Cause Marketing/Corporate Partnerships

eBay launched a new landing page, eBay.com/celebrity, calling it a "unique shopping destination that combines celebrity experiences, memorabilia and merchandise with philanthropic causes." The page aggregates celebrity content, charity auctions, and the breadth and selection of related products unique to eBay.

eBay Celebrity will offer exclusive charity auction items for consumers to get up close and personal with their favorite celebrities through the purchase of one-of-a-kind merchandise, concert tickets, and meet and greet opportunities.

Nov. 3, nonprofit, corporate and government leaders gather to mark a milestone for A Billion + Change — a national campaign by the Corporation for National and Community Service to mobilize billions of dollars in skills-based and pro bono volunteer services to nonprofit organizations — to celebrate the more than 50 companies that have pledged over $1 billion in service to nonprofits and encourage companies to join the campaign.

Wells Fargo & Co. announced that its team members donated a record $41.6 million to more than 28,000 nonprofits and schools as part of the company’s annual Community Support and United Way Campaign. All donations were funded personally by team members.

In addition to a 13 percent year-over-year increase in donations, the one-month campaign also resulted in 122,000 volunteer hours contributed by team members to a variety of nonprofits and other causes in local communities across the country.

In spite of the economy, two-thirds of America’s leading nonprofits engaged in cause marketing expect to form more business alliances in 2012, a survey by the Cause Marketing Forum reveals.

Of the nine past nonprofit winners of CMF’s highest honor, the Cause Marketing Golden Halo Award, 67 percent expect to be involved in more cause marketing campaigns in 2012, the CMF survey revealed. Twenty-two percent expect to field the same number of corporate partner programs in 2012 that they did this year.

Toshiba Corp. announced a plan to roll out a national technology makeover contest that will benefit U.S. nonprofit charity organizations with a grand prize donation valued at up to $100,000. Toshiba Helping the Helpers, officially launching on Oct. 22 to coincide with USA WEEKEND's Make A Difference Day and organized by  Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc., is a national technology makeover campaign working in conjunction with other participating Toshiba U.S. companies to select five deserving nonprofit charity organizations with a valid 501(c)3 status.

Gividend Inc., a Seattle-based company offering online donation and fundraising tools for nonprofits, has entered the daily deals industry with Gividend.com, a daily deals aggregator that allows people to support the local nonprofit of their choice with each purchase.

Gividend.com is organized in a way that helps people find the most relevant deals for their lifestyle and automatically donates a percentage of each purchase to community causes. Gividend partners with daily deals sites including Groupon, BuyWithMe and Tippr to offer each company’s daily deals in one convenient location.

A new park called Planters Grove, which opened on Monday in a public housing development in New York City, has an unmistakably peanut-inspired design, an effect created by the studied placement of poles amid beds of sage, rosemary and thyme.

In an offbeat act of corporate philanthropy, and self-promotion, Planters, the snack nut brand owned by Kraft Foods, developed and paid for the new park at the Lillian Wald Houses, a 16-building complex on Avenue D.

Starbucks Corp. CEO Howard Schultz, decrying a lack of leadership in Washington, said his chain of coffee shops is helping to launch a nationwide fund designed to stimulate U.S. job creation.

Starbucks introduced on Monday the "Create Jobs for USA" fund in partnership with Opportunity Finance Network (OFN), a group of private financial institutions that provide affordable loans to low-income people and communities.

MasterCard Worldwide announced that the company has reached its goal of raising $4 million for Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) through the Eat, Drink and Be Generous campaign. Through the program, which launched during the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in July, MasterCard made a donation to SU2C every time cardholders used their MasterCards when dining out. Qualifying purchases included everything from a single cup of coffee or quick meal, to take out and fine dining.

In grassroots programs involving tens of thousands of participants around the globe, called the Sport for Development and Peace movement, visionaries are using athletics to tackle the most pressing problems of the developing world — from AIDS in Africa to violence in Rio. Can such projects make a lasting difference, or is the dream of salvation through sports too grandiose? Sports Illustrated senior writer Alexander Wolff set off on a yearlong journey to find the answer.