(Now I bet you’re wondering why I chose this picture when clearly the title hints at two)

What is “Joie De Vivre” (Joy of living) to you? What bubbles up to the top? And lights your eyes? Writing has always been one of my very solitary joys, yet I struggle to find time for it.  This blog and you, my readers, have been caught up in this thusfar not-so-eternal eternal struggle of 25 years. I’ve been fairly spotty in the recent months with my blog.  This time I blame it on losing my favorite pen under my desk of thoughts and distractions.  Oddly enough, I think about this blog every day and even add new drafts every several days (I’ve got over 60 drafts to finish), but my mind has been off of writing due to the expectedly unexpected twists in my life.  This picture depicts how I feel when I write, way before the conversation.

I was blogging at a clip of one post every two days and I did burn out. It doesn’t sound like much writing, but each person write at their own natural pace.  I tend to think things over and over when writing.  I write an outline, let the ideas marinate.  I write a draft, then marinate.  Rinse and repeat several times over the course of up to perhaps 10 days.  To exacerbate things, I’m still at the point where I agonize over every word and every sentence because I now have an audience that judges me by the content of my thoughts and the skill at which I express them.  I’ve just recently been able to freely express my thoughts.  Blog posts to me are now just conversations; I start these conversations, and then it’s just two people, you and I, finishing it.  Once in a while it becomes three, or four, or more;  but it’s all the same - a conversation.  Here are two people obviously not in conversation, but imagine all of the things they could be saying to each other, it’s hopeful isn’t it?

(Thanks for sharing the table)

Now I will digress and mention a few items of note in my life. I did find employement in brand management, marketing, and cause branding through my “Socially Responsible Job Search” campaign.  I’ve also started blogging over at TriplePundit.com  (A CSR and Sustainability blog), and also joined the board of directors of the Black Card Circle Foundation, whose new website will be up in the coming weeks.  Due to finding employment and my board position, I will be doing a lot of nonprofit work this year, which I am happy about.  I’m excited about the possibilities, but do have to wait for up to one year to receive a little brother through Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the Bay Area.

I’ve found that helping others is a form of pleasure throughout the whole process.  Empathy, allowing myself to feel what others feel, is pleasure.  Fear, for what they may have to face, or what may face me, is pleasure.  Struggle, in trying to change what is bad to better, is pleasure. Ultimately, the results, whether favorable, or of any other flavor, is pleasure.  It is a wholly pleasurable and self-centered act while being completely giving as well.  There’s nothing quite like it other than love and friendship, which may even be omnipresent throughout this whole process.  Throughout this all, I’ve realized that I need to be mindful of myself, while I am caring for others, because it is one power path toward sustainable giving.

I’ve come to this realization while volunteering for the San Francisco Food Bank, which is a great organization.  But moving cans in a warehouse just isn’t for me.  It’s necessary work, but I’m a grave romantic and it helps tremendously to be able to feel pleasure while I volunteer.  Now I’ve digressed a little, back to our conversation.

Here’s my first post over at TriplePundit.com entitled, “Why the Recession is Good for the Carbon Offsets Market, but Bad for Sustainability.“  I am currently working on my second, which should be up tomorrow!

As for my plans for this blog? They have changed quite a bit since I started it.  If there’s one thing about plans I’m sure to expect, it’s that they never, ever end up the way had I.  I shall be blogging at minimum once a week now that I’ve found my proverbial pen, and my goals do not include becoming a super-blogger like Chris Brogan.  I shall also be linking to my posts over at TriplePundit.com.  Thanks for reading!

(This post took me two hours, 1.5 hrs to write and edit, .5 hours to find images.  I’m getting better!)

photo credit: Eric Perrone, Amanda Anaconda

This campaign is a joint effort of Tyson Foods, Share Our Strength, Hum. Minds at Work., Kompolt, and MediaSauce.  This campaign, at its core, is cause marketing pure and simple.

Go ahead, go there and sign the pledge, it will take about 15 seconds.  For every person who signs this pledge, Tyson will donate 35 lbs of food, which will feed 140 amazing children.  If you’re busy right now, bookmark it and get back to it ASAP.

Childhood Hunger in America is Real
More than 12.4 million children are going hungry right here in the US. That’s 1 out of 6. Chances are you know at least one of them. With an economy that threatens to force those numbers upward, significant steps must be made to stem the tide. We hope you join us!

The children of America need desperately for us to nurture them, believe in them, and give them the opportunities they deserve.  The right to enough food is a fundamental right, because it is no fault of their own that they cannot afford enough food.  With a happy stomach, they can go forth and reach for their potential.

Our goal is to reach 1,000 signatures, which will feed 140,000 children.  The deadline is March 18th, which coincides with the kickoff of South by Southwest 2009 (SXSW ‘09) in Austin, Texas.   As I’m editing this post, the pledge has just surpassed 250 signatures!  I know that we will shatter 1000 signatures, because it takes not even one minute to sign the pledge.  One minute is nothing to help feed 140 children.

This is me when I was a wee child.  I was lucky enough to be well-fed (read: chubby).  And with a full stomach, I was able to pursue my dreams. Help the children by also sharing it with your friends!  We thank you :).

Related:

1. “Wanted: Champions for the Hunger Pledge,” by Scott Henderson

Google’ Earth’s CO2 Emissions Layer

Google Earth just received a new layer, which shows the US’s CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.  I can now see how San Francisco stacks up against other major cities in emissions per capita, and how California stacks up to the other 49 states.  Consequentially, this technology now helps shape my brand perception of cities and states.  How can it not?

The next time I get into an argument over whose state is superior, I can pull out the social responsibility card and claim California’s superiority based on being one of the nation’s cleanest in CO2 emissions per capita.

The simple existence of such a layer adds to the credence of CO2 emissions as an integral part of social responsibility.  The implications also have an impact on the individual level — social responsibility at the community level translates to social responsibility at the individual level.  Now there’s an expectation that, in order to be a socially responsible individual, one should be careful of one’s own carbon footprint.

Google PowerMeter

Google’s PowerMeter is a new tool to monitor your own power consumption right from your iGoogle homepage.  The tool allows you to analyze your power habits and helps you save money through better power practices.

The PowerMeter also adds an element of social pressure by allowing you to share this information with your friends.  This added social element further drives the importance of energy efficiency as an integral part of social responsibility at the individual level.

Energy Bill Reporting

Smiley faces on energy bills? A Sacramento utility recently began rating their customers’ energy consumption with smiley faces — two for high performers, one for good, and frowning face for below average.  Energy consumption was compared with 100 homes of similar size and 20 energy efficient neighbors.

Did it work? “Customers who received the personalized report reduced energy use by 2 percent more than those who got standard statements.”  The findings, I believe, are significant.  Correct me if I’m wrong.  Here’s another take by Ian Ayres of the Freakonomics Blog.

All in all, these tech tools are manifestations of dynamic popular conceptions of social responsibility.  As they become more powerful and accessible, they will drive new notions of social responsibility, not only at the corporate level, but also at the city, county, and state levels.

Do you use these or other tools?  Do these tools engender a certain social obligation to be more responsible by decreasing your carbon footprint?  Do you use tools to monitor and keep track of the practices of your city or favorite brands?

Before too long, you may be able to track and compare the carbon footprint of your brands in a simple widget interface when making brand decisions.

Photo Credit: Treehugger.com, Google.com, Max Whittaker

This blog has been up for about one and a half months now and has already undergone several changes in both design and focus.  It started off as a blog solely for my personal cause marketing campaign to help me secure work.  The second iteration covered cause marketing exclusively.  The third iteration brought corporate social responsibility (CSR) into the fold.  And finally, last week I changed the title of the blog to, “Human Across,” and broadened the focus to include any topic within the social sector, management, and emerging media.

This blog is still young and finding its way, so please drop me a comment to introduce yourself, your blog, what brought you here, and what you would like to see more of!  I look forward to our conversation.  I am also quite active on twitter as @kynamdoan.  Thanks for reading.

Recessionary strategies oftentimes revolve around cutting costs to improve the bottom line, which hobbles the top-line.  While cost-cutting and efficiency is essential, consider investing in innovation processes to improve the top-line.  It creates opportunities, opens up adjacent markets, and disrupts your competition.

Sustainable innovation can be achieved by approaching the innovation process like you would any other business process: with its own targets, powers, resources, and accountability.

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I’ve been talking about innovation processes in the for-profit world, which brings me to straight to the point.  These same principles apply to nonprofits, but how many times have  you heard the two words, ‘innovation,’ and, ‘nonprofit,’ in one sentence?  I urge you to start thinking in such a framework.

Innovate

Innovation comes in all different shapes and sizes and can be applied to any of your core processes, such as product development, donor relationship, and supply chain optimization.  Ideally, you want to apply innovation processes to all of your organizational processes as well as the innovation process itself.  Choose one to start with, the one that sits at the intersection of opportunity and core competencies.  Then appoint a new head with certain executive powers such as resource acquisition.  Create an end-to-end pipeline from generation of ideas to implementation.

Incentivize

As you can probably imagine, this will not be a popular initiative within your organization.  New processes, especially culture-shifting processes, usually come up against inertia and resistance and viewed as a disruptive intrusion .  To grease the wheels, incentivize resource sharing, involvement, and collaboration.  One such incentive is a system of rewards commensurate to contribution to the new process.

Targets

This is a deceptively simple step–create targets that improve the targets of the business process you are innovating.  For example, you are innovating customer relationship management and your donor lifetime value target is a 5% increase for the fiscal year.  Set an innovation target of 5%.  If your new donor acquisition target is 5% year-over-year, then set an innovation target of 5%.  You are then able to track innovations from concept to implementation and determine their contribution to your DRM targets.

Although these concepts are adapted from for-profit management principles, they work very well in the nonprofit field.  If you do not have the resources to run a dedicated process for innovation, consider a compromise.  There are so many ways to innovate in the social sector, and it does not have to come solely from technological or product innovation.  I highly recommend positioning your nonprofit for innovation if you have not yet done so.

I’m curious to know how many of you currently implement innovation processes in your organization, nonprofit or otherwise.  What are the major challenges you’ve faced and what have you gained?  I’d love to hear your stories.

In a future post I’ll discuss the specifics of a Product Development Innovation Process Framework as well as delve deeper into donor relationship management and how it has changed with web 2.0 and social media.

If you haven’t heard, there was a blitz Cause Marketing campaign yesterday.  Room to Read (nonprofit) and eduFire.com (for-profit) teamed up for some Twitter madness.

Room to Read is a nonprofit organization that “partner(s) with local communities throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating local language children’s literature, constructing schools, providing education to girls and establishing computer labs.”

eduFire.com a is a live video learning site.  They have great management and have carved out a strong niche for themselves.

The Story

7:27pm: @eduFire tweeted: “eduFire.com donating $1 for every re-tweet between now and 9 PM PST to http://www.roomtoread.org Please re-tweet! #edufire”

7:45pm: Jon Bischke, CEO of eduFire, sent me a direct message to re-tweet @eduFire’s tweet.

7:47pm: I spent 10 minutes researching this nonprofit to make sure that it is a solid operation and supports a cause I personally support.

7:56pm: I decide to throw in with eduFire and donate an additional $1 per re-tweet up to a maximum of $100.

7:57pm: I tweeted: “eduFire.com & I am donating $1 PER RT btw now & 9p PST to roomtoread.org Please RT! #edufire (max $100 4 me, I’m poor!).”

9:00pm: The link had been re-tweeted approximately 100 times.

9:30pm: The link had been re-tweeted approximately 125 times.

Results

The results were fantastic given the 20 minute planning window and 2 hour run-time.  Re-tweets still occurred after 9pm, but were still counted.

1. @eduFire’s tweet was re-tweeted 125 times in 1.5 hours and was the number one most re-tweeted link during that time according to Retweetist.
2. Room to Read received $275 and exposure for doing absolutely no work and expending zero resources.
3. eduFire received much more exposure for the $100 than they would have otherwise received–even if you didn’t see any of the tweets, you’re still reading this.

Keep in mind that this occurred in one hour of unplanned insanity.  The true ROI cannot be calculated until much later.

Lessons

There are a few things I would have done differently had I another chance:

1. Increase the dollar amount per RT to $10 capped at $100.  I would have ended up donating $100 either way, but would have probably garnered more re-tweets, and hence, more exposure for my $100.
2. Remove the time limit.  I received about 10 messages asking me if it was OK to re-tweet after 9pm.  The effect of a time-limit can basically be duplicated with a monetary limit without obstructing the viral spread after a certain, and arbitrary, time limit.
3. Conduct the campaign between 11-3pm EST because re-tweets occur ~40% more often in that time frame compared to 11p-12a EST (Dan Zarrella’s research)
4. Conduct the campaign on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday because re-tweets occur more often during those days of the week. (Zarrella)
5. Plan ahead to enlist co-donors and synchronize the re-tweets.
   

I’m going to need a job if I’m to run another campaign; the next time I do something remotely similar to this, I will be donating more.

And THAT is the 1-Hour Cause Marketing Twitter Campaign

1+ hours of unplanned madness resulted in near-free exposure for eduFire.com and Room to Read, as well as an immediate $275 which was used to oil the wheels of the viral campaign.

I think it worked out well for an impromptu PR campaign.  What do you think?  Did you see one of these zaney re-tweets?

Like children and education?  Then you’ll probably like Room to Read — consider moseying on over there and learning more about what they do, and perhaps donate a few dollars.

Thank you everyone for re-tweeting!

photo credit: Jayson Morris

This subtle branding works and it’s easy to see how this will catch on.  Props to Washingtonpost.com and This is Reality, for implementing such a crafty campaign.  This is Reality is an organization working towards debunking the myth of “clean” coal.  From their website:

In reality, there is no such thing as “clean” coal in America today. Coal cannot be called ‘clean’ until its CO₂ emissions are captured and stored safely.

It’s fun, fresh, and effective.  Best of all, it’s almost free in comparison to cause marketing campaigns by Starbucks and Kraft Foods.  What do you think?

I am a proponent of the program, but feel that it falls a little short; you will see why in a moment.

What is it?

It is a Craigslist for volunteering where a nonprofit can post a volunteering opportunity.  I have some history fighting for a similar goal when I was working on VoterBLOC - an initiative similar to this - to help bring the social sphere back into our lives.

We are all too familiar with our personal and professional spheres.  The social sphere is the third sphere that has taken a back seat.

This is leadership

The kind of leadership we need in uncertain times.  I experienced this first-hand at the San Francisco Food Bank last weekend.  Even though the campaign had not yet launched, local pro-Obama organizers put together a volunteer group.  This is leadership, but…

It can do better

Renew America Together is a step in the right direction, though I would like to see it become more ambitious, such as host and run campaigns.  It is, after all, a network of socially and civically minded individuals.  “Groups,” on such a network would wield the power of nonprofit, cause-driven organizations.

The ability to create-from-scratch an organization around an issue and tap into an opt-in network are valuable cogs in the engine of change.

We too can do better

This program is fantastic, and Obama’s leadership is strong…but we can do better.  This program is a temporary solution for an issue that can be fixed at home.  We can teach our children PSR- that taking care of each other, and taking care of this Earth are very  important.  We can do better.

If this interests you, you should take a look at this exemplary initiative by a father-daughter team: Kids are Heroes - it encourages and facilitates children to make a difference in their community.

Did Obama’s call-to-service inspire you?  Did you sign up to volunteer through the website?  If you did, why?

If you, or anyone you know, are affiliated with usaservice.org, please contact me.  I would love the opportunity to ask some questions and learn more about its vision.

Related Reading:

1. Social Responsibility - How Millennials are Driving a New Trend
2. Obama, Powell promote call for community service
3. Inaugural committee promotes service for MLK Day

photo credit: bethcanphoto

Authenticity

Authenticity is a key driver of cause-branding ROI - this has been proven.  However, the discussion invariably turns to the question of good and bad, which perplexes me.

For lack of a better system of classification, I am using the the terms “bad” and “good” in the following sections, but I don’t actually mean they’re actually bad or good.

The “Bad” camp

Gennefer over at Acclimedia calls Starbucks’s efforts, “thinly veiled sales attempts-esp w/only 5¢ donation per cup.”  Another alludes to the, “dubious altruism,” of Cause-Related Marketing.  Arie Moyal writes off Cause-Related Marketing as, “disingenuous,” and capable of having, “adverse effects,” on brands. <deep breath>

And on TOP of that, I’ve also received negative feedback on my own cause-related campaign to get a job, “Doing Good to Get a Job.”  The person called my efforts, “sketchy,” and, “self-serving.”

The “Good” camp

The Cone/Duke Study finds that there is a positive impact on brand, ROI, exposure, and awareness.  Joe Waters over at Selfish Giving and Paul R. Jones over at Cause Marketing blog set up camp here as well.

The unscientific method of querying Twitter shows that the vast majority of tweets on Starbucks’s campaign are positive.  Here are two illustrations:

Dear @starbucks I used to stray from mainstream coffee but appreciate your (red) starbucks card. I will now be a regular. Thank you!

Starbucks (RED) card is cool. Drink and give. I think some of the local bars need a (RED) plan.

Intrinsic vs. Instrumental good

Digging further down, you’ll find that this is a debate between intrinsic and instrumental good. Intrinsic goods are good in themselves.  Instrumental goods are good because they are a means to other good things.

For the purposes of this conversation, Cause Marketing is, “marketing the cause itself,” and Cause-Related Marketing is, “marketing a product,” where part of its value offering is related to a cause.

Now it makes sense for me to say that Cause Marketing is intrinsically good and Cause-Related Marketing is instrumentally good.

Perhaps there is no debate at all because your opinion lies with your choice between intrinsic or instrumental goods.  Everyone I know seems to fall into one of these two camps - and neither one is right nor wrong.

When is Doing Good Not Good Enough?

This brings us back to the original question: “when is doing good not good enough?” Tough question.

What do you think of Starbucks’s campaign?  What do you think should they do?

“It is what you do, not what you say, that matters,”  or, “It is your intentions, not what you do, that matters.”

photo credit: aarontait

Skip to the 5 lessons I’ve learned

It was a warm autumn in Boston…

and the economy began to take a nose-dive.  As the economy slipped further, the weather followed suit in some calm and twisted dance.  Funding for my social civic start-up had dried up and so I packed up my belongings, pocketed my memories, and moved west to what I fondly refer to as “my city” of San Francisco.

Excited to be in warmer climes and hillier terrain, I arrived in my city and right into my sister’s apartment.  Hence began the dreaded traditional job search - that one on Craigslist and Indeed.  It was shortly after Thanksgiving and job postings were scarcer than Bush supporters in San Francisco.

An idea emerges

I received some interviews for positions I was mismatched for in terms of skills, but was able to make lasting personal connections.

[Time squash - fast forward three weeks]

It was early December and I was sitting on my chair tapping away on my keyboard looking for nonprofits to volunteer for in 2009.  A million things were flying around in my head when, in the spaces between my thoughts, two things collided.

What emerged was an idea to pledge a certain number of volunteer hours for each job interview I received, which would accomplish both of my goals: Employment and increasing my annual volunteering.

A Cause Marketing campaign is born

On December 16th, I laid the foundation by creating a blog, which was the cornerstone of the campaign.

I picked up the phone to call my friends, send out an email to my list, posted on Facebook, tweeted on Twitter, posted hundreds of comments on various blogs, and began attending networking events.

This is what I’ve learned in 4 weeks:

1. Authenticity

In the end, authenticity is the most important qualitative performance goal when it comes to Cause Marketing.  I’ve received a lot of feedback on my campaign.  While most were positive or neutral, there were several negative responses.  I recall one individual calling it, “self-serving,” and, “sketchy,” - he asked me why I didn’t just volunteer on my own.  This is a communication failure - he didn’t know that I already volunteer.

Additionally, I originally structured the campaign so that people could vote for the nonprofit I would volunteer for.  While it would have become more relevant to spectators, I lost more in the way of authenticity .  I’ve decided to sacrifice relevancy for authenticity and choose my own nonprofits - Big Brothers Big Sisters and the San Francisco Food Bank.  An added bonus comes in the form of emotional rewards for both the nonprofit and myself since these are nonprofits of my own choosing rather than crowd-sourced.

2. Positioning

I started out by positioning myself as a Social Media and Cause Marketing specialist when marketing budgets were being slashed.  Instead I should have emphasized my analytical pedigree due to its cost-cutting and efficiency-boosting benefits.  Many still view Social Media and Cause Marketing as a risky investment in an unproven field.

Positioning is an integral part of branding - in this case, self-branding.  Because this campaign is an “inbound marketing” campaign, positioning is of utmost importance - only the correct people will find me if I’m standing where they are searching.

3. Targeting

Once they have found me, targeting becomes important.  Consider these numbers: four of the interview offers I received were not in the Bay Area (two of which were in Boston).  Of the five that were in the Bay Area, four fit my skills, which left me with one real opportunity.

The description of my skills and what I was looking for was much too vague and I didn’t offer my resume on this blog until about two weeks ago.  I wrote, simply, “an exciting Marketing and Business Development position.”  What does that even mean?  I have since changed it to a list of three things I offer - this is the first:

I want to help a company that’s looking to:

1. Cut costs while increasing efficacy.  I can help optimize your marketing mix by:
   1. Developing and implementing testing and analysis tools measure key performance indicators such s ROI, reach, and conversion.
   2. Develop a strategy of balance between near-term and long-term ROI goals.
   3. Shift your marketing mix to lower-cost/higher-efficacy strategies such as Social Media, Inbound Marketing, and Cause Branding.

4. Viral < Managed Growth

In the long run, managed growth is so much more valuable than viral growth.  The viral nature of my initial efforts was akin to the common cold - it spread quickly, but was gone less than a week later.  This was due lack of content, lack of network, and bad timing.

5. Twitter is Essential to Networking

Twitter when used correctly, is a powerful networking tool.  I’ve found it to be more effective than LinkedIn an Facebook.  Eight of the nine interviews I’ve received through this campaign can be traced back to Twitter.  Most of my website traffic is from Twitter.  I’ve also connected with many Cause Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility gurus through Twitter.  The list goes on.

Where I am today

9 interviews, 0 offers, 132 hours and $74 pledged to great causes, one determined guy.

Things have begun to pick up in the past week.  On Wednesday I was featured on CNN Money.  This coming Tuesday my story will be in the San Jose Mercury News.  I’ll begin calling media outlets in the Bay Area starting Monday.

My campaign is described in more detail here, and you can find my resume here.

Where are you?

Thanks for reading and I hope this gave you ideas for your future endeavors.  Are you currently jobless? I learned that 21,000 jobs were cut today…21,000 jobs in ONE day.  How are you going about looking for a job?  What angles are you using?  Are you using an angle?  Good luck to all who are looking for a job!