Why integrate a social mission into your business? You’re an entrepreneur with an idea and maybe a business plan, a small-business owner or the head of mid-sized company. To expect you to add social purpose to your business just because it’s a good thing to do, is foolish. You have a bottom-line and other obligations […]
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Conscious Capitalism: A Mechanism for Prosperity
Companies that practice conscious capitalism benefit from putting their employees first. The Container Store, REI and Joie de Vivre have shown this to be true, even as the lagging economy has pushed other companies to downsize. At The Container Store, employees are prioritized over customers and shareholders. It’s a core company principle that influences all business decisions. Full-time employees earn an average […]
Radical Pricing Scheme Earns $ for Companies & Nonprofits
Letting people pay what they want, with the promise that 50% will go to charity, produces a higher profit than selling the product at a fixed, market price. It also earns more money for the nonprofit Leif Nelson, an associate professor of marketing at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, ran an experiment […]
The 15 Top Posts on Good Business of 2010
In order of popularity (ranked by page views), here are the 15 most-read pieces on Cause Capitalism from the last year. Below are some observations on the list. 1. 15 Social Venture Capital Firms That You Should Know About 2. 10 More Social Venture Capital Firms That You Told Me About 3. Will B Corp’s New […]
To Tap Cause Marketing’s Huge Potential, Do Less Of It
This piece was originally written for and published on Reach Students. If 94% of Millennials condone cause marketing why do only 53% report buying a product that benefits a cause in the past year? The first finding is compelling, the second certainly is not, particularly given that in many stores you’d have to struggle not to buy […]
Want To Open a Nonprofit Store? 10 Guidelines You–and Nordstrom’s–Should Follow
Scandal in-the-making, customer-pleaser, tax write-off, nonprofit cash cow or game-changer? Which hyphenated phrase will best describe Nordstrom’s new concept store, which will donate all net profits to charity? I was interviewed recently by American Public Media’s Marketplace on the Nordstrom concept store, set to open in Soho next fall, and on the growing appeal of […]
Mobile Giving Meets Mobile Marketing, But Are Americans Ready?
Sure, Americans love their mobile phones and use them handily, but there’s still stunted confidence for mobile financial transactions, whether it’s a payment or a donation. Part of the reticence comes from the clumsiness of many mobile commerce and mobile giving sites and part of it’s a lack of incentives. Benevity Social Ventures and Obopay […]
Retail Philanthropy Is In High Demand: 4 Steps To Doing It Right
Neither nationwide purse-tightening nor cries of Slactivism! Greenwashing! and Fad! have shaken cause marketing. Eighty-three percent of consumers “want more of the products, services and retailers they use to benefit causes,” according to Cone Inc.’s 2010 Cause Evaluation Study. But how do you do cause-related marketing (or cause branding) right? Pick a cause you care about. […]
My Stand Against False Communities: I Want Real Change, Not a Marketing Assist
Don’t call it a community and don’t plan to build one unless it will offer real value to the people who participate. Not just to you or your brand or the top-dogs within the community. That’s called marketing or complicit back-scratching, but not community in a sense of deep give and take and shared value, […]
Will B Corp’s New Campaign Be The Death Knell For Cause-Washing?
Rather than doing the industry in, cause-washing might just save corporate sustainability. Although consumer trust is worse than we thought, the anecdote has the potential to alter the way companies do business and consumers shop. Less than one percent of people (surveyed recently by BBMG in partnership with B Lab) trust company advertisements or statements […]
I'm Olivia Khalili. I created Cause Capitalism to show you how to grow your business by incorporating a social mission. I've worked extensively with both nonprofits and for-profits. I found that when you combine the two, you grow your profits, impassion all your stakeholders and do good in the world. Read more.
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