Monday, December 5, 2011

6 Tips for Holiday Social Good Campaigns


6 Tips for Holiday Social Good Campaigns



The holidays are just around the corner, and for many non-profits, that means big opportunities. More people give money to charities toward the end of the calendar than any other time of year.
A questionnaire from Philanthropy.com found that more than 60% of non-profits surveyed saw a boost in donations in November and December compared to the previous year. Another 20% of those surveyed said donations increased by more than 20%.
Anecdotal evidence also supports the late-blooming boom. Some attribute the burst of wintery generosity to the spirit of giving fostered by year-end holidays. Others, like the folks over at Freakonomics, suggest all that giving is to capitalize on last-minute tax breaks.
Whatever the reason, ’tis the season. Here are some basic tips for any organization looking to run a social good campaign around the holidays.

1. It’s the Holiday Season


It’s the holiday season, so do something festive. Granted, this one is sort of a no-brainer, but it’s important to remember that people are more likely to donate to something that is topical and of-the-moment. This isn’t necessarily a good human trait, but it can make the difference for funding an important cause.
If you’re going to make a campaign specific to the holidays, it’s important to not just window-dress what you’re doing. People will be able to sniff out pretentiousness. Instead, try to think of ways to tie your issues and causes into the holidays. For example, if you’re supporting developing communities, why not start a campaign to provide off-grid lighting solutions as part of the “Festival of Lights”?

2. Not Everyone Likes the Holidays


It is enormously important to remember that just because you may celebrate a certain holiday doesn’t mean the entire planet does too. Be respectful of your core audience and the people you are helping.
For example, a non-profit supporting women’s rights in the Middle East probably shouldn’t deck out its website exclusively with Christmas lights. Instead, find smart ways to incorporate relevant holidays, or better still, find a way to include all relevant holidays and focus on the spirit of giving back rather than locking into a specific tradition.

3. Don’t Stop


santa image
It’s the holidays, and holiday dollars are important. But do not, under any circumstances, stop or pause the longer-term initiatives your organization is running. Less mainstream campaigns usually take a back seat whenever the holidays roll around so that non-profits can get the most of their fundraising. Pausing your organization’s core campaigns is a huge mistake, not only because it halts an important mission, but because it shows that you’re willing to drop something important to capitalize on a tangential trend.

4. Be Consistent


If you’ve already had success with a holiday campaign, for goodness’ sake don’t stop! Holding holiday social good campaigns year-over-year not only gives your audience something to look forward to, but provides some consistency to what can sometimes feel like a one-off event.
Of course, these campaigns don’t have to be identical every single year. Think about how you can expand what you did last year or follow up on the change you were able to enact. People want to know that you are still committed to your cause, even if you’re creating a campaign that only happens once a year.

5. Start Early


The “holidays” now seem to start during the summer. For better or for worse, the holiday season begins earlier and earlier every year. This means that you, Mr. or Ms. Non-Profit, can also start planning your campaigns earlier in the year. The earlier you start, the more time you’ll have to flesh out all aspects of the campaign, gather funds and raise awareness. Of course, pick a logical date: There is such a thing as “too soon.”

6. Everyone Loves Gift Cards


Gift cards tend to have a bad rap as the thing you buy someone when you don’t actually know what to get them. There is, however, a new trend of making a donation on someone else’s behalf. The gifter will, for example, support a girl’s education in a developing country for a year and provide the giftee with a card detailing the girl’s name and how the sponsorship will help her have a bright future.
Think: Is there a logical and relevant way of including a similar type of donation gift in your non-profit’s holiday plan? These presents may not be as much “fun” as unwrapping a toy car, but they will do an entire world of good.

5 Companies Giving Back Online for the Holidays


5 Companies Giving Back Online for the Holidays


The Commerce With a Conscience Series is supported by FedEx. FedEx does more than shipping. They offer solutions like transporting heart valves to those in need and helping entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life. See how.
The Holiday Season is underway, and with that comes time with friends and family, reflection over the past year and a spirit of giving. Companies big and small are joining the donating wave this year, using social media and technology to create innovative campaigns.
Despite being the third Holiday Season in a row affected by the economic turn down, Americans are more committed to giving than ever, a new American Red Cross poll reveals. More than 70% of Americans plan to give about the same amount or more than they did last year.

Thanks to tech and social media, several companies have created fun ways for those eager to do good to rally behind a cause in the spirit of the season.

1. eBay’s Give-a-Toy Store


In partnership with Toys for TotseBay is putting a charitable spin on window shopping with its Give-a-Toy Store campaign. The company set up two whimsical window displays in New York City’s Herald Square and San Francisco’s Post Street, featuring nostalgic, storybook style toys such as teddy bears, trains, and a cowboy on a horse.
Each toy, as part of the campaign, has a QR code tag. Using the eBay mobile app, the toys come to life in digital animation when their tags are scanned. You can then choose to purchase a virtual toy, which is in essence a donation of between $2 and $10 going towards Toys for Tots. After giving, you can share your gift with your Facebook friends.
“The storefronts bring to life our on-the-go shopping experience,” Amanda Miller, manager of the eBay campaign, told Mashable.
If you’re not in New York or San Francisco, you can visit the campaign’s website to donate. The company has plans to launch a corresponding Facebook app and sweepstakes to add momentum to the campaign.

2. Kraft Food’s Huddle to Fight Hunger


In the second year of its Huddle to Fight Hunger campaign, Kraft Foods is educating Facebook users about the hunger epidemic while donating to its partner non-profit, Feeding America. When fans Like the Fight HungerFacebook Page and play a two minute trivia game, Kraft donates money toward meals at local food banks.
Each Like donates the equivalent of one meal and answering trivia questions about football and food increases the donation amount. When fans enter their zip codes, the donations on their behalves go to Feeding America banks in their areas.
The company will donate up to four million meals through the Facebook Page, as part of its goal of providing 25 million meals.

3. Vayable’s Experiential Travel Gift Cards


San Francisco-based travel startup Vayable has made it easy to award travel experiences that support local business, meaning you can give a gift that continues to give. The company launched holiday gift cards, which give credits towards travel experiences that keep money in the local community.
Eighty-two percent of money spent on Vayable fuels local business, so you can give a loved ones a meaningful experience while helping small, local retailers.

4. Coca-Cola White Cans





For the first time ever this holiday season, Coca-Cola’s iconic red cans have changed colors, to white, for itsArctic Home campaign for polar bear preservation. Through partnering with CheckPoints mobile rewards app, the campaign has gone mobile.
App users, who earn points for scanning participating products in stores, can donate directly to Arctic Home when they scan Coca-Cola.
“You reach a really engaged consumer in store,” Dave Heinzinger, CheckPoints’ communications director, toldMashable on why the campaign would get people to donate. “The person is actually holding the product in their hand, interacting with it.”
Coca-Cola is matching donations up to $1 million up to Mar. 15, 2012.



5. Hanes Virtual Sock Drive





Hanes has teamed up with the Salvation Army for their third annual Virtual Sock Drive. For every person who clicks the “Donate Now” button on Hanes’ Facebook Page between Nov. 14 and Dec. 12, the company will donate a pair of socks to individuals in need up to 250,000 pairs (500,000 individual socks). It costs nothing for you to donate.
While socks may seem trivial compared to, say, winter coats, they are the most requested item from homeless shelters.

3 Free Apps For Getting Things Done


3 Free Apps For Getting Things Done

Each weekendMashable selects startups we think are building interesting, unique or niche products.
This week we’ve focused on three new apps that help complete (or even inspire) daily tasks.
Any.DO is a social to-do list that’s easier to use than any other we’ve seen. Hailo makes hailing a cab a matter of checking in on an app, and photo game Onefeat inspires creative feats throughout the day.

The iPod Changed Computing Forever. Now It Will Disappear


The iPod Changed Computing Forever. Now It Will Disappear


Ten years ago this month, in a small-ish theater at Apple Computer headquarters at One Infinite Loop, I saw Steve Jobs unveil the iPod. On Nov. 2, 2001, I wrote, “The iPod is revolutionary in a number of ways, and its descendants will replace the PC.”
I think I was right, as we’re starting to see now with the widespread adoption of iPhone-inspired smartphones and tablets.
Part of the iPod reinventing computing is that the iPod itself will disappear into those new computers, which is what we’re about to see. First, “iPod” became an app on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. On Tuesday, Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook will reportedly unveil new iPhones and iPod Touches running iOS 5 linked to iCloud storage accounts (5GB for free, more for $) — and could phase out the iPod Classicentirely, as well as the word “iPod” itself.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds aloft the first iPod at its 2001 debut (still frame courtesy of Apple).
It’s foolhardy to pretend to know anything for sure about any product announcement before they happen (not that it stops many of us in the tech press from doing so). Sure, Apple could keep the traditional iPod around in some form after tomorrow, but even if so, its days are numbered for reasons including the following:
  • Apple’s iOS devices can download music from Apple’s other big idea for this season, iCloud, and will integrate automatically with iCloud with tomorrow’s arrival of iOS 5 (read about what that means for music fans);
  • unlike the traditional iPod, those connected devices can play subscription content and music in storage lockers without visibly enforcing DRM;
  • they can share listening activity in real-time on Facebook and elsewhere;
  • they also let users install (almost) whatever software and services they want, not to mention hundreds of thousands of other apps, all of which make Apple more money than when someone buys an iPod and fills it with ripped CDs, downloads from MP3 blogs, and whatever they’ve grabbed from file-sharing networks.
Having watched digital music closely for over 13 years, I boil it down to two main events:
First, music turned into 1s and 0s.
That spawned CD rippers, the MP3, software music players, hardware music players (like, eventually, the iPod), P2P file sharing, anti-piracy lawsuits, and web radio.
This led to the creation of a wild variety of apps running on connected devices (check out our roundup of every iOS car music player, as just one example), and allowed subscription services such as Spotify to operate without forcing honest users to deal with onerous DRM (digital rights management) technology.
That’s it. In the grand historical scheme of digital music, only these two things have happened, and the second one is ongoing.
Apple’s strategy has been cagey throughout this process. It has continued selling hardware iPods and digital downloads on one flank and hawked smartphones, “smart players” like the iPod Touch, and tablets on the other, all the while charging developers 30 percent of every app purchase andsubscription sign-up. Now, the Tim Cook-helmed Apple is getting on-board with the second phase of the digital music revolution, having taken its sweet time about it — just like it did with the first iPod.
Tomorrow, Apple, the 500-pound gorilla of digital music, will throw its weight behind iCloud and connected iOS devices and could chuck the traditional iPod out so that all of its iPod-descended devices can run apps and connect to iCloud. Apple wasn’t close to the first company to sell an MP3 player, but it outlasted and outsold its competition all the way to this season’s launch of iOS 5 and iCloud, with which Apple leaves the iPod mentality (if not the device itself) behind to join more fully the second phase of the digital music revolution.
Hey, ten years isn’t a bad run — and really, the iPod’s demise follows the big historical arc from physical music to 1s and 0s, which first transformed music and is now transforming the music player.
Stay tuned; we’ll have more analysis of the effect of iOS 5 and Apple’s other announcements on digital music starting tomorrow.