Slovenian philosopher and theorist Slavoj Žižek swings a sledge hammer at the knees of ‘cultural capitalism’ in this 10-minute video. And I admit, my knees buckled for some moments as I listened to his critique of Starbucks for its fair trade coffee, of philanthropist George Soros and of ‘charity businesses’ like TOMS Shoes.

Žižek argues that cultural capitalism (i.e., cause marketing, point-of-sale donations, fair trade and buy-one-give-one) is innocuous and naive. That this type of charitable giving leads both companies and consumers to undeservedly feel they’ve done something useful. That if we all truly cared, we would focus on system changes to eradicate poverty and leave our African-made recycled shopping bags at home.

Scandal in-the-making, customer-pleaser, tax write-off, nonprofit cash cow or game-changer?  Which hyphenated phrase will best describe Nordstrom’s new concept store, which will donate all net profits to charity?

I was interviewed recently by American Public Media’s Marketplace on the Nordstrom concept store, set to open in Soho next fall, and on the growing appeal of retail philanthropy. A recent study from Cone found that 83% of consumers “want more of the products, services and retailers they use to benefit causes.” Seems Nordstrom read the report. But I hope they studied it because the concept is rife with potential, public sand traps. Little information has been released (or decided), but here’s what we do know from Nordstrom spokeswoman Pamela Lopez:  The store won’t have Nordstrom’s name on it, use its shopping bags or take Nordstrom credit cards, but will function as a wholly owned subsidiary.  The concept is based on the retailer’s “general spirit of philanthropy.” Nordstrom hasn’t yet identified how it will pick its nonprofit partners or solidified a merchandising strategy. If I were leading this initiative for Nordstrom, here are 10 guidelines I’d follow:

Sure, Americans love their mobile phones and use them handily, but there’s still stunted confidence for mobile financial transactions, whether it’s a payment or a donation. Part of the reticence comes from the clumsiness of many mobile commerce and mobile giving sites and part of it’s a lack of incentives.

Benevity Social Ventures and Obopay recently launched a text-to-donate service that aims to simplify and incentivize mobile giving. Software company Benevity (I’ve profiled iStock Photo’s use of the Benevity platform to power micro-donations) partnered with mobile payment provider Obopay to create a service with enough incentives that it might create the tipping point.

Here’s the potential for companies:

Does a history of progressive social and environmental responsibility compensate for recent environmental abuse?

Green Mountain Coffee is staring into the face of this question now with criticism of its environmentally noxious single-use coffee pods that work with its Keurig brewing system.  Last year, more than 80% of Green Mountain’s $803 million in sales came from the nonrecyclable, nonbiodegradable coffee pods.  A New York Times article says this year the company “expects to sell nearly three billion K-Cups, the plastic and tinfoil pods that are made to be thrown away — filter, grounds and all — after one use.”

Since its founding in 1981, Green Mountain Coffee has practiced progressive sustainability. It offsets 100% of direct greenhouse gas emissions, contributes 5% of pre-tax profits to nonprofits, runs a biodiesel fueling station and developed a hot-beverage cup with a compostable lining. I regret that I didn’t cover this when I interviewed Mike Dupee, Green Mountain Coffee’s vice president of CSR because I think he would have given it a fair shake.

This brings up several questions:

I’m not the first to make the case that crowdsourced social good contests should retreat quickly into the night.

• They’re inefficient at creating change;
• Their current popularity has diminished the value they bring to companies and brands;
• Consumers are fed up with them (how many vote-for-me solicitations do you get a week that make you feel more like a brand pusher than a change agent?); and
• For the money and hoopla they involve, they should accomplish more than marketing the company and channeling money to (often unvetted and under-qualified) projects.

Whether you agree or not, the next question is, What’s the alternative?

First, it’s helpful to understand what these contests do offer. They’re big and loud. They attract participants, voters, supporters, media and millions of tweets, blogs and Facebook likes. Through this lens, they do provide bang for their buck.  And they only require what many companies excel at–assembling the resources to design and run a colorful marketing campaign and to write checks to the winners. Deep-root partnerships, familiarization with target communities and evaluation and reporting on the awarded funds aren’t required.

So the new question becomes What’s an alternative that can offer companies the same level of virality and visibility without skimping on substance?

Looking for an alternative campaign format is too myopic. Instead, companies should look at a broader level of engagement that supports social responsibility as a business (not just a marketing) strategy.  Admittedly, this sounds obvious, but how can companies do this and still get their marketing kick?

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.

You have your board.  Now what?

I wrote before about when and how to assemble your advisory board.  If you already have an advisory board though, what can you realistically expect from the people who comprise it and how do you best leverage their skills and commitment?

The first part–what you can realistically expect from your advisors–should be agreed on before they commit. I spoke with one enterprenenur who realized in hindsight the criticality of setting up specific expectations. Focused on the visible, tangible parts of her company, she didn’t think about how to use the advisors she’d spent time recruiting. Lay out as specifically as you can what you need or expect from each advisor:  Can they commit X amount of hours every month or quarter? What are they willing to do (introductions they can make, projects they can spearhead)? What aren’t they willing to do due to potential conflicts of interest or time limitations?  Ask about even the small details like the time of day or day of the week they prefer to be called.

Once your advisors are on board and ready to be of service, communicate regularly with them, follow through on your stated commitments, hold them to what they’ve committed and express appreciation for their time and effort.

If your company consistently runs social responsibility programs, but you doesn’t take the time or have the confidence in its programs to make sure I know about them, it’s doing me and itself a disservice.

Like Walgreens or Rite Aid, CVS is a national pharmacy chain. There’s no visible differentiation between it and its competitors. Maybe the aisles are cleaner and the coupons better, but maybe not.

I don’t see a reason to choose CVS over another drugstore because CVS isn’t giving me a reason—but it has one.  The company has strong social responsibility programs (health education and management, children, employee home ownership programs and the environment), but they exist only as tangential programs rather than being integrated into an overall social mission. This is the traditional, wilting approach of corporate social responsibility. By not integrating its programs into an overall social mission CVS is loosing out in four main ways:

I used to consult with nonprofits as part of a firm. What I’m about to write comes from my observations doing this work.

We can do more good and do it more quickly with a for-profit model.

Nonprofits aren’t bad, their model just has some flaws. A nonprofit has two tasks: to serve its cause or constituents and to raise money. A for-profit’s only task is to satisfy its stakeholders. The by-product of doing this well is making money.

A nonprofit doesn’t get to the ‘good’ fast enough. There’s a lot of preparation to get started on fighting the cause or delivering services. Nonprofits paid our firm to tell them how and where to raise money. They paid us to do the research and write the proposals. But they weren’t off the hook for time. They still needed to spend time with us on their programs, budgets and contacts. They still needed to woo grant-makers, find new ways to grab donors’ attention and write follow-up reports. All this time took them away from their mission and the cause they were fighting.

Think of a guy who decides to take up running. He spends the first weekend researching and shopping for running shoes. The second weekend buying running shorts, the third weekend mapping the perfect route. On the fourth weekend he goes (but only if it doesn’t rain). That’s how I see the nonprofit survival model.

Compare this to the guy who decides to take up running. He grabs the closest pair of shorts that he probably slept in, laces up the shoes he has lying around and walks out his front door. He’ll move his legs like runners do and figure the rest out from there. That’s how I see for-profit start-ups. Able to get to the mission quickly and willing to course correct along the way.

Once you understand that a social mission is an incredible asset for your business your first question is usually “Where do I start?” Many of the pieces I write focus on what an entrepreneur or CEO should consider when building a social mission. But if you are an employee looking to implement from within, your first question might be “How do I convince my boss?”

Before tactics, I want to share a story you can cue for inspiration as you sit across from your boss and share your vision of a stronger company. A sales director named Joyce LaValle left a copy of Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce on her CEO’s desk, which led to a complete transformation of the company, as well as the industrial carpet industry. Joyce’s daughter encouraged her mom to get the book into Interface CEO Ray Anderson’s hands. After several attempts, it landed–ultimately leading to Interface’s pledge of zero waste by 2020. This was 1994 when Ray was struggling to address his organization’s environmental policies. Carpet manufacturers were criminal polluters and resource hogs. Today, Interface is well on the way toward its goal and has eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in waste, as well as increased sales by more than $1 billion. Sixteen years later, Joyce heads the marketing for InterfaceFLOR and continues to be tapped for inspiration by people like you and me.