Archive | Web/Tech RSS feed for this section

How Do You Measure Something As Elusive As Impact?–Interview with Andy Mercy

If you measure progress, you can improve it. But how exactly do you measure the growth of something as elusive as impact? That’s what AngelPoints, Andy Mercy’s company, does well, which is why I invited him to do a Cause Capitalism interview. Andy founded AngelPoints after stumbling into a volunteer experience at work and being underwhelmed […]

Good-Business Topics I Care About

Here are some of the areas that compel me (in some cases because my understanding is terribly weak–I’m talking to you, Measurement) that I will focus on this year: Measurement Impact (the object of measurement) is the reason I write this blog. Although I grasp the framework of measurement and evaluation, I want to better understand […]

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 […]

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, […]

How will what you want me to do change my life?

Are you letting me know why I should make a donation, sign a petition, cast a vote or buy what you’re selling?  It’s an obvious statement, but one that’s not always executed on, despite perception. Kiva.org has faciliated more than $100 million in loans in a few short years. Really outstanding, except it could be […]

Are You Leaking Impact By Missing What’s In front of You?

Are you missing the information in front of you? It’s difficult to see the flaws or weaknesses in products or landing pages that we look at every day.  It’s the curse of knowledge tag-teaming us with the curse of familiarity.  But if we don’t unglue ourselves from our expectations and think critically and creatively, it […]

Why It’s Good Business For Levi’s To Care About What You Do With Your Jeans at Home

Your next pair of Levi’s might come with a clothesline or shoebox-sized dryer.  After a recent lifecycle assessment, Levi’s realized that 60% of the climate impact of a pair of jeans comes after the jeans are made and sold; nearly 80% of this is from drying the jeans in a dryer.  The presumed and easy […]

Pamela Hawley On Founding UniversalGiving and Why She Helps Companies Have a Cause–video

In this video, shot by Lee Fox at the Social Enterprise Alliance Summit, Pamela Hawley, founder and CEO of UniversalGiving, talks about the experience that set her on her path at age twelve and how social responsibility can specifically benefit a company. Pamela Hawley founded UniversalGiving as a nonprofit social enterprise to match donors and volunteers with […]

How He Turned His 20 Years on Wall Street Into a Hub for Impact Investing –with Mike Van Patten

Michael Van Patten used to give out his entire allowance when he lived in Ecuador during high school.  This went against common practice to ignore people with their hands and pretend they weren’t there.  The poverty he saw stuck with him for years but didn’t affect the way he made a living, until recently. Click the […]

3 Lessons For Your Cause Campaign From a Man Who’s Raised $25M For Charity–With Chris Noble

Like this interview?  You can thank Chris on Twitter like this. Cause marketing is the only marketing segment that grew last year, which is good news for Chris Noble, who runs Causemedia Group.  It means that when he has an idea for a social media fundraising campaign, he can find a sponsor who’s dying to […]