The Context I made my home on a 3.4 square-mile atoll for a year while I volunteered as a teacher and newspaper editor. On many parts of Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, a 120-degree swivel of my head would provide a view of the lagoon and the ocean. The beginning of this story […]
Green Mountain Coffee’s ‘Organic’ Sustainability Evolution–with Mike Dupee
This was one of the most educational interviews I’ve done. Mike is able to admit when he’s wrong, to explain the internal motivations and strategy behind his company’s social responsibility programs and to go beyond corporate sound bites. Click the player to listen to our conversation. Prefer MP3? Right-click and download. [Audio clip: view full post to […]
Choose Your Own Cause-Marketing Ending
To build brand awareness and identity, the Close But No Cigar company is interested in creating several cause-based community events. Close But No Cigar (CBNC) brings in an expert to ask what cause it should support. Based on the company’s response to several questions, the idea man returns with several areas that the company might […]
Coke’s Sticky Situation Is a Warning Not To Market Sustainability You Don’t Have
On a wall in Honest Tea’s office is a Chinese proverb that cautions Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the people doing it. It’s a prescient warning given the story I’m about to tell, but the lesson I want to highlight is that when you invest in sustainability as an image […]
6 Tools and 4 Words To Measure Your Company’s Social ROI
What gets measured gets valued (as well as improved upon). Tracking and evaluating the social return on investment (SROI) is today’s Plastics. It’s the future of sustainability–nay–the future of business. Period. While stakeholder demand for sustainability and the impact of companies’ actions grows, evaluation methodologies and criteria still resemble the Wild West. There’s no standard metric and […]
How Timberland Engages Diversified Stakeholders–with Beth Holzman
Click the player to listen to our conversation. Prefer MP3? [Audio clip: view full post to listen] With a deep background in sustainability and corporate accountability, Beth Holzman brings an appreciation for impact evaluation and stakeholder involvement to Timberland as the company’s CSR Strategy and Reporting Manager. I invited Beth to Cause Capitalism to talk about […]
How Catchafire Is Changing the Way You Volunteer–with Rachael Chong
Click the player to listen to our conversation or right-click and save for the MP3. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Rachael Chong thought it was inevitable that someone would create a platform that matched professionals to skills-based volunteer opportunities. As an investment banker, she realized there were better better ways for her to […]
Want to Change the World? Read This First
I’ve read a string of great books lately, parts of which occasionally flash into my consciousness, but none has made the same impression as Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. It’s the self-told story of John Wood’s departure from Microsoft to create libraries at first, then classrooms, then schools and finally scholarships in Southeast Asia and […]
Two Questions You Need To Answer Before Choosing a Structure For Your Social Enterprise–with Brian Howe
How much control of your company are you willing to give up in exchange for funds? is a question that all investment-seeking entrepreneurs need to answer. Social entrepreneurs are confronted with another key question that impacts how they want to set legally establish their organization: How important is profit versus mission? With these two questions […]
The Private Side of Sustainability Is Sexy Too: Engaging CEOs in More Than Just Sustainable Window Dressing
There seems to be a problem. An influential group of global CEOs list brand, trust and reputation as their “primary considerations for acting on sustainability.” Motivators like revenue growth and cost reduction, consumer demand, employee engagement and retention and personal motivation lagged significantly behind. Many CEOs seem to have reversed cause and effect. Brand trust […]
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. Email me.
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