Change Round-Up - Give a little. Help a lot.

Bamboosa Announces Expansion

2009-01-23T11:47:00-08:00

Change Round-Up would like to congratulate one of the first retailers to use our service. Bamboosa is a great (and growing) online seller of bamboo clothing. They also have a great team and understand the importance of being a good corporate citizen. Please join us in congratulating Bamboosa. (and be sure to check out their BambooBaby line – Each item is adorable, comfy and eco-friendly)

By Morning News Staff Reports
Published: January 23, 2009

Bamboosa will expand its operations in Williamsburg County, the S.C. Department of Commerce announced Friday. The $500,000 investment is expected to create 31 jobs at Bamboosa's facility in Andrews, where the company was founded.

"The company appreciates all of the assistance and help from Williamsburg County and is looking forward to help generate new jobs for the community," Morris Saintsing, co-owner and manager of sales and operations for Bamboosa, said in a S.C. Department of Commerce press release.

The expansion will allow the company to develop and add new product lines as well as increase capacity. The company already produces several clothing lines, including a line of baby apparel.

"We are simply delighted of Bamboosa expanding their company in our region of South Carolina. This is a major economic announcement for job creation and capital investment," state Sen. Yancey McGill of Kingstree said in the release.

Bamboosa, founded in early 2005 and based in Andrews, creates and sells clothing made from bamboo fibers blended with organic cotton. Along with a range of adult clothing, the company also offers baby apparel and products under the BambooBaby brand.

"The expansion of Bamboosa is exciting news for Williamsburg County. Their additional investment and creation of new jobs will benefit our county and its citizens," We wish continued growth for the company and thank them for being part of our industrial community," Williamsburg County supervisor and chairman of Williamsburg County Council Stanley S. Pasley said in the release.

"It's always great to see a South Carolina company grow and Bamboosa's growth in our state is a positive reflection of the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit that exists among the state's work force and small business owners," state Secretary of Commerce Joe Taylor said in the release.

For more information about Bamboosa, visit the company's Web site, http://www.bamboosa.com.

Sparing Change for Change

2009-01-22T19:47:00-08:00

With the economic crunch affecting all areas and aspects of life these days, money is much harder to come by in all sectors. Naturally, this can hit the non-profit sector just as hard as it is challenging business both large small all over the country and around the world. Just because things have slowed down, however, doesn't mean that things have come to a stand-still. There are still people out there spending money—especially online. Calling vendors and consumers to action regarding Change Round-Up is still as important as ever.

It's Fast - Often when people are looking to give money to charitable organizations, it is a decision that they have taken time to consider. Other times, they are answering a call to action. With Change Round-Up, donating is quick and painless; the donations are simply added to the total and the transaction is complete with a couple extra clicks of the mouse.

It's Easy - With no extensive forms to fill out or recurring withdrawals to set up, people like the ease of use offered by Change Round-Up. Prices are easy to calculate and the amount of change donated is not excessive. Customers of online business like the fact that making a donation is simple and online vendors like to be able to help customers make donations when they make their purchases.

Low Pressure - Sometime people feel guilty about not being able to give or perhaps shy about giving less than a recommended donation. Change Round-Up eliminates these issues because of the nature of online transactions. Consumers can either choose to donate or not. There is no pressure to have to give money to any particular charity. Additionally, since the donation amount is less than a dollar, people can feel like they are contributing something rather than nothing at all. Over time, this change adds up significantly.

Positive Image - Whether a customer is a repeat shopper or new to a company's online business, using Change Round-Up benefits both parties of the transaction. By allowing customers to make donations, the business shows that it is willing to do its part to help out over time. Customers feel good about having the ability to make donations as they see fit and know that the people they are spending their money with are concerned about helping various causes.

While money may be a little tight these days, there is always a way to spare a little change. Using Change Round-Up is one way to help causes that still need to generate money, regardless of the economic situation.

By-line: This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject of online schools for bachelor degrees. She invites your feedback at hollymccarthy12 at gmail dot com

Another reason to hang up on telemarketers.

2008-12-31T08:16:00-08:00

Articles like the one I read today in the New York Times make me nauseous.

I understand that fundraising costs money (we charge a fee of 10-14% of donations ourselves) but in many cases the telemarketing industry has done a horrible job of reducing costs to charities. We are obviously biased because we offer charities an alternative way to raise donations and I'm not condemning all telemarketers, but there are certainly a large number of them that should be ashamed of the numbers in this article and the New York State 'Pennies for Charity' report.

The flip-side: It is easy to vilify telemarketers for ugly results and high cost percentages. However, charities need to accept much of the blame as well. It takes two to tango. Data like this has been available for years. Charities should know what they are getting into when they agree to work with telemarketers. When considering a telemarketing campaign, charities are faced with a difficult decision. 'Would we prefer to get only 30% of donations, or no donations at all?' As the economy worsens and the pundits are predicting nothing but doom and gloom, more charities may make the decision to use telemarketing to supplement donations. This can be a short term solution that has consequences down the road as donors become disillusioned with charities that are willing to divert such a large percentage of donations to fundraising costs.

Telemarketers Take Hefty Share of Charity Dollars, Cuomo Says
By SEWELL CHAN
Published: December 30, 2008

On average, just 39 cents of every dollar raised by commercial telemarketing companies for charities in New York State actually go to charity, the state attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, concluded in a report issued on Tuesday. The balance, he found, is used to pay fees and expenses associated with professional fund-raising.

The report, issued by the attorney general's Charities Bureau, which oversees tax-exempt nonprofit agencies in New York, is intended to "help New Yorkers to make more informed decisions when giving to charities across the state," Mr. Cuomo said.
The report examined 553 fund-raising campaigns that were conducted in 2007 on behalf of 442 charities using telemarketers. The campaigns raised a total of $178.7 million. About 60.5 percent of the total, $108.2 million, was paid to the telemarketers as fees and other costs of the campaigns, leaving charities with less than 40 percent of the money actually raised for their causes.

"Especially in today's economy, when New Yorkers give their hard-earned money to charity, they expect the donation to make a difference and to help those in need," Mr. Cuomo said. "This report arms New Yorkers with the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions about contributing, and also encourages charities across the state to find more effective ways to raise money."

The report, "Pennies for Charity, Where Your Money Goes: Telemarketing by Professional Fund Raisers," summarized information filed with the Charities Bureau by professional fund-raisers who conducted telemarketing campaigns in 2007. Among the report's most significant findings:

In nearly four-fifths of the campaigns, 436 of the553, the charities kept less than 50 percent of the funds raised.
In nearly half, 271, charities received less than 30 percent of the funds raised.
In nearly one-tenth, 51, the charities actually lost money.
In only 45 of the 553 campaigns did the charity keep at least 65 percent of the money raised, the amount deemed acceptable under the Better Business Bureau's standards for charitable organizations.

Permalink to article

Blog Action Day

2008-10-15T06:35:00-07:00

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

"I wish I had a louder megaphone to support this company. Cuz this makes me smile."

2008-10-01T14:09:00-07:00

The following blog post appeared on the blog "The Oldest Living Digital Marketer Tells All" by Jim Nichols - Partner, Catalyst:SF Click here to visit his blog.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Change Round Up: Proof Positive That Every Little Helps!

One certainty in my world view is that people mean well. They may not always actually do well, but most people try to be a positive force for change in the world.

Giving to nonprofits is a powerful way that people try to make their positive mark. But lots of people give less than they might actually want to because they might not be able to afford a donation that they feel matters, or they may just not get around to it in their lives of work, schlepping kids to t-ball, and the like.

Change Round Up is a phenomenal concept that connects nonprofits and retailers in a collective effort to get billions of small donations from consumers -- donations they can afford and are very happy to provide.

It works like this. You're buying something, and the bill is 43.11. The web site asks you if you would like to round up the change to the nearest dollar and give the difference -- 89 cents in this case -- to one of the charities that the retailer chooses to offer as options. According to their info, Change Round Up sees donation attach rates of up to 70%.

But what good is 89 cents??? Well, actually the donation is 80.1 cents because Change Round Up charges a 10% fee to run their systems, pay their people, and make a little dough. Well, 80.1 cents doesn't buy much, but millions or even billions of 80 cent donations add up to real money.

My Keep the Change Savings account with B of A is proof positive. I've had it for about three years and have something like $2K as a result of rounding up bills and saving the difference.

Here's their Tech Crunch 60 second pitch:

As you heard, their vision is not for just online retailers. In fact they hope to expand their model to catalogers and other categories of the hundreds of billions of transactions in the US every year.

The retailer wins with a warm and fuzzy factor.
The consumer winds because they get to give in a way that works for many people's lives.
The nonprofits win by growing new revenues and beginning to form relationships with new donors.

And Change Round Up makes a good profit with an eminently reasonable 10% cut. For perspective, 10% is a LOT less than it costs to raise money -- even in major gift programs.

I wish I had a louder megaphone to support this company. Cuz this makes me smile.

Pink-Link

2008-09-09T13:33:00-07:00

We are honored to welcome a new organization into our network. Pink-Link is a beautiful site that provides a support network for those dealing with breast cancer. The following description is on their homepage and does a fantastic job of describing what Pink-Link is all about…

"Cancer is a club you didn't ask to join. But it happens, and in one diagnosis, the earth beneath your feet shifted.
When you join Pink-Link (it's free!), you are instantly linked to a network of fellow survivors, family members, medical pros and others who, in essence, become your "pen pals" via our website. 24/7, we are here for each other. Ask questions, share experiences, dig for information, give a resource, help each other through rough spots"

Pink-Link supports women currently being treated for Breast cancer, Breast cancer survivors who have completed their treatment, friends and family of breast cancer patients and survivors as well as the Breast cancer medical community.

Please join us in welcoming Pink-Link. Visit www.Pink-Link.org to learn more.

TechCrunch Elevator Pitches

2008-09-04T15:06:00-07:00

Back in June we were at a nextNY "How to finance your startup" event at 92YTribeca. Our CMO, Jane Goewey, took advantage of a video pitch recording setup to take our first stab at a video elevator pitch. This pitch is now live on TechCrunch Elevator Pitches -- drop on by and show us some love!

Change Round-Up finalist in Mashable Showdown

2008-09-02T14:31:00-07:00

Change Round-Up is happy to announce that we're finalists in the Mashable Showdown!

This "startup showdown" is hosted by VenCorps, a SpencerTrask project. First prize is a $50k seed investment, as well as the opportunity to pitch for up to $6 million more!

Virtual ‘spare change jar’ could make big difference

2008-08-28T08:04:00-07:00

Popular bank programs that allow account holders to round-up their purchases to the next dollar and deposit that change into a savings account have spurred new ways to raise money for charities.

ChangeRoundUp.com is a Web site that allows nonprofits to place a "virtual spare change jar" on the "counters" of online retailers. When people make purchases at a participating store, they are asked at checkout if they would like to round their purchase up to the next dollar and have the leftover change donated to a charity. If the answer is yes, the spare change is billed by the Change Round-Up and distributed to the receiving charity.

"By asking people to donate at the point of purchase, we can aggregate millions of small donations to generate some real change," said Daniel Quigley, founder of Change Round-Up. He started the site out of a desire to make it more convenient for people to donate and to reduce the costs associated with fundraising. "As we are coming out of our 'beta' period, we have the potential to raise hundreds of millions of dollars."

While most of the donations come from online retailers at the moment, local utilities companies, and city and local government offices that use online bill pay may be willing to put a district's donation widget on their Web sites. "If you can collect a payment online, we can put a button there," Quigley said. And while no education foundations are currently participating, Quigley said his service is a great fit for them. In addition to rounding up to the next dollar, the change jars also accept larger donations if a purchaser wishes to contribute more than just a few cents. "The average donation is $1.20 per person," said Quigley. Nonprofits can register on the site and there is no cost to use the service. Change Round-Up takes 10 percent of the donated money to cover administrative expenses.

Which nonprofits end up on which retailer's site? That is up to the retailer, but nonprofits have the ability to discuss what kind of sites they would like to be a part of before an actual commitment is made. "Most retailers pick organizations that are consistent with their corporate values as well as the preferences of their customers," said Quigley. "We wouldn't put an animal-rights organization on a hunting supply store Web site."

For more information visit www.ChangeRoundUp.com or email info@ChangeRoundUp.com.

Reprinted with permission from Education Grants Alert newsletter. Copyright 2008 by LRP Publications, P.O. Box 24668, West Palm Beach, FL 33416-4668. All rights reserved. For more information on LRP Publications’ education newsletters, pamphlets, books, videos and online services call toll-free 1-800-341-7874 or visit www.shoplrp.com/ed

Meet the Press...

2008-08-21T09:44:00-07:00

Lately, Change Round-Up has had the good fortune to draw interest from a number of trade publications and blogs. Our team is pretty passionate about our service and we love to talk about it. We have a small team, however our goal is to always be accessible to anyone that wants to talk about Change Round-Up.

If you are a member of the press, or if you just want to give us your 2-cents (sorry for the pun), please contact us. We have set up a new e-mail address specifically for this purpose...

press (at) changeroundup.com

Of course you can still contact us using our other e-mail addresses (support@, info@...) however this new press address will help us get your request to the right person right away.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Giving Makes Cents

2008-08-21T09:24:00-07:00

A while back, we welcomed http://www.giggle.com/ to our network of retailers. Giggle has a beautiful site that sells children's toys and baby products. They pride themselves on helping new parents find the right products for their needs. They have a nice grading system that ensures the products that they sell are tested and up to par. After just a few minutes on their site, you can see that they truly do care about the safety of our children. As a new parent, that is much appreciated!

They also support several charities that focus on children's issues. Here is a screenshot of a page they created that talks about their commitment to these charities. Giggle is a great example of a retailer caring about the community they serve and then effectively communicating that support on their site.

http://www.giggle.com/roundup_landing.aspx

Raise Money With a Virtual Spare Change Jar

2008-08-18T08:49:00-07:00

We've all seen them – change jars for collecting money for a charity or local cause.
Now that concept is available online.

With the help of Change Round-Up (Coxsackie, NY), your organization can collect spare change from online purchases.

"Change Round-Up is a free service to online retailers that increases customer loyalty while helping charities," says Jane Goewey, chief marketing officer. "The service takes the fundraising concept of the spare change donation jar and applies it to the e-commerce industry," Goewey says. "Online shoppers are asked during checkout if they would like to round up their purchase price to the nearest dollar and donate their electronic spare change to a charity of their choice."

Here's how it works:

A shopper makes an online purchase from a participating retailer, and the total amount due is calculated.
The shopper then has the option of rounding up the purchase price and donating his/her spare change, or a larger amount of his/her choice to one of the charities listed by the retailer. (Retailers typically list three to four charity options.)
The shopper selects a charity and completes the purchase.
The retailer collects the funds.
Change Round-Up bills the retailer for donations collected.
The charity receives a check for the donation. Minus a 10-percent processing fee.

Goewey says approximately 24 percent of online shoppers who are given the option donate. Donations range from a penny to $99 with the average donation at $1.25.

All 501 (c)3 organization are eligible to participate. The only cost is a 10-percent processing fee. To add your charity, visit http://www.changeroundup.com/.

Although Change Round-Up is maintenance free, you may want to recruit local retailers to include your organization as a donation option.

"Change Round-Up will only generate donations for charities that are chosen by retailers to appear on their retail sites." Goewey says. "It is each charity's best interest then, to sign up and search through their networks to see if they have relationships with companies that sell online. We encourage charities to look through their rolodexes/databases to find supporters, vendors, donors, volunteers, board members, etc. who may have ties to companies that sell online."

Source: Jane Goewey, Chief Marketing Officer,
Change Round-Up, Coxsackie, NY
Phone (518) 731-4278
E-Mail: jgoewey(at)changeroundup.com
Website: www.ChangeRoundUp.com

This article is being reprinted from Successful Fund Raising with the permission of Stevenson, Inc. Filled with concisely written articles, this monthly 8-page newsletter offers practical tips and techniques that will enhance all your fundraising efforts. Each monthly issue will link you with professionals sharing their ideas and success stories. Covers useful topics including: annual gift strategies, direct mail appeals, major gift identification, marketing planned gifts, prospect research, cultivation procedures, pledge fulfillment ideas, records management, managing volunteers, nurturing board members, telesolicitation procedures, special events ideas, examples of charts, forms, letters and much, much more!

To sign up, click here.
To receive a free sample issue, simply call, write, or fax your request to:
Stevenson, Inc., P.O. Box 4528, Sioux City, IA 51104. Phone (712) 239-3010.
Fax (712) 239-2166. http://stevensoninc.com/

Vote for Change Round-Up!

2008-08-11T13:46:00-07:00

Hi everyone,
We think our site and service is pretty great. But we need your help proving that we are not alone. Please take a minute or two and visit KillerStartups.com and vote for Change Round-Up.

(Change Round-Up is in the "Site Reviews" category. Here is the direct link...
http://www.killerstartups.com/Site-Reviews/changeroundup-com-give-a-littlehelp-a-lot)

'Capture More Online Donations Painlessly', from Carl Bloom Associates

2008-08-11T09:43:00-07:00

Just saw a brief post on CRU on the Carl Bloom Associates site. (Advanced Fundraising Solutions)

Not sure when it was posted, but thanks very much to Carl Bloom and his associates…

_____________________

Change Round-Up is looking for non-profits to collect money for. Should your organization be one of them?

There are many donation collection strategies that try to link point-of-purchase consumer spending to charitable giving. But to our knowledge, this start-up, based in upstate New York, is the only one focusing exclusively on Internet retailing.

The concept is simple: Change Round-Up allows online consumers to donate spare change online to charities of their choice. Online shoppers are asked during checkout at their favorite retail websites if they would like to "round-up" their total purchase price to the nearest dollar and donate that "spare change" to one of various nonprofit organizations listed in the retailer's checkout page. (The retailers choose which non-profits they want to list.)

The only cost to your organization is a small administrative fee (10% of the donations collected) charged to cover Change Round-Up's costs of developing, implementing and maintaining the system.

The company is aggressively building its network of retailers and non-profits now. For more information, visit www.changeroundup.com or email info@changeroundup.com.

Post location: http://www.carlbloom.com/marketing/change_roundup.html

Mug Shot and Quote

2008-08-07T08:47:00-07:00

As we continue to grow our business, our people needs continue to evolve. We have recently been outsourcing smaller, specific jobs to freelancers across the US and around the world. For the most part, we have been very happy with the quality and timing of the work that has been completed. One website in particular, http://www.elance.com/, has been helping us dive into the world of freelancing. It creates a very low risk and quick way to find, negotiate and pay freelancers for projects when we don't have the necessary resources or expertise in house.

They recently put the "Community Spotlight" on Change Round-Up and included a short quote from yours truly on their home page. Check it out on their home page or click here to see the blog post on CRU. My mom will be so proud.

Yes, There Is an ROI for Doing Good

2008-07-18T12:21:00-07:00

The following excerpt is from a great article by Jack Neff from Advertising Age a few months back. The article is a bit long, but certainly worth a read. Click here to visit the article.

Yes, There Is an ROI for Doing Good - But Numbers Are Hard to Come by for Efforts by McD's, Sears and Others
By Jack Neff
Published: May 26, 2008

Surely all the companies investing in cause marketing must be earning points in afterlife. Unfortunately, under both Delaware law and the tenets of most major religions, corporations technically don't have souls and hence aren't eligible for heaven.

And so the question remains, are they making any money at this?

It seems impolite to ask. But make no mistake: Though you might not always glean this by looking at the home pages of the consumer-products giants touting their latest philanthropic or earth-saving gestures, these are for-profit entities.

While the cynical outlook, repeated endlessly across the blogosphere, is that cause marketing is all about making money, perhaps the more mature, post-cynical outlook is, yes, of course it is, and, well, it should be.

Mike Hess, director-global research and consumer insights for Omnicom Group's OMD, New York, has spent his career quantifying the return on marketing investment for several firms and argues that not only should cause marketing have a positive ROI, it should actually generate a better return than other outlays.

Lacking numbers
After all, if cause marketing doesn't pay off at least as well as other approaches why not pour all that time and money into conventional pitches, avoid the complexity of roping a nonprofit into your brand planning, and just earmark some of the proceeds for donations?

Mr. Hess doesn't really know how well these programs stack up to others, because in nearly two decades working with marketing-mix models, no one's ever actually had him crunch the numbers.

But he suspects cause programs may pay off considerably better than most ad campaigns. Having worked on two major meta-research projects on advertising effectiveness, he said the "coefficient" of cause marketing (i.e., the multiplier effect of the first year's sales lift) may well be higher for cause marketing than your ordinary TV ad because consumers' emotional connections in equating a cause with a brand may be stronger than the connections forged by other advertising.

Gregg Ambach, managing director of Analytics Partners, Cincinnati, hasn't run a model on a cause-marketing program, either, though he's a veteran of both Kraft Foods and Campbell Soup Co., where they have plenty of cause-marketing efforts and love of analytics.

But Mr. Ambach's gut (yes, even analysts have those) tells him some of these programs must pay off handsomely.

Fat payout
He recalled Campbell's Labels for Education program, which years ago would give a van to the school that collected the most labels. One school in Louisville, Ky., won three years running with more than a million labels each year, he said.

If even 5% of those labels represented incremental purchases because of the program, factored against the (likely discounted) cost of the van and tax write-off considerations, the program likely paid out without even counting all the schools that didn't win but still collected labels, Mr. Ambach said.

Running a marketing-mix model on that or General Mills' "Box Tops for Education" (also syndicated to marketers such as SC Johnson and Kimberly-Clark Corp.) is difficult, considering they've been around for decades, take place year-round and rely largely on entirely untrackable unpaid media, such as PTA meetings and letters home in book bags. But Mr. Ambach said such programs almost certainly pay out, especially considering the low investment.

P&G, whose decades-long commitment to the Special Olympics has helped move a lot of soap each January when the related consumer and retail promotions kick in, has in recent years been layering on a number of similar efforts.

These include shipping cases of Dawn to clean up birds slimed by oil slicks, starting with the Exxon Valdez spill in the late 1980s; the Crest Health Smiles 2010 program that provides dental care for urban youth, launched in 2000; and providing clean drinking water, tetanus shots for expectant moms and feminine products for schoolgirls (through Pur, Pampers, and Always and Tampax, respectively).

Continued success
Does P&G track the ROI for these programs? Certainly, according to people familiar with them. Is it divulging the details? No way.

"It would be difficult to say whether 'cause' marketing provides a higher ROI, because every brand is different," a spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

But it's unlikely that P&G, which measures everything, would keep reapplying the model across ever more brands if it didn't make money at least as well as other efforts.

To read the rest of this article, please visit Advertising Age at: http://adage.com/article?article_id=127277

Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago

2008-06-13T10:42:00-07:00

Just returning from the Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago. What a great show!
Thank you to the wonderful Online Retailers like ShopNBC.com, Buy.com, VF Corporation, , Newegg.com, LuLu.com, 2nd wind exercise equipment, BabyAge.com, Cuddledown.com, H&M and Zale Corp, that took the time to learn about our service and shared in our enthusiasm. Hope to have them all on board with our service and raising millions for great charities.

Also, had the opportunity to talk with some great service providers about sharing Change Round-Up with their customers....so thanks to those folks like MarketLive, Amadesa, JetPay, Solid Cactus, Optarus, Litle & Co, Virid, iperceptions, BCF Commerce, ability commerce, idearc media, tachyonsolutions, mountain media.

Together we can truly make a difference for those in need. Looking forward to following up with everyone from the show!

Online Cause Marketing Programs

2008-06-13T09:13:00-07:00

Please visit the Selfish Giving blog at http://selfishgiving.com/

Joe Waters is Director of Cause Marketing for a Boston nonprofit. The views expressed at Selfish Giving are his alone, and are definitely too witty, insightful and fascinating to be anyone else's. Joe recently blogged the following about Change Round-Up…

--------------------------

June 12, 2008 - Online Cause Marketing Programs

If you've been reading my blog of late you know that I'm interested in moving beyond the traditional point-of-sale mobile programs I market to retailers. My recent post on Boston's Children's Hospital and their partnership with Roche Brothers got me thinking of new spins on an old idea. Thankfully, New York based Change Round-Up has given me whole new direction to take my point-of-sale programs.

Change Round-Up is doing for Internet retailers what Jerry Lewis and Shamrocks did for brick and mortar retailers forty years ago: open a whole new avenue for raising money for nonprofits. And not just a little money, but big money.

Change Round-Up works just like a point-a-sale program at your local supermarket. Just as you're ready to checkout at your favorite e-tailer, shoppers are asked if they want to "round-up" their purchase to the nearest dollar and donate their spare change to the charity of their choice.

Even in the seclusion and privacy of their homes and offices people are charitable. The CMO at Change Round-Up, Jane Goewey, reports that people donate on average $1.20. Like mobile programs in brick and mortar stores these dollars can add up, fast.

Change Round-Up identified over two dozen Internet retailers here in Massachusetts alone that we could approach about adding this fundraising feature to their web site. There is also additional revenue to be made from retailers we currently do in-store programs with (Staples, iParty, etc.) that could add an Internet component.

The only downside I identified with Change Round-Up was that retailers were unlikely to limit giving to one charity and would probably offer consumers several charities to choose from (shoppers like to have a selection, right?). In short, landing a partnership with an Internet retailer might mean ultimately carrying someone else's water and, yes, even sharing. Fortunately, with Change Round-Up, the burden will be well worth the reward because there will be plenty to go around for everyone.

Study Reveals Cause Marketing an Effective Business Investment

2008-05-29T08:56:00-07:00

We came across an interesting study conducted by PR Week / Barkley Cause Survey. We highlighted some key points in an excerpt below and a link to the full article follows…

New Study Reveals Cause Marketing an Effective Business Investment

(CSRwire) KANSAS CITY (PR WEB) October 23, 2007 – The 2007 PR Week / Barkley Cause Survey reveals that philanthropic activities can drive business success. In fact, 72% of consumers say that they have purchased a brand because it supports a cause they believe in. Furthermore, corporate respondents say they see positive PR (65.3%), an increase in sales/retail traffic (26.7%) and an enhanced relationship with their target demographic (52%), as a result of their cause marketing efforts.

The first cause marketing campaign was launched 25 years ago, and what was formerly viewed as a trend, is now considered a cost of entry for many businesses. In fact, consumers demand it, with 90.7% of consumers saying it's important for companies to support causes and charities. The survey also revealed that the majority of companies (34.7%) with cause programs funded their efforts through the marketing department, as apposed to HR (4%), or even PR (14.7%).

"Companies are beginning to clearly understand that there is a return on their reputational investment," said Mike Swenson, president Barkley Public Relations. "[And] cause is the perfect storm to allow companies to engage employees and customers in a more meaningful way."

In addition to an increase in sales or enhanced customer relationships, corporate philanthropy can also drive recruitment and retention. Among companies with cause marketing programs, 56% saw heightened staff morale and retention and 14.7% "strongly agreed" that they have an easier time finding top-notch recruits.

For the full survey, visit www.barkleyus.com or www.prweek.com

Checks are in the mail…

2008-05-29T08:43:00-07:00

The most recent batch of donation checks have been mailed this morning.

As you know, Change Round-Up enables online shoppers to round-up their purchase price to the nearest whole dollar and anonymously donate that spare change to a charity of their choice. If you are a participating charity, and you have been designated by a retailer to receive donations from their customers, you will be receiving a check soon. You can log into www.ChangeRoundUp.com with your username and password and click on the 'Report' tab to see donation results. If you forgot your username or password, please e-mail support@changeroundup.com, we will send an e-mail to the address that we have on record with the appropriate information.

Please note that there is a delay that we need to include when processing donations. Consumer donations are collected by retailers, then we invoice retailers for those donations and then have to wait for payment. Additionally, depending on the retailer's return policies, we have to wait additional time to account for returns/fraud/ collections. For example, if someone donates $100, but meant to donate $1.00, we give the retailer the option to adjust that transaction.

Currently, most of the distribution checks that we send to charities are relatively small, however we are busy bringing new retailers on board which will help increase the size of these checks.

We need your help… Please help us spread the word to companies that sell online. The more retailers we have on board, the more donations will be collected by our charity partners. So how do you find companies that sell online? Well, they come in all shapes and sizes; there are probably a few right in your backyard.

For example…

Current corporate partners - Have any companies already provided support to your cause either by donating time, money, or goods? Our service is a free way for them to help.
Do any of your supporters work for companies selling online? Including information about the service in your next newsletter or at your next event may be helpful
Typically, Boards of Directors have great contacts –be sure to communicate with your board to let them know about this exciting opportunity
Search your personal network – remember that quiet kid from high school who now owns a successful online store?. . . well, it's a great time to reconnect!
Target by region – Look to your local Chamber of Commerce and local business publications
Target by industry – What group of people are likely to support your cause? What companies serve the same group?

So, if you know of a retailer that would be a good fit, please tell them about us or tell us about them. And as always, please feel free to call or e-mail with any questions.

-Dan Quigley and the Change Round-Up Team

NYC Trip and Google Visit

2008-05-23T08:49:00-07:00

Jane and I had lunch with a friend of Jane’s yesterday at the Google office in NYC. Wow! I’ve heard stories about what a great atmosphere Google creates for its employees. We were only there for a couple of hours, but the stories seem to be true. I can only imagine what the main campus is like.

We got some nice Google gear. As you can see, my little Gracie Mae loves Google already!!

Welcome to our new partner: The American Heart Association

2008-05-23T07:12:00-07:00

The American Heart Association is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is: "Building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke."

The association's impact goal is to reduce coronary heart disease, stroke and risk by 25 percent by 2010. Progress toward the goal will be measured according to these indicators:

· Reduce the death rate from coronary heart disease and stroke by 25 percent.
· Reduce the prevalence of smoking, high blood cholesterol and physical inactivity by 25 percent.
· Reduce the rate of uncontrolled high blood pressure by 25 percent.
· Eliminate the growth of obesity and diabetes.

The association is actively pursuing it’s goal through the following initiatives:

Cause Initiatives
Momentum – moving forward and making a change – is a key theme for each of our four causes: Go Red for Women, Start!, Power to End Stroke, and Alliance for a Healthier Generation. They all help people take action to live a heart-healthy lifestyle.

Advocacy
The American Heart Association continues to advocate for legislation to reduce disease and death caused by tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.

Patient and Public Education
To help consumers make better choices, we’ve expanded our outreach efforts and increased the impact of our educational materials by distributing more than 7.7 million pieces of patient education information to healthcare professionals, patients, families and caregivers.

Research
Through our Research Strategic Plan we continue to fund the highest-quality research and make major breakthroughs in cardiovascular and stroke research. We do this by supporting innovative research and making sure our research translates into effective treatment and care.

Fund Raising
Sometimes you can hear our mission in action: the whir of 100 swinging jump ropes or the steps of thousands of walkers. This year our donors helped us reach several revenue milestones. Raising money is critical to our mission of building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.

http://www.heart.org/

Michael J. Fox Foundation Partners with Change Round-Up

2008-01-19T19:32:00-08:00

The Michael J. Fox Foundation is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease within the decade through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson's today. We believe without fail that our goal is within reach - but we can't get there without your support. Please join the fight today."

For The Michael J. Fox Foundation, there is one clear measure of success: delivering patients better treatments and, ultimately, a cure for Parkinson's disease. They have developed a targeted approach to research funding that helps identify and prioritize the patient-relevant science that will allow them to reach their goal.

Since it began in 2000, the Foundation has funded $110 million in Parkinson's research, either directly or through partnerships. And every one of those dollars has helped them learn more about the disease, develop better treatments for patients and, ultimately, get them closer to ending Parkinson's.

Welcome to American Education Foundation

2008-01-11T10:20:00-08:00

Announcing a New Partner for ChangeRound-Up: American Education Foundation (AMEDF)

AMEDF offers comprehensive workshops and programs geared towards helping students and their families in the areas of student academic development, college admissions planning, career exploration, financial aid, and family financial preparation.

AMEDF is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to improve success in higher education. AMEDF has put together exciting programs with the help of charitable donations from individual and corporate contributors who share in this vision.

Change Round-up is pleased to welcome AMEDF to our charity network.

Green Goods for Modern Dogs

2008-01-11T10:03:00-08:00

We have an interesting new retailer called Olive that will be adding Change Round-Up to their site. Olive is dedicated to bringing you the largest variety of healthful and environmentally conscious dog products the big ol' Internet has to offer. Many of Olive’s green goods are one of a kind-- comfortable, hip and eco-friendly. Now your discerning pooch can support sustainability without sacrificing style.

The folks at Olive believe that being green can be fun and stylish, yet still responsible. They are committed to bringing you pooch products that support--not burden--the ecosystem. From nontoxic goods made from organic and healthful ingredients, to products made from recycled or reclaimed stock, or from naturally occurring, renewable materials. True lapdog luxury is the combination of distinctive design and ethical production practices. Olive is working hard to do their part by bringing to market their own all natural, nontoxic products, drastically reducing packaging, and by using recycled packing materials and wrap.

Olive will be the first retailer implementing our new X-cart module. They have generously agreed to test the module to make sure it is ready for prime time. Once testing is complete we will offer up the module to rest of the universe.