The Business Case for Doing Good

With only 3 weeks left in my internship at ABC, I'm starting to change direction a bit. The first 6-7 weeks really centered around time-sensitive deliverables like rolling out the employee product donation campaign and launching an internal corporate giving awareness program. As these efforts begin to wind down, I've been able to spend more time on one of my most exciting summer projects: building the case for branding corporate giving at ABC. As soon as I found out about this project I was excited to tackle it. I'm really interested in marketing and how brands convey certain messages, so thankfully this week I was able to get started. As I dove deeper into my research and read more about the power of brands in articulating a company's social agenda (and I must say, many thanks to Cone for providing some really terrific data), I started doing a lot of thinking not just about branding but about corporate giving and corporate social responsibility in general. My charge was (and still is) to build the case for branding. But somewhere along the way this week it turned into building the case for doing good.

Sometimes at ABC we walk a delicate line in terms of the purpose of our corporate giving program: are we giving back because it makes us feel good? Because it's the right thing to do? Because our employees are asking for it? Or because it ultimately impacts our bottom line? Often it feels like the programs we're promoting (employee donations of product and time, especially) are meant as engagement tools or as a way to do something out of the goodness of our hearts, and not because there is a strategic business reason. Although I like to believe that people want to give back and that "doing the right thing" is everyone's responsibility, even I understand that any corporate philanthropy program must have some sort of impact on business outcomes in order to recieve the support and funding it needs to succeed long-term.

This week I was lucky to have a conversation with David Almy, partner at ADC Partners, a sustainability and cause marketing firm in San Francisco, CA. I had gotten in touch with Dave to pick his brain about the role of brands in corporate giving programs, and he was nice enough to share some terrific ideas with me (and raise some really thought-provoking questions). One of the things that stuck out most in my mind from our conversation was the idea that both "philanthropy" and "brand" are very nebulous terms that are difficult to measure and quantify.

But therein lies the rub, Dave said. In business, everything is about measurement and impact -  and any company (and especially any CFO) that's going to buy into a corporate giving program will need to understand how it all connects to the bottom line. Unfortunately, these days it's just not so easy to wrap your arms around the impact of your corporate giving program (Funny enough, in a perfect example of the stars aligning this week, I also happened to meet Farron Levy, President of True Impact - a Boston-based firm that's developed tools to help companies measure the ROI of their corporate citizenship programs! From what I hear about True Impact, Farron is really one of the leaders in this kind of measurement and surely one to watch).

For Dave's part, he suggested I look at the customer lifecycle and consider how these kind of programs can go beyond employee engagement and move into customer satisfaction and purchase loyalty (afterall, happy employees beget happy customers, right?). This idea alone has given me food for thought and I've spent the time since my conversation with Dave considering how I can weave this into my branding project.

One other important point to mention from my talk with Dave: I've been doing a lot of thinking about companies with CSR or philanthropy programs and looking at which ones had these kinds of social agendas written into their DNA "at birth" (Seventh Generation, for instance) versus those companies that have built their programs up over time (there are lots of them). I asked Dave about this and whether he thought integrating this kind of social responsibility into everyday business from the get-go had anything to do with the success of that company's program. Dave didn't seem to be so sure, and to answer my question he gave me two examples.

The first is Salesforce.com, whose founder Marc Benioff very clearly had a vision for how he wanted to give back to the community through donations of money, product and time. If you don't yet know about the 1% program and the Salesforce.com Foundation, this is one to read up on and a great example of this kind of thinking being embedded in an organization from the beginning.

On the other hand, Dave pointed to Clorox as an example of a newly "converted" company; that is, one that's seeing firsthand that involvement in CSR and sustainability can really have an impact on the bottom line (even if this kind of agenda wasn't built into the fabric of the company from the start). Although it has received some criticism fom staunch environmentalists, Clorox's Green Works line of household cleaners has done incredibly well, especially with young moms who want to do good things for their families but don't necessarily want to pay extra. Throw in Clorox's recent acquisition of Burt's Bees and their new Brita Filter for Good campaign and all of a sudden you've got a company who's quickly learned that doing good can be good for business.

This is a relevant debate for me a for a couple of reasons:

1) because I want to figure out how to help ABC "become" a Clorox

2) because eventually I want to create my own for-profit social venture (thus mixing business and giving back).

Although I'm not yet ready to go out on my own and start my own business, in an interesting twist I'm pleased to say that my mom Janice is. For 30 years my mom owned The Bead Shop, a Bay Area bead store with a global reach and a local community impact strategy. Through donations of gift certificates, products, and cash, my mom's business supported organizations in the Bay Area for decades. Unfortunately The Bead Shop closed its doors in August of 2008, and since then my mom has been crafting a new business strategy. And like Seventh Generation, my mom wants her business to have a social agenda from Day One. In fact, she's being very honest about her commitment to this kind of giving back, and I couldn't be more proud. I hope you'll take a moment to read about her ideas and support her work as she creates a new business at www.beadshop.com. Way to go, mom!

Overall it was a very thought-provoking and energizing week, with lots of questions and ideas racing around in my head. And I know I've thrown a lot at you in this post. But I hope it's made you think about what kind of social contract a business might have with its community. When you see companies with philanthropy or CSR programs, do you trust them more? What makes them seem genuine to you as opposed to just a marketing ploy? And does the presence of those programs make you want to spend your money with them over their competitors? I'm very curious to hear your thoughts!

Summer of Social Good

These days I'm loving the cross-pollinating going on between social media and "social good"; that is, using Web 2.0 and platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites to raise awareness and create change. I was reading through my Twitterfeed today and came across a post, "10 Ways to Support Charity Through Social Media". While it's a quick rundown of a lot of ideas and strategies that most "plugged-in" change agents already know about, it did point me in one new direction today.

The Summer of Social Good is an intiative/experiment running from June 1st through August 28th with the goal of raising awareness - and money - for some very important charities: World Wildlife Fund, Oxfam America, The Humane Society and Livestrong. Run by Mashable, the hugely popular Web 2.0 and Social Media blog, the Summer of Social Good is:

...the first large scale online charitable campaign to raise funds through the power of Social Media and the Internet. The goal is to use the power of “Social Influence” via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, blogs and other online media to raise an unprecedented amount for our fund benefiting The Humane Society, Livestrong, Oxfam America and WWF from June 1st until August 28th, 2009.

I thought this was a pretty cool idea, and as a way to show my support, I've not only Tweeted about it but I've placed the Widget in the right sidebar of The Changebase. Now, everytime you check this site between now and August 28th you can see how much money has been raised for these worthy charities. Not only that, but those talented folks at Mashable have made the Widget completely interactive: you can learn more, donate, tweet, or even share this campaign with your friends too. I hope you'll take a moment to read more about these organizations and share what you've learned with others!

Sustainable Dining at its Finest

Last weekend my husband and I went to Craigie on Main, a Cambridge, MA restaurant that has been on the top of our list for over a year. We were celebrating our first wedding anniversary, and as self-proclaimed “foodies", Craigie seemed like the perfect spot.  (For a review of our evening and the amazing meal we enjoyed, you can visit my husband’s blog See Dan Cook - yes, it’s a little shameless family plug but if you like cooking, Dan’s site is a must-read.)   Anyway, after four hours and 10+ courses, we were ready to head home. The check came, and tucked in the little pocket of the bill folder were two interesting pieces of paper. The first: a detailed survey for us to complete (the MBA in me loves surveys and the instant feedback they provide!). The second: a thin, double-sided slip of paper entitled, “Don’t just eat right with us…feel right about us”. As you can see below, the flier lists a number of ways that Craigie on Main is a committed and sustainable partner in the Cambridge food community.

 

Reading through the list of their “good deeds,” I couldn’t help but feel even more attached and loyal to my new favorite restaurant. So many companies shy away from telling their consumers what they’re doing for the community or for the environment because they worry they’ll expose themselves to criticism. After all, if you can openly claim that you reduced your paper usage by 5% this year (for example), what’s stopping someone from calling you up next year and saying, “Did you make it to 6%?”. It’s the old adage: no good deed goes unpunished.   Yet here this kind of transparency was welcome and refreshing. I felt good not just about the meal I’d enjoyed, but about supporting a restaurant that gives back in so many ways. My only critique? I wish Craigie had somehow educated me about their sustainability and responsibility practices before I actually set foot in the restaurant so that I could have made an informed decision to patronize the restaurant instead of some sort of happy accident (although in fairness this information is also listed on their website).   I know that transparency can make a company (and a person!) feel vulnerable. But, as I learned firsthand with Craigie, the relationship between that company and its customers will be so much stronger in the end. I wonder how long it'll be before we see disclaimers and pamphlets like this in other restaurants and businesses? In my opinion, it's only a matter of time until we see companies moving beyond simple eco-labelling or certification and into a more well-developed and deeper dialogue with their consumers. What do you think?

Musings on Mission

One of the best benefits of being both an MBA student and summer intern is the chance to think deeply and honestly about what I want to be when I "grow up". Between career seminars, lunch and learns, informational interviews, and being back in an office again, I've had plenty of opportunities to really explore what I want my professional life to look like. Before business school I worked as a fundraiser for a couple of organizations - each with different missions, cultures, and values. What's funny about fundraising is that at the end of the day, you really are selling something. Not a product, obviously, but a mission and a cause. When I was at the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health, "selling" this cause was really easy. Not only did I personally believe in and connect with Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, but so did practically every prospective donor that walked through the doors.

Why was this the case?

It all comes down to the power of a personal, face-to-face introduction with a mission that matters.

While touring a children's hospital may not sound like a fun way to spend the day, in fact every time I started cultivating a relationship with a donor, I would try to get a hospital visit on the calendar. Sure, those visits were emotional - sometimes sad, sometimes thrilling, sometimes joyful - but everytime, no matter what, that emotion was valuable. Not only would it encourage empathy and thoughtfulness on the part of the donor, but it served as a true connector for them with our organization's mission. They saw our work with their own eyes, and they were converted.

From the children's hospital I moved on to The BizWorld Foundation, a terrific education organization teaching entrepreneurship and business skills to children and young teens. Again, a cause I really connected with, especially as I learned more about how little education children actually get around financial literacy and business. In this case, though, connecting my donors with this mission turned out to be a huge challenge due to a number of obstacles (including, but not limited to, the fact that our programs were taught in classrooms all over the country at different times of the year, essentially making scheduled classroom visits practically impossible). Because of this, I often struggled to identify how to turn my donors into true believers; no matter how worthy the cause, they simply couldn't witness it with their own eyes. 

My experiences with these two organizations proved to me that mission really matters, not only for my own personal satisfaction but as a way to connect people around me with what I'm doing.

Not surprising, then, is the fact that at ABC it has been difficult for me to find the mission in what I'm doing. Afterall, it's a consumer products company, not a children's hospital. And even though I'm working in corporate giving, at the end of the day the company's purpose is still to sell its products and make a profit (I suppose you could say that is ABC's "mission", but that's not the kind of mission I'm talking about).  

What's interesting, though, is that this week I got a little taste of what I believe ABC's true mission to be. I was fortunate to get to go on the road for a day and meet some of ABC's growers (without giving too much away, all of ABC's products are made from raw agricultural materials). At first I was just excited to learn more about how ABC produces its goods, but after setting foot on one of the grower-owned farms, I instantly knew my primary purpose for visiting: connecting with ABC's mission.

Standing there, surrounded by lush green hills and in such a lovely natural setting, I immediately felt in tune with the company and its heritage. I laughed to myself as I thought back on my fundraising days and said to myself, "This would make a great donor tour". While not donors, it was obvious to me that ABC's customers and consumers should all be given the chance to see this work in person. It really was an incredible sight.

It just goes to show that regardless of whether you're selling tennis shoes or promoting a local soup kitchen, finding ways to connect emotionally and personally with your customers, donors, and community is crucial to success.

So what does all this mean for me? As I continue my career exploration, I've been thinking more and more about becoming a true social entrepreneur and starting something on my own. I love the idea of being innovative and creative and developing something that really can make a difference - in short, something that matters.

What's holding me back? The truth is, I don't yet know what my own true mission will be.

Every professional experience I've had has proven to me that I have to be connected to a cause that resonates, and no where is that lesson more applicable than in starting your own venture. What will my organization do? Who will I help? How will I do it? And why will it matter?

Currently these questions all remain unanswered for me, but my hope is that everything will become clearer with time. After another year of school and learning experiences under my belt, I may feel much more assured and comfortable with all of this. For now, though, all I do know is that the mission has to be priority #1.

Eco-Labels, Greenwashing and You

Last week I attended an interesting dinner hosted by the Boston chapter of Net Impact. The event was called "Eco-labelling: From Certification to Greenwashing" and it featured Stas Antons, Principal at Jump To Green, Inc., a new start-up that uses interactive labelling technology to create personalized, green labels for products and companies. I've been thinking a lot lately about certification systems and labelling programs, so I was excited to attend. Before I go any further, it's probably a good idea to lay out exactly what I mean by labels. The way I see it, green or "eco" labels include any icon or graphic found on a packaged product or used in the rating of a product/company that somehow distinguishes that entity as environmentally or socially sustainable. Some examples include Energy Star (appliances), Fair Trade Certified (agriculture), LEED (buildings), and B Labs (companies).

Stas opened his remarks with a couple of interesting ideas. First, he said there are three essential problems with the green labelling movement (and trust me, it is quite the movement - a recent Detroit News article claimed there are over 300 organizations now offering their own form of certification for green products and companies):

1) There are no standards in labelling, so there is no way to tell what one label means as compared to another.

2) It's hard to tell the real story behind the product because labels will mean different things to different people. Take the USDA Organic label: not only is the word "organic" interpreted differently, but the USDA's website doesn't offer much clarity either!

3) Because there are so many certification and labelling programs out there, the level of trust on the part of consumers is very low. Add to that the fact that articulating a product or company's entire backstory or mission through a small label is practically impossible, and you've got a recipe for confusion.

The second point that Stas made, that I thought was particularly telling, was that he is considering removing the word "Green" from the name of his company. As we all can attest, these days the word green is so overused that it's practically meaningless. In fact, some would argue (myself included) that particularly savvy consumers now see the word Green and run in the opposite direction, thinking it's simply a marketing ploy to get people to open up their wallets.

This point led to a particularly interesting discussion on the role that consumers play in all of this. In general the consensus of those folks in attendance (a group of about 20 sustainability and CSR professionals) was that consumers don't quite understand the "language" of sustainability. While many consumers are interested in supporting green products and companies, their attempts to do so are often misguided. Instead of making smart choices based on education and facts, consumers often flock to words they know and understand, like "recycled content". This makes it challenging for consumers to separate "real" sustainability leaders from other half-hearted campaigns that just throw in this sort of lingo. In turn, it makes it difficult for companies genuinely focused on sustainability to stand out in a crowded field of green competitors.

It's true that our marketplace is saturated with green labels, and consumers must take responsibility for educating themselves and learning how to distinguish between real sustainability campaigns and imposters. But truly responsible companies must also engage their consumers in a candid and honest dialogue about what they're doing to make their products and services more environmentally sustainable.

While the conversation at dinner continued, I couldn't help but think of my own work at ABC. All day long I consider ways that the company can include and involve its employees in its philanthropic efforts, and one of the big reasons is so that each employee is educated enough to go out in the community and act as a company ambassador. When you think about it, each ABC employee is also a consumer - of ABC products and others - so the more educated the employees are about the environment, about philanthropy, and about sustainability in general, the better consumers they become.

Sure, companies must do better at engaging external audiences in this sustainability conversation. But I wondered, "What are they doing at home?".

I tried asking this of the group, and unfortunately (and perhaps tellingly), I couldn't really get a clear answer. The moment passed, and the conversation quickly turned to other issues like the premium price tag often attached to green products. All in all, it was a thought-provoking evening - but I just couldn't shake the feeling that we were missing a key point: if companies can't talk to their own employees about why their products are good for the Earth, how can they possibly tell a compelling story to their customers?

This is where the "You" part in this post's title comes in: have you worked for a company that's done a good job of communicating both externally and internally what it's doing for environmental or social responsibility? How did they do it? I'd really love to hear your examples/anecdotes/personal experiences. And I'm going to keep working on it on my end - both during my time at ABC as an intern and also as I head back to school and keep learning. I really do think that these initiatives - whether environmental, social, or philanthropic - must start at home (or in this case the office), and the more companies involve their employees in this conversation, the more loyal consumers they will eventually attract.

**Coincidentally, my dear friend Alexandra Michalko just published an article on The EcoInnovator entitled "Untangling the Web of Green Product Credentials". Another great perspective on eco-labelling and greenwashing issues. Thanks for sharing Alex!