Cause Marketing

SAN JOSE, CA, May 26, 2009 — Sharing can turn good ideas into great ones and Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) wants to help make that happen. Cisco invites global participation in an innovation contest and is asking people to visit a new idea-sharing website to share an idea, rate an idea, or add to an idea already on the site, which will trigger a donation to Teachers Without Borders through the Cisco WebEx Pass the Ball program. A year of free Cisco WebEx(TM) services will be awarded to the owners of the top-rated ideas, to help them collaborate to develop those ideas.

PHILADELPHIA, May 26, 2009 — Law firm Anapol, Schwartz, Weiss, Cohan, Feldman & Smalley, P.C., is asking you to cast your vote at AnapolSchwartz.com/causes for one of four charities it supports through The Anapol Schwartz Foundation (ASF).

NEW YORK, May 22, 2009 — BTIG LLC, an institutional broker dealer specializing in trading and related brokerage services, today announced that it will donate more than $3 million raised during its 7th Commissions for Charity Day to a host of children's charities, including The Michael J. Fox Foundation, The Eli Manning Pediatrics Fund, A Little Hope, Autism Speaks and Jacobs Cure.

May 20, 2009, Business Week — In this enlightened day and age, whether times are good or bad, companies must be socially responsible. That's a given. But tough economic conditions underscore a blunt reality. A company's foremost responsibility is to do well. That may sound politically incorrect, but the reason is inexorable. Winning companies create jobs, pay taxes, and strengthen the economy. Winning companies, in other words, enable social responsibility, not the other way around. And so, right now—as always—companies should be putting profitability first. It's the necessity that makes every other necessity possible.

CHICAGO, May 21, 2009 — Safeway (NYSE: SWY) captures Easter Seals highest honor after raising a record $10.2 million for the organizations' services for children and adults with autism and other disabilities in 2009 alone and by exceeding the $100 million milestone for lifetime contributions. The national nonprofit recently designated Safeway its "All-Time Top Corporate Partner" during an awards ceremony recognizing Easter Seals' entire family of corporate partners.

ROCKFORD, Mich., May 14, 2009 — In an era when wired, indoor lifestyles threaten to consume natural outside inclinations, Merrell and the National Park Foundation (NPF) have partnered to get more people living active and outdoor lives. A long-term agreement, formalized today, represents a unique and synergized partnership between Merrell and the NPF that will work to make the National Parks more visible and invite more people to get outside and enjoy these natural resources. Merrell's involvement will include a wide variety of events at both the national and grassroots levels, partnership at local Merrell stores, special promotions and giveaways, and other broad outreach initiatives that will raise awareness of the parks and all that they have to offer.

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 13, 2009 — President Bill Clinton today joined the chief executives of The Coca-Cola Company and Archer Daniels Midland Company in a forum hosted by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and the Brookings Institution on creating value for business and society.

PHILADELPHIA, May 15, 2009 — Cozen O’Connor was recently honored for top charitable contributions in all four award categories at the Philadelphia Business Journal's annual Corporate Philanthropy Summit. The firm’s activities were recognized in the large company category.

LONDON AND SAN FRANCISCO, May 14, 2009, The Economist — In June Gap, a big retailer based in San Francisco, will hold a strategy meeting for its corporate social responsibility (CSR) team. In previous years that meant flying in people from 20 countries around the world. But this time the company plans to bring them together virtually, via online meetings. The main reason for the switch is not to help save the planet by reducing Gap’s carbon footprint, but to help save money. “Everyone’s looking to become more efficient,” explains Dan Henkle, who leads the company’s CSR activities.

New York, NY, May 11, 2009 — Charitable giving by the nation's nearly 2,500 corporate foundations remained virtually unchanged in 2008, according to the Foundation Center's Key Facts on Corporate Foundations, an annual report on corporate foundation giving released today. Giving totaled an estimated $4.4 billion last year.