Cause Marketing 2011 Golden Halo Award Winners Announced

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) May 18, 2011 - Each year, the Cause Marketing Forum honors one business and one nonprofit organization with a Cause Marketing Golden Halo Award for overall excellence in crafting programs that pay financial and social dividends.   This year’s recipients, eBay and DonorsChoose.org, will accept their Cause Marketing Golden Halo Awards at the Cause Marketing Forum Conference on June 2 in Chicago.   Each will provide attendees with insights into their success with a keynote address followed by a Q & A presentation moderated by USA Today Business Reporter Laura Petrecca.   Cause Marketing Golden Halo Award for Business: eBay eBay, the first e-commerce company to win CMF’s highest honor, is being recognized for a program launched in 2003: eBay Giving Works. Giving Works makes it convenient for people to raise money for their favorite causes on eBay through several avenues: sellers can donate a percentage of anything they sell (and get that percentage off their listing fees), buyers can add a donation to any purchase, anyone can make an immediate cash donation, and nonprofits can sell directly—with all fees waived—to raise funds.   Giving Works is an outstanding example of a cause-initiative that is deeply integrated into a company’s business processes and that generates significant business and social dividends.   For example:

• eBay buyers and sellers raised $54.8 million for nonprofits in 2010 and have generated nearly $250 million in donations since the program’s inception.

• Market research indicates the program is a boon to sellers.   On average, buyers pay 2 to 6 percent more for items that benefit charity as indicated by displaying the blue and yellow Giving Works ribbon.  

• Cause ties have attracted many new buyers and sellers to eBay over the years.

  Cause Marketing Golden Halo Award for Nonprofits: DonorsChoose.org In 2000, Bronx high school teacher Charles Best launched DonorsChoose.org to enable individuals to connect directly with classrooms in need. Public school teachers post classroom project requests (such as pencils for a poetry writing unit to microscope slides for a biology class) at DonorsChoose.org. Individual donors browse classroom needs, give any amount, and hear back from the class they helped with photographs, thank-you letters and a cost report showing how every dollar was spent.   Companies have used DonorsChoose.org gift cards to give their customers the experience of supporting classrooms in need.   Retailer Crate and Barrel, for example, has distributed more than a million gift cards to its customers and experienced growth in sales, customer engagement, and brand loyalty. DonorsChoose.org’s API (application programming interface) allows business partners to leverage the group’s online program platform to create their own cause marketing programs. The first such program, SONIC Drive-In’s Limeades for Learning, engaged teachers, students and parents to raise $1.35 million for classroom resources in communities across the country.   For leading cause marketing into the digital age, for forging creative, high-tech-, high-touch partnerships with a diverse group of corporate partners, and for helping enrich the classrooms of millions of students, the Cause Marketing Forum honors DonorsChoose.org with the 2011 Cause Marketing Halo Award for Nonprofits.   Space is available for a limited number of attendees at the Cause Marketing Forum conference on June 1 & 2 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.   For complete details, visit www.CauseMarketingForum.com/CMF11