SocialButterfly

The Fight for Good: Disney vs. Pepsi

Sunday, February 7th, 2010 | Blog Talk, Case Studies and New Orgs/Campaigns | 4 Comments

Lots has been said about Pepsi’s Refresh Everything Project. However, not as much has been said about Disney’s “Give a Day. Get a Disney Day.” Why?

Both projects launched around the same time and both stand to do good. Thus, let’s match them up and see who’s left standing: Disney or Pepsi. Let’s begin.

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Disney: Give a Day. Get a Disney Day.
What: Inspire one million people to volunteer a day of service.
How: Individuals can sign-up to volunteer at participating community organizations in their area. In return, that person will be awarded with a 1-day, 1-theme park ticket to the Disneyland® Resort or Walt Disney World® Resort, free.
When: Jan. 1, 2010–Dec. 15, 2010

Pepsi: Refresh Everything Project
What: Award a total of $20 million in grants.
How: Engaging in a social good crowdsourcing experiment.
When: Early 2010

Round 1: Program

Disney: It’s simple–give a day, get a day. It’s easy to understand and process. It’s national yet local–and is on the tail of national calls to service and volunteerism. It’s also collaborative by working with organizations across the nation. It’s also customizable and has something for everyone as any person wanting to participate can type in their zip code and find volunteer opportunities in eight different categories: animals and environment, arts and culture, children and youth, community, education and technology, health and human services, hunger and homelessness, and seniors and elder care.

Pepsi: It’s innovative, creative and “sexy.” It’s also a big investment–$20 million big. Pepsi is also a heavy hitter, and has entered the social good space by doing something new and doing it first, which can work to their advantage. The project is also inclusive–where anyone can submit an idea and anyone can vote up projects and ideas. Pepsi, like Disney, has also divided up the entries into different categories for people to consider: health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods, and education.

Round 2: Usability

Disney: The landing page for this initiative is a bit buried and there is no friendly URL. However, once there, Disney outlines the steps a person needs to take pretty well and makes the process relatively simple. The downside-there’s a lot of small print.

Pepsi: For both Disney’s and Pepsi’s initiatives, you have to create an account. However, for those less technical, the Pepsi site may be harder to navigate and understand–given the complexity of the competition.

Round 3: Authenticity

Disney: This is being promoted–but not as heavily or perhaps just more traditionally as I have seen TV spots. You can argue you this two ways: First, perhaps Disney doesn’t want to dedicate as many resources to a do-good promotion. Or secondly, maybe they don’t want to wave their do-goodness around. Out of the two companies, I’d say Disney has had a tougher road to climb to gain consumer’s trust.

Pepsi: For Pepsi, the Refresh project was a cheaper investment than the Superbowl, and some would argue, is having a higher return on investment. However, it may be too early to tell just what the return on investment really is. What I have noticed–is that they are definitely promoting it through blogger outreach, social media, celebrity endorsement, television ads and Pepsi was also a sponsor to the Superbowl Fan Jam that aired on VH1. Some have also commented that Pepsi’s set-up of the Refresh Project doesn’t express a true commitment to the social change community and dub it more cause-washing. Either way, we’re all talking about it.

Round 4: Impact and Sustainability

Disney: In the short-term, a lot of projects will be accomplished. In the long-term, hopefully people will be inspired to continue volunteering and giving back to their communities. In addition, the participating organizations have an opportunity to engage new community members to their cause and build a long-term relationship with them.

Pepsi: In the short term, people can be inspired by the dreams and ideas for a better world. In the short term, many groups and individuals will receive much needed resources to make things happen and take the efforts to the next level. However, it will be the responsibility of these organizations to put the funds to good use and create and drive the impact and its sustainability. One could also argue it’s the voter’s responsibility to vote for those projects that will be sustainable.

Winner: Disney

While I give props to Pepsi, I think Disney edges them out and this is why:

1. I understand it. My friends, who aren’t bloggers and aren’t techy, know about it, get it, and are participating. It’s simple.

2. It works for both the short-term and the long-term. In the short-term, it encourages volunteering, while working to inspire volunteering as a normal and frequent experience in the long-term.

3. Everybody wins. The organizations get help and an opportunity to build a long-term relationship with volunteers. The volunteer gets a free ticket to Disney. Disney gets people in their parks where they are bound to buy food, souvenirs and more–not to mention the engagement and positive press.

4. It’s collaborative. Disney found a way to not just talk about collaboration, but actually do it. The Huffington Post even claims Disney’s program “is beautiful on so many dimensions.”

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Where the Rubber Meets the Road

When defining the success of these initiatives, here’s the more important question:

• For Pepsi/Disney, did the project increase sales of Pepsi or encourage more people to visit?
• For the do-good community, what is the overall impact of these initiatives to our communities?

Now, what if it’s found that there is a larger impact to our community, but not an advance in sales? That is where I think the rubber will meet the road.. My hope, is that we can continue to learn from one another to make it a win-win so that more organizations think about doing good.

What are your thoughts–Disney or Pepsi?

Note, this write-up is without any specific background knowledge, research or documentation about these initiatives. Also, thank you Pepsi and Disney for embarking on these efforts, as I hope all of us continue to learn and discover new ways to make our world better.

flickr credit (in order): mrkalhoon, vrogy, Express Monorail

Tags: crowdsourcing, Disney, Give a Day Get a Disney Day, giving, impact, inspiration, Pepsi, Pepsi Refresh, Pepsie Refresh Everything, PepsiFresh, social good, sustainability, volunteerism

One Word of Advice for Voters of Pepsi’s Refresh Project

Monday, February 1st, 2010 | Blog Talk, Case Studies and New Orgs/Campaigns | 5 Comments

Sustainability. In a fast-paced, 140-character world, short term and one-hit wonder thinking is rampant. But when it comes to making a difference and solving the great problems of our times, we need to be thinking for the long-term. This is why I hope the voters of Pepsi’s Refresh Everything Project will keep the concept of sustainability top-of-mind.

Let me first say that I applaud Pepsi’s jump into social good–and I hope more groups follow their lead. Perhaps if more did, then we’d have more case studies, a deeper set of lessons learned and more refined best practices. In a sense, we’d have more to talk about. This post is not for the folks at Pepsi. Rather, it’s aimed at the people who are engaging in Pepsi’s Refresh Everything Project.

For those not familiar, Pepsi is foregoing its Superbowl Ads and instead, engaging in a social good experiment. Pepsi will award a total of $20 million in grants over the course of the year. Who will receive the grants? That’s for you, me and everyone else to decide by voting–and a big reason why I hope, each voter, keeps in mind the concept of sustainability when reviewing the proposed projects. (More on how the project works.)

When reviewing the proposals, a thought kept pulsing, growing bigger and bigger inside me. Pepsi is awarding $20 million dollars in resources–but what if you had $20 million dollars or your organization did–how would you allocate those resource and why?

Sure–Recruiting people to help clean the highways is great–but what if we knew of a way to make it where people didn’t litter in the first place?

Sure–It’s great to offer a summer camp to kids to teach them to better appreciate the earth, but how can we scale this to reach more children in more places?

Sure–It’s great to find ways to get people up and moving. But, there are so many good people working to achieve this already. What strategies do they find working? Let’s invest there.

The Pepsi Refresh Project is a great initiative, but it’s just a start. I expect (and hope) we’ll start to see more of it. I also agree with Beth Kanter that, with crowdsourcing efforts, this is where having a key group of content experts involved is key. But, to me, the biggest take-away is that we, as a community, need to be thinking more strategically with our resources–this is why I love social marketing. It addresses both the short-term and the long-term. It looks at advocacy as well as promotion and a wide range of other various tools. It thinks both upstream and downstream. In other words, it offers a framework for us to create sustainable programs, products and services that truly can make a lasting change and a better world.

Thus, to all you voters, when reviewing, please keep in mind the idea of sustainability. What’s going to make the biggest difference for the amount of effort, resources and time?

What about you–what advice do you have either to Pepsi or to the fellow voters?

Tags: behavior change, beth kanter, change, corporate social responsibility, crowdsourcing, CSR, Engagement, framework, good, Pepsi, Pepsi Refresh Everything Project, resource allocation, resources, social good, Social Marketing, sustainability

Beyond Marketing Gadgets, Thingymagigs and Gizmos

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 | Blog Talk, Changeblogging: NP, activism, social change +, Interesting Articles | 1 Comment

Define today’s concept of: marketing. Now, imagine yourself 40-50 years ago, and define marketing. Notice any big differences? Probably a few come to mind.

I bring this up because I was taught that to know where we are headed, we have to know and understand the past. Rewind back to 1969 when an article called “Broadening the Concept of Marketing” was published by Philip Kotler and Sidney J. Levy (remarkably–you can get a free copy online). My fellow social changers and social marketeers, it was this document that helped paved the way for careers, projects and initiatives we are doing today. It was this document that said marketing was a “societal activity” that can be applied for more than “toothpaste, soap and steel” but that marketing can be transferable to organizations (non-business organizations…aka, nonprofits), persons and ideas. IDEAS.

Fast forward to today, and we are still re-defining and evolving our concept of marketing. Take Seth Godin’s recent post about how we frame marketing.  Or better yet–he explains that marketing is what happens between the frames:

Marketing is what happens when you’re not trying, when you’re being transparent and when there’s no script in place.

With this sentence, one word comes to mind–authenticity. I see all the marketing, talk and chatter about the latest and greatest gizmo. I see people and organizations striving and racing. In between all that, there is authenticity. We must find it, and we must connect with it again if we are to truly be successful–and if we are truly going to make a difference. Makes me think, how will the idea of authenticity broaden marketing for future generations? Discuss.

flickr image credit: planigan412

Tags: academics, authenticity, concept, framing, future, gizmo, idea, ideas, Marketing, past, Philip Kotler, Seth Godin, Technology, theory

How Much Is the Rest of Your Life Worth?

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 | Blog Talk, Social Entrepreneurship | 6 Comments

Image from Change.org

This is not a wimpy philosophical post. We are talking dollars and sense. (Not a typo). A new business model experimient is in the works, relating to social entrpreneurship called: The Life Investment. Basically, it comes down to this question according to the Social Edge blog:

If an investor offered you a large infusion of unrestricted capital, say $300,000, with the only condition being that you would give them 3% of your income for the rest of your life, would you take the deal?

Apparently, it was fueled by this guy as the concept of personal investment contracts. Then, thanks to Nathaniel Whittemore, Change.org’s Social Entrepreneurship blogger, the conversation grew bigger until three innovative bloggers at SocialEdge, the blog hosted by the Skoll Foundation, took the leap and announced the Thrust Fund. Each has their own startup social entrepreneurship, and here is their offer:

Kjerstin: Offers 6% of her annual income for a $600,000 up front investment.
Saul and Jon: Each offering 3% for $300,000 up front.

Now this gets interesting and I have to say ballsy. If this idea and conversation gets you off your chair and gets your mind thinking, Kjerstin, Saul and Jon are hosting a conversation about their offer saying: “Invest in us; we’ll give you some of our equity for life.” I’m still marinating on this whole concept myself, but I love the innovation here. The details is where it may get tricky–but man, bravo for putting themselves out there and believing in something that strong. What do you think–if you were made the offer, what would you say: Deal? or No Deal?

Tags: belief, capital, Change.org, courage, entrepreneur, equity, faith, funding, innovation, investment, Life Investment, Social Edge, social entrepreneurship, worth

Beth’s Birthday Bash

Monday, January 11th, 2010 | Blog Talk, Experience This? | 2 Comments

We all have influence and impact. Today’s post is to recognize the influence of one person, Beth Kanter, and to realize the impact we can all have when we act together. Beth Kanter, if you don’t know, is a top changeblogger working to help nonprofits do good.  But, I won’t provide a bio, her actions speak for themselves.

Actions such as making a birthday wish. Of course, this was no ordinary wish. For Beth’s 53rd birthday, she wished for people to donate to the Sharing Foundation on her behalf. The Sharing Foundation helps Cambodian youngsters go to school and holds a special place in Beth’s heart.

So I did. And so did many others. And so can you. You see, this blog post is one of many that is part of Beth’s Surprise Birthday bash. We want to thank Beth for all of her leadership, her generosity and belief in doing good, and this is the non-profit and social change community’s way of saying THANK YOU.

If Beth’s had an impact on you, join us and let her know by blogging or leaving a comment below. To donate and help make Beth’s birthday wish come true, here’s the link.

Want to follow Beth’s lead and use your birthday for good? Get to know the Causes application on Facebook.

Tags: actions, beth kanter, birthday, birthday wish, causes, donation, generosity, giving, leadership, Sharing Foundation, thank you

One Book, Two Questions and Three Words for 2010

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 | Blog Talk, SocialButterfly | No Comments

With a new year, comes a lot of reflecting. Whether this describes you as an individual or as an organization, I’ve got one book, two questions and three words you need to read in 2010. These will help you identify your core values, focus your motivation and goals, and help translate all the above in your day-to-day activities. Let’s get reading.

1. One Book

I’m willing to bet you’ve never heard of this book. If you have, please comment. The book is titled five, and is across the board, a five-star book. So many books tell you what to do and think about your life. Stop reading those books. They take valuable time, and they often don’t provide any answers. Why? Because you have to provide the answers. The reason I like the book five is not because it’s simple, design-based and interactive, but because it forces you to reflect on your own life, your own goals and your thoughts. This is often the hardest part–but most rewarding. It provides prompts and questions, along with lines to pencil in your ideas. It’s a work book–but it’s not work. It uses creative design and textography throughout to draw you in and inspire. So, stop doing the easy part by reading what others think you should do, and focus on you.

2. Two Questions

These two simple questions could change your life. They are provided by author Daniel H. Pink, author of the book Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us, which looks at human motivation. These two questions are:

• What is my sentence?
• Was I better today, than I was yesterday?

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

3. Three Words

If you’ve quickly skimmed down here to read the three words, I’m sorry to say, it’s not that easy. You see: It’s not my three words you need to read. It’s your own. Beth Kanter clued me on to this as she was inspired by Chris Brogan. Kanter’s three words were: Networked, Generosity and Full of Life. For Brogan, his were Ecosystems, Owners and Kings. According to Brogan, your three words should:

“…help you the way a lighthouse helps a ship in a storm. Give yourself a word that guides you towards a powerful new opportunity, and that keeps you focused on what comes of this year. Use these words as starting points for tangible goals, SMART goals that can be measured and have dates to accomplish tasks by. These words sit above the actual goals, and set your guiding principles in place.”

What I like about the three words, is that they are your words. So, do what works for you. For me, my three words are: Simplify and Focus. I don’t have a third, because, well, re-read my first word.

Conclusion

They say people who write down their goals are more successful. You can define success any way you want–as long as you define it for yourself. So, even if you aren’t sure what your goal is, start writing down something and logging your ideas. Eventually, something will come, and when it does, it’ll be powerful because it’ll be born from within.

Tags: 2010, beth kanter, books, career, Chris Brogan, drive, focus, inspiration, motivation, questions, read, reading, simplify, thinking, three words, writing

To Make a Difference, Must You Choose?

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 | Blog Talk, SocialButterfly | 8 Comments

Life is full of choices–some more important than others. I started this post about four months ago, and the question remains unanswered for me, so I greatly appreciate your insights.

To make a difference or to bring about the illusive and often intangible “change” …must we choose? What I mean is this: In the non-profit and social change arena, must you choose a cause to rally behind and make your life’s work to make an impact? I use to think no. Now, I’m not so sure.

Beginnings

When I first started blogging I was an anonymous blogger. I wasn’t sure how it would be taken by potential employers and colleagues. I later revealed my identify. However–I’ve never quite fully stated in public certain causes I support or the specific “change” that gets me motivated. In our space, must we? Should we?

I don’t need to tell you that the line between professional and personal is blurring. I use to think we had to stay middle of the road when it came to personal matters–I thought this was the better route to go. After all, you don’t see companies or employees advocating for the causes they care about or beliefs they believe in….or do you?

Shifts

I think the pendulum is swinging. More and more, people and organizations are taking a stand. I think, in the future, part of what will make you credible and a force to be reckoned with, is what motivates you and where you take your stand. Remember that quote we were told as kids as we worked to understand our world:

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.

We all have influence. Why is it–that we as people or bloggers or even companies are afraid to exercise it towards the very things we care most about? Fear is powerful–and it can occur within a person or within an organization. Sometimes, we may not even recognize the role of fear as it may be built in systems and processes we may have little control over. Good news: fear can be squashed and new solutions and innovations can light the way. We should leave more trails, rather than report each others foot steps as a pack hovering together for warmth. Am I off here?

For instance, I’m a Christian. There, I said it. Does that change things? Let’s talk about it because I’m tired of not talking about it. How come many of us don’t talk about the things that motivate us to get where we are and push us to do our work? What gave me the courage to finally publish this post is that I know I’m not alone in pondering these questions. Thank you to people like Rosetta Thurman and Alex Steed. Read their posts.

Making a Difference

If this is the goal, what does this mean? This is where my hangup is. I feel like we’d all answer this question differently. In terms of my cause-reporting on SocialButterfly, you could say I’m a bit of a generalist with a heavy leaning towards public health. But what about cause-doing? One word comes to mind:

FOCUS.

People who are successful are great at being able to focus. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about verticalization–thanks to friend Geoff Livingston. In the non-profit, government, and even the public health worlds, each has its verticals. As we’ve matured, more areas of focus have evolved within the realms of “non-profit” and “social change.”  I have friends who are passionate about alleviating teenage homelessness. Friends who are persistent in the drive to address climate change. Friends who persevere to find new ways of doing business. Friends who are focused.

In the past, I focused on giving the Hispanic community a voice in Mid-Missouri and got involved in immigration issues. Then I focused on spreading awareness about multiple sclerosis and raising funds for multiple sclerosis research. In four years, I got to be a part of raising over $325k for multiple sclerosis through event planning and grassroots efforts.

Then, to be honest, I avoided “choosing” and this is why. I discovered social marketing–and focused on it because to create change and have an impact, you need to learn behavior changing skills and knowledge. You need to be a student of the evolving strategies, research and tools. This is why social marketing is appealing to me–because it provides a framework to go about influencing change, whether you are passionate about combating human trafficking, decrease drug abuse, ending poverty, eliminating HIV/AIDS, address climate change, increasing the country’s health or wanting to increase the rate people in your school wear seat belts–social marketing can light the way. Now, my focus is social marketing. I firmly believe that the process of social marketing can help address many of the battles we face. Yet I’m torn.

Bothered

The more I think about it, the more I’m bothered. Being bothered is good because it shakes you up and makes you question, think and go deeper. Thus, I ask you: to make a difference, must I (or you) choose one cause–one organization–or one group of people–to champion?

flickr credit: angrytoast

Tags: Alex Steed, career, career path, champion, change, Christian, Christianity, courage, discovery, fear, focus, friends, future, motivation, nonprofit, questions, Rosetta Thurman, social change, Social Marketing, thought

A Single Thought for 2010

Monday, December 28th, 2009 | Blog Talk, SocialButterfly | 2 Comments

This thought actually echoed across the channels in 2006 when Randall Pinkett won Donald Trump’s Apprentice. I’m passing it on to you as a mentor shared the thought with me–with a bit of a twist.

“Would

you

rather

make

the

news

or

report

the

news?”

Chew on it–and go. How’s that for a typical “Ode to 2009/New Year’s Post?” I hope not typical.

Tags: 2010, inspiration, motivational, New Years, news, passion, Quote, work

Some Golden Nuggets of Social Change

Sunday, November 29th, 2009 | Blog Talk | 6 Comments

In between turkey and tweeting, I caught up on some of my online do-gooders, as well as explored and discovered new (and highly valuable) minds who are doing good. Thus, this post is filled with some true golden nuggets of social change. Enjoy!

• Find new friends in this list of the top 100 Social Entreprenuership Tweeple to follow, put together by @socialedge, a program of the Skoll Foundation. What I love most, is that this post also gives you a great listing of hashtags and what their purpose is as well.
• Speaking of @socialedge, I discovered that they host weekly live discussion around numerous social change topics, including this one: What works in social change? Feel free to give input based on your knowledge and experiences–I did.
• Can prevention PROSPER? Read up on this prevention program–backed by the CDC, NIDA and the Annie E. Casey Foundation–whose trial shows a $10 payback on every $1 invested. Now, it’s getting ready to go national.
• Going to be in D.C. on February 12? If so, you may be able to catch the Non-Profit 2.0 Conference organized by Geoff Livingston, Shireen Mitchel, and Allysin Kapin.
• Even though I did my own research on millennials for a project I did for Special Olympics Missouri, it’s always good to see what others found out as well.  Those at Millennial Marketing put together a FREE e-book titled “Marketing to Millennials.”
• On someone’s Twitter list and you don’t want to be? Read up on how to opt-out of someone else’s list through this back door trick.
• Have some doubters in your presence? Share Valerie Maltoni’s free e-book, Twittertales, a collection of Twitter success stories.
• Seeing the time of giving is upon us, check out this article on Barron’s that lists the Top 25 Philanthropists.
• Keeping with the giving theme, did you know you could start a fundraiser with wine? Find your favorite charity or rally friends around one–and buy some wine in support of it. I discovered this while doing my own holiday shopping, so I wanted to share the idea with others. Think goodsearch–just with wine.

People Doing It Right (hat tip to Chris Brogan)

• Health Populi. Written by Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, I find just about every single post of hers helpful, thought-provoking and insightful. Lately, it’s become a blog staple–the kind that you can’t wait to read when you see there’s a new post in your RSS reader.
• Prevention in Action. With its focus on prevention and research–how can you not be a fan of this organization’s news content? They are writing about topics not everyone writes about, pulling evidence, timely events and research together in a way that gets the mind ticking.
• 501derful.org. We all already know he’s doing it right seeing as David Neff won AMA’s Non-Profit Marketer of the Year award. But with Neff’s recent announcement that has left the American Cancer Society to pursue his next big adventure, I’ve been staying tuned to his blog ever more closely as I admire his leadership and courage to follow his passion of Lights. Camera. Help.

What about you? What golden nuggets did you discover over the holiday?

flickr photo credit: Curtis Gregory Perry

Tags: Annie E. Casey Foundation, David Neff, discovery, good, Health Populi, holiday, inspiration, knowledge, Millennials, non-profit, philanthropists, philanthropy, prevention, Prevention in Action, Skoll Foundation, social change, Social Edge, social entreprenuer, social entreprenuership, Twittertales

Focus on Some Inspiration

Sunday, November 15th, 2009 | Blog Talk | 1 Comment

I am so thankful for community–including those at BlogHer. I woke up this morning and found this inspiring post and video emphasizing a word that I’ve been concentrating on: FOCUS. The video starts with this beautiful quote. I encourage you to take a moment and reflect upon it:

“Your real work is to decide what you want and then focus upon it, for it is through focusing upon what you want–that you will get it. That is the process of creating.”

The video closes with another thought-provoking quote by Ghandi:

“Keep your thoughts as positive because your thoughts become your words.

Keep your words positive bcause your words become your behaviors.

Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits.

Keep your habits responsible because your habits become your values.

Keep your values positive because values become your destiny.”

You can apply these words to yourself, to your family, your work, and you can also apply them to your organization. Think: When was the last time you (or your organization) felt inspired?

Tags: destiny, focus, goodness, hope, inspiration, quotes