Don Miller‘s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life (Amazon affiliate link) is one of those books that will change your entire outlook on life if you let it.  I first heard of this book from Chris Brogan and then purchased it when it practically fell on my head while walking through Powell’s one afternoon.  I was riveted.

Don’s style is so poignant that you’re sucked into this book almost from the first page.  It’s sold under the “Spirituality” section and while I typically don’t like this heading in a bookstore, it’s an appropriate classification for this book.  No religious overtones being shoved down your throat, but Don’s faith is solid.

I typically only list books on my site that I’d buy and give to others.  This book is certainly one of them.

Estrella Rosenberg wrote a deeply personal and important post on domestic violence this week.  May this be a reminder to all of us that chances are good someone we know suffers from this type of terrifying situation.  Awareness is everything.

Blackbaud released a new study on charitable giving.  A few surprises in the area of social media.

Joe Waters started an excellent discussion of strategy versus tactics and gave us some neat ideas through the A.C. Moore/Easter Seals partnership.

Elaine Cohen did a great piece on The Changing Face of Corporate Philanthropy.  The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy had their annual conference in early June.  Sounding a lot more like cause-related marketing than philanthropy!

Slate had a nice piece addressing the question of why an individual should give through a company versus writing a check.  Featuring the AmEx Members Program.

I did a post on One Slippery Slope of Cause Marketing – still looking for others.  Have a few more in my head but want to hear your thoughts!

We learned about amazing small businesses and 5th graders that are pitching in to help in the oil spill tragedy.

We got another CMF10 write up from Chris Mann at Cone.

Business Week came out with their list of most promising social entrepreneurs.  Love them all!

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet throw down the gauntlet to their fellow billionaires – you can’t take it with you…do something good!

Ridiculous OpEd in Forbes about how CSR costs enormously with zero benefit.  Ick.  Ick. Ick.

My personal favorite non-cause-related story.  Insect art via PHEROMONE.  Way cool.

Image credit to malabooboo.

Cause Marketing Forum Wrap-Ups

So many great wrap-ups from the Cause Marketing Forum Conference last week.

3BL Media (one of my new faves) tirelessly captured featured presenters on video.  If you haven’t watched, do, they’re worth your time.

Joe Waters had 2 great posts.  His first, a Review of Cause Marketing Forum Conference.  The second, Raising Cause Marketing, more of a lessons learned and internalized.

And if you love Joe Waters, you MUST see this video of Chris Noble channeling Joe Waters.

The Komen saga continued with the Finger Lickin’ Failure post from Estrella Rosenberg and one from yours truly, Komen Strives for Market Domination.  Comments abounded.

Bob Gilbreath did a nice overview of his takeaways and programs that caught his attention.

My other post was Cause Marketing 2.0 – Where Do We Go From Here?

Sustainable Brands 2010 Conference

Another conference to watch.  Just one review I’ve seen so far and will look forward to others next week.

In the Gulf

We’re starting to hear more reports of donations coming in to benefit the Gulf Oil Spill. If you haven’t seen it yet, the Colbert Report got Bing to donate $100,000 in product mentions – good for a laugh for sure.

Chris MacDonald did a great post entitled Boycotting BP is Futile and Unethical.  While not cause marketing, per se, it does illuminate how complicated these issues can be.

Facebook Gets Smart

Rumors were confirmed this week that Facebook will partner with the PTA to address child privacy issues.  Now that’s a cause campaign worth watching!

In Other News

Fenton Released their 2010 NonProfit Forecast with some interesting stats.

MIT/Sloan did an outstanding article entitled the The Change Leadership Sustainability Demands.  Long but worth it!

What did I miss?!?

Image credit to Daniel Dionne.

Cone’s business model centers around the principle of “Shared Responsibility” and this 2010 Shared Responsibility Study provides some new and useful data for companies taking a serious look at their brand reputation and the trend in consumer expectations.

The sub-head is, “Three-quarters of Americans give companies a ‘C’ or below on how they’re engaging consumers around key issues.” and goes on to list a range of consumer expectations as well as suggested ways for companies to address these areas.

Click on the link within the media release to enter your email to download the full study.

Edelman is the world’s largest public relations firm and has been conducting a trust and credibility survey of college-educated consumers for 10 years.  In this most recent survey, we learn that consumers are shifting priorities from “shareholder” to “stakeholder”, place more trust in NGO’s than in CEOs and that traditional media is losing ground in terms of credibility and trust.  A must-read for “proof” that authenticity and trust are becoming paramount in the minds of today’s consumers.   Click here to access the full report…

BOSTON (March 10, 2010) – More than three-quarters (78%) of Americans believe a partnership between a nonprofit and a company they trust makes a cause stand out, according to the newly released 2010 Cone Nonprofit Marketing Trend Tracker.

When the cause breaks through, consumers are more likely to feel positively about the nonprofit (56%) and actively support it. As a result of nonprofit-corporate partnerships:

• 59% of Americans are more likely to buy a product associated with the partnership;
• 50% are more likely to donate to the nonprofit;
• 49% are more likely to participate in an event for the nonprofit; and
• 41% are more likely to volunteer for the nonprofit.

Read more from the Cone Survey

From MIT’s Sloan School of Business, in cooperation with the Boston Consulting Group, comes this “The Business of Sustainability” report.  What are today’s companies doing in the sustainability realm?  Is sustainability a passing fad or a new way of doing business?  What are the barriers to implementing sustainability practices and initiatives?  These questions and more are answered in this comprehensive survey of over 2,000 respondents including sustainability thought leaders and business experts.  Read more here….

When I stumbled across Levi’s Care to Air campaign, little did I know just how deep their commitment to sustainability actually ran.  I did a post on Levi’s but CEO John Anderson’s speech at UC Berkeley is a must-read for any brand who is looking for a role model.

You may know your “What”, you may even know your “How”, but do you know your “Why”?

If you’re into videos, check out Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” message from Tedx Puget Sound.  It may change your life as it has changed mine.  I highly, highly recommend watching this brief video by clicking here…

John Wall of Marketing Profs interviews Simon Sinek in this great podcast interview.  If you haven’t heard about the “Why” movement, you must, particularly if you’re a marketer or…a human being.  Listen to the podcast here…

And, of course, you can find Simon Sinek online or buy the book Start With Why (Amazon Affiliate Link).

It won’t take you long to find Joe Waters and his great blog posts and Tweets regarding Cause Marketing.  He’s the Director of Cause Marketing for Boston Medical Center and his website is full of great information.  He also has a cause marketing online webinar class called 6-Figure Cause Marketing that I haven’t taken (yet) but will soon.

I’ve read a handful of Seth Godin‘s books but none have touched me as deeply as Linchpin (Amazon Affiliate Link).  You can read my review of his book here.  I purchased 10 of these books just to hand out to people I cared about.  I find myself referring to it often as I continue to formulate my own opinions.  If you haven’t read it, please do!