Monday, August 31, 2009

What to Do with Unused Dollars on Gift Cards? Give it to Charity!

Did you ever get a gift card to a department store, grocery store or some other big retailer and after you made purchases you had $5.17 left on the card or some other small amount? Not enough to really buy anything you need, just enough for a pack of gum, a few light bulbs, or other trivial stuff. So what do you do with the extra sum of small change left over? I admit, I have purchased stuff on the shelves by the check-out like $1 bags of candy, key chains with small light on the end of it (actually handy at night), a map for the glove compartment or other items. It's stuff I really don't need but might. Hey, you never know.

Well, the New York Times recently ran the article,
Doing Good with Unused Gift Cards and helps you actually find a way to donate the extra change on the card to charity. Brilliant! Read the full article here and learn how small change can make a difference.

Friday, August 28, 2009

What Book Got You Hooked?


It’s that time of the year, getting ready to go back to school! Parents are running around with the "List" of things to get their children. Last week, a friend of mine and I were just talking about the smells that take us back in-the-day to getting ready for the start of school: #2 pencils, pink erasers, protractors, pencil-cases, cartoon lunch boxes, army school bags and brown paper to cover our books.

A couple of the differences today is the cartoon characters on lunch boxes and school bags. The size of school bags is amazing to me. I remember some classmates didn't even carry a school bag (it wasn't cool) let alone taking books home. But just for today, let's talk about books.

Regardless of the subject and characters of books that have changed over the years, kids really do love to read and most have a favorite book. I did! The book was called "Katie" by who?? Don't ask too many years ago. Did you have a favorite book? If so, FirstBook wants to know. FirstBook is doing a campaign on the book that got you hooked on reading. Their "What Book Got You Hooked?" on reading campaign is helping address the concern of illiteracy in our nation. They want you share your favorite book memory with them and then vote on which state you would like to receive 50,000 new books for low income children. You can also see the favorite books of their celebrity-supporters like Ed Asner, Steve Colbert (luv him!), Morgan Freeman, Patti LaBelle (love her!), Scarlett Johansson and others.

I challenge small business owners to consider this campaign and join the campaign today. Make it a business-wide giving back effort. It can be fun and the more people involved, the more votes, the larger the campaign.

Go to http://www.firstbook.org/, share what book got you hooked on reading, and vote!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Lose Lbs. for Good Causes

Weight Watchers campaign for a good cause is back again this year. I wrote about how much I loved this campaign. Super stellar giving back program because it had a great alignment with the selected causes, elevated their brand and the nonprofit brand, and leveraged the loyal consumers of Weight Watchers. Smart! Smart! Smart!

Weight Watcher's Lose for Good Campaign in 2008 donated $1 million to feed hungry children around the world and their participating members lost nearly 4 million lbs. That is a true measure of success all around.

Be on the look out August 30th. The campaign is scheduled to kick-off then. Again, it will support Share Our Strength and Action Against Hunger.