include links to a couple of relevant posts to read and then, of course, links to all my social media connections. This enhanced business card has a bigger networking punch.

Two-sided business card. My nonprofit limits what I can have printed on my business card. We have to use a standard format so I can’t plug my blog, Twitter handle, Facebook, etc. So a while back I printed up labels for the back of my cards that included all this info. They work well, especially for people who aren’t comfortable with technology and like to have something more traditional.

A word about etiquette. I feel like people share a tiny piece of themselves when they hand over their business cards. They’re small, have semi-personal information and, if you’re like me, you keep them close to your heart (in your shirt pocket!). The least we can do is show little a little class when we get a card or hand one out. I always present my card face-up and then flip it over so I can explain the additional info to her. When I get a business card, I just don’t stuff it in my pocket. I look at it. Name, title, address, logo, etc. “When did you become a vice president?” “I grew up right near where your office is.” “This is really nice card!” I want them to know that I’m interested and their business card has further piqued my curiosity.

If I have an idea I want to share with someone, I write it down on one of my business cards that is blank on the back. I hand them the card and say “Someone once said that if you can’t write your idea on the back of a business card you don’t have a clear idea. This is a good idea for you and I look forward to talking to you more about it.”

My clear idea for you today is that business cards are a great tool to support your cause marketing work. But the key is to use them less like a bullhorn and more as a trip wire to trigger more productive conversations and ultimately better partnerships.

Cause marketers and Foursquare fanatics take note: some great stuff is kicking off today at SXSW 2010 in Austin, TX. Get your notepads out and sharpen your pencils because the folks at StudioGood will have some great lessons to share over the next few days.

And I’ll be the one reporting the news! Although I won’t be doing it alone because Boston needs me too much with the Red Sox home opener less than a month away.

Kerrie LeBourveau from StudioGood is on the ground in Austin and promises lots of details, pics and video so I can share with all of you just how this first in location-based cause marketing unfolds at SXSW.

Here are the details of the Check-in for Charity to bring you up to speed.

• Starting today every time you Check-in on Foursquare in Austin, Microsoft and PayPal will donate $0.25 toward Save the Children up to $15,000.
• There will be check-in locations around SXSWi.
• You don’t need to be in Austin to help. Just use the hashtag #sxswHaiti on Twitter and Save the Children and Microsoft and PayPal will make the same donation.

Stay tune for my updates on Check-in for Charity, its progress and my insights on how we can all learn how to combine Foursquare and cause marketing to raise more money for causes.

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.

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.

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.

Ad Age posted an interesting article the other day about how every company–large and small–is turning to microsponsor -ships–small consumer driven cause marketing programs that raise hundreds or thousands of dollars–to support everything from breast cancer research to earthquake relief for Haiti and now Chile.

I call microsponsorships the “fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” because they are simple, easy and spontaneous. And as my favorite author Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, it’s only in these actions that we are strong.

Here’s how microsponsorships will lead to stronger nonprofits and a better society.

More dollars for smaller nonprofits. Why should the big causes rake in all the dough? But that’s exactly what’s been happening. National charities like Komen, St. Jude and Children’s Miracle Network swoop in to town and gobble up all the national chains for their far-reaching cause marketing programs. But with microsponsorships, companies of all sizes are using cause marketing to fund local causes that are just as worthy of support.

Better accountability and more transparency. As consumers are exposed to more cause marketing programs, they’ll demand more information on what’s being supported and how much money is going to the cause. Web sites, blogs, widgets and apps will spring up giving the consumer info on how to give wisely at their favorite shops, stores and restaurants.

Companies that don’t support good causes will be bad people. A harsh judgment for sure, but forcing more companies to take a stand on what they really care about and to support a cause will be a good thing for everyone, including the company. Giving through these companies will take many forms, not just transactional cause marketing. Adults will become more passionate about giving. They’ll share this spirit with their children. Ills will be addressed. The world will be a better place.

Companies will put values first, alignment second. Leave it to Ad Age to say that “Even tiny sponsorships have to be closely associated with your brand.” This Garanimal strategy has a vitamin store chain working with a nonprofit that supplies third-world countries with vitamins. Cute, but does that cause really speak to the company’s values? Microsponsorships will allow stores, franchises and regional offices to escape the marketing gestapo at headquarters and to support causes that really resonate with them–and probably with the customers they know better than anyone else.

Some people worry that microsponsorships will mean we won’t be able to go anywhere without being asked to give. You mean like how every where I go now I see advertising? Or deal with people on their cell phones? Being asked to give to good causes where ever I go? I can deal with that.

You can read my latest post on Whatgives!? Thanks to Joey Leslie and Kerrie Brynn for inviting me to guest post!

Our friends at Cone this week shared that Jiffy Lube had already reached more than 65 percent of its $1 million national fundraising goal for the 2010 Maintenance Partners for Life campaign.

Thanks to customer support at the register for a $3 savings book, the fast lube franchise has already raised $658,655 for the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women movement in just three weeks, as of February 22. More than 1,700 Jiffy Lube locations across the U. S. are participating in the campaign that kicked off February 1 and runs through March 14.

I love this program because it highlights a few key points I always talk about on my blog.

Point-of-sale works. Pinups, savings books and register programs in general are not sexy or cool but they can raise a boatload of money.

Combine cause with coupons. I’d have to ask Cone if they track this info, but my team and I are strong believers that cause combined with savings and coupons at the register give shopper that added incentive (and just reward) to make a gift.

Fast lube businesses are great partners. I’ve written all about them here. But you need to set realistic expectations. Here’s why.

Locations + Foot Traffic = $$$. The fast lube companies we’ve worked with average 50 to 60 customers a day. That’s a not a lot of traffic compared to say a supermarket, which can checkout 100 customers or more an hour. Fewer customers means fewer asks at the register, and fewer asks means less money for your cause. Fortunately, Jiffy Lube, like the other fast lube businesses I’ve worked with, has committed employees, skilled sales people and a whopping 1,700 locations to drive fundraising.

Lots of locations is why Jiffy Lube will raise a million dollars  for AHA. Lots locations AND lots of foot traffic is why Chili’s raised $6.4 million for St. Jude. Either way, both are great partners. But you should know how to measure what you can expect from each.