Cause Marketing/Corporate Partnerships

There are ever-growing marriages between group coupons and U.S. charities.

Promoters argue these are "win-win-win situations"-- for the consumer, the advertised business and the charity. But nonprofit leaders warn consumers to do some digging before donating, Some coupon sites donate little. Others much more.

After a somewhat contentious holiday season, Giant Food and the Salvation Army National Capital Area Command are looking to make amends. Giant has presented the Salvation Army with a $75,000 check in recognition of the grocery chain's 75th anniversary in business in the Washington area.

The supermarket chain came under some criticism from many of its customers during the holidays because of a policy change regarding solicitations outside its stores.

Margaret McKenna leads the Walmart Foundation, a perch that gives her one of the biggest jobs in US philanthropy, running the charitable efforts of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

McKenna directs a half-billion dollars a year in giving, focusing on hunger and education. While she tackles issues close to her heart, she has also become an ambassador for the world’s most powerful retail machine, helping to burnish its image and lay the groundwork for its push into urban markets.

Xerox Corp. today announced it will grant fully-paid leaves of absence for seven employees in 2011 to assist community organizations.  As part of the company’s Social Service Leave program, the employees will use their professional skills and expertise to work full-time for non-profits in their communities.   

Oxfam and PayPal have joined forces to launch 100% giving, a groundbreaking new partnership that sees PayPal paying for the running costs on every donation made to the charity in February via oxfam.org.uk/giving. This means that for the first time ever, a UK charity is offering a donation scheme through which 100% of every donation is guaranteed to go directly to the cause.

The initiative follows a new Oxfam report showing that people are often deterred from giving because part of their donation usually goes towards the charity's running costs.

Goodwill, in collaboration with eBay Giving Works, eBay's charity fundraising program, launched a fundraising campaign that focuses on helping people find and keep jobs. From Feb. 7 to 13, Goodwill will be a featured nonprofit on eBay, offering everyone the opportunity to buy, sell or donate to support Goodwill's job training programs. Dress for Success and the National Federation of the Blind will also be featured in February as part of the same campaign.

In 2004, Larry Page, one of its founders, excited the nonprofit world with a bold commitment to philanthropy. He vowed to dedicate about 1 percent of Google’s profits, 1 percent of its equity and a significant amount of its employees’ time to the effort, which became known as Google.org, or DotOrg.

However, the hyperbole looks more like hubris. DotOrg has narrowed to just one octave on the piano: engineering-related projects that often are the outgrowth of existing Google products.

A partnership between Delivery.com, an online service for food and other supplies, and City Harvest, an antihunger organization in New York, is allowing people to make gifts that help feed more than 300,000 people each week.

Delivery.com customers have two ways to support City Harvest: They can donate “points”  — Delivery.com customers receive 25 points per $1: A typical exchange is 10,000 points for $5 worth of donations. Or anybody — not just customers — can give by ordering from City Harvest’s Delivery.com “menu” page.

PepsiCo Inc. is revamping a charitable-giving program created to boost its corporate image and sales of its flagship cola but marred by complaints of vote-rigging and other irregularities — with several changes geared toward steering more of the prize money toward community and grass-roots organizations.

With a promise of $20 million in donations for "refreshing ideas that change the world," Pepsi's Refresh Project drew rabid competition for the prize money—perhaps too rabid.

The Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company Foundation today announced the launch of a two-year, $3 million (USD) school health partnership with Save the Children.  The initiative will be activated in six countries across the world, aimed at improving the health and nutrition of more than 273,000 school-age children in disadvantaged communities. The school-based programs will be implemented in China, Kenya, the Philippines, Tajikistan, Vietnam and Indonesia at a grass-roots level.