How Your Small Business can be a Cause Champion

This post is about understanding why we give what we give to as a business owner. And, it comes out of an article I wrote, "How Core Values Lead to Your Small Business Giving Niche."

To help learn just where your business's giving should be directed, it's important to first know that you can't be all things too all organizations. In a recent interview of Carol Cone by James Espstein Reeves of Citizen Polity, she points out that ..."to find the shared value between the company and a social issue, then create an innovative response to help the social issue where there is great need. Also going deep and narrow is key, verses being a mile wide and an inch deep." This is very true and when working with clients, I get hung up on the values a business owners holds true for themselves and their business, as the indicator for revealing your business's giving niche. When you stay close to your values, your giving program cannot be anything else but authentic. Here is a blurb from the article I wrote:

When most people hear the term, core values, they generally associate it with large corporations. They are statements that describe what the company believes in and guide its behavior. Many companies have them and communicate them on their website. For example, Seventh Generation, a leading brand of non-toxic and environmentally safe household products, has core four core value. Their values are 1) Leadership, Inspiration and Positive Change – a company with the authority to lead, the creativity to inspire and the will to foster positive social and environmental change; 2) Make the World a Better Place – a community in which individuals possess the resources, knowledge, courage, and commitment to make the world a better place; 3) Sustainability, Justice and Compassion – a society whose guiding principles include: environmental sustainability, social justice and compassion for all living creatures; 4) An Earth Restored – an earth that is restored, protected and cherished for this generation and those to come. Wow! Right. We can see how Seventh Generation incorporates these values into their product development, business practices, communication, and giving.

The premise for establishing core values is how you show up, serve, and promote who you are as a business. For a small business, core values are closer to own personal values and it becomes a grey, squishy area to even try to compartmentalize the two. Your business is an extension and expression of your unique qualities, characteristics, and authenticity. This comes through in your products, services, and customer/client relations. When your core values are deeply aligned with your business, you are being true, authentic and honoring your highest purpose. Doing business from this place affects your voice and conviction that you have a unique value to offer the world.

Making a commitment to defining your core values lays a foundation for how your business makes a difference in this world. Seventh Generation’s core values are closely aligned with product and service to their customers and the world and it is clear to see where their commitments are. Core values can:

- Move your business forward in the right direction
- Build your brand
- Attract customers with similar values
- Energize you and those that work with you

Core values help create your giving niche. So, if you’ve been in stuck-mode about giving, waffling back and forth as to where you should give, making a commitment to understanding your core values is well worth the exercise. You will be able to set giving goals that are aligned with your business and feel good about it. By defining your core values, you will be far more likely to succeed with your giving program and over time see giving success!

So what does this have to do with Hope Runs and being a cross country and cause champion? It is an organization which my values are closely aligned with on both a personal and business level (as a runner ~ cross country runner at heart and a champion for causes). I support them and I love the energy, stamina, core message and programs it manages to make a difference.

Hope Runs is a non-profit working in Kenya and Tanzania, using athletics, education, and social entrepreneurship to empower AIDS orphans. "There are an estimated 53 million orphans living in sub-Saharan Africa. This means that one in every eight children has lost parents to poverty, disease, or conflict. All of these children are at high risk of reaching adulthood without the preparation they need to one day uplift and transform the struggling economies of their continent. In short, we are losing a generation of future leaders. Hope Runs works to equip orphaned and vulnerable children with the tools to escape cycles of poverty and conflict to become productive and empowered adults" (source: www.hoperuns.org)

One of their programs is a Running Program. "Capitalizing on children’s universal love of sport and activity, Hope Runs uses running as a primary community builder in locations where structured after school activities and athletics programs are unheard-of luxuries. With its ability to show personal progress, to prove the effectiveness of goal-setting and discipline, and to improve these children’s health, running has proven an amazing tool to teach these children motivational and disciplinary lessons that can apply to every aspect of their life. This is also an exceptional way to engage our volunteers in the community and to bring the children together in their efforts toward a common goal."

But Hope Runs doesn’t stop there. "They also have their 777 program, an endurance running challenge: 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 weeks in 2010. It is a great way to combine the love of running that is central to our work with a platform that brings an understanding of the challenges these AIDS orphans face everyday. Raising both funding and awareness for the cause of these children, the 777 Challenge represents a sacrifice, dedication and commitment that many have said is impossible" (source: www.hoperuns.org).

Hope Runs is one organization that I hold close to my heart. As a business owner, I feel we share core values that are deeply rooted in who we are and how we serve. This is one example to understand how your core values lead to your business's giving niche. The beauty around it is the authenticity for me and how this is distinctive for me versus other business owners. Hence, it's hard to ever have two businesses with the exact same giving program. I postulate it's not possible.

Copyright. 2009. Maggie F. Keenan, Ed.D. All rights reserved.

Moving Comfort & Girls in the Game.... Game On!

I am so excited I can hardly sit still. Moving Comfort is a fitness apparel company for women. I love'm and have been wearing the running attire for years. Started in the late 70's by two young female runners, they saw a need for running shorts for females. Back then, and as a runner of over 35 years, everything was unisex. Their success story is great and I support them.

Just over a year ago, I had the opportunity to work with Moving Comfort (MC) to help structure a giving back program. Well, here is what they created to make a difference! They recently launched their all new "Support Your Girls" campaign. This giving program ROCKS! The t-shirts which have the slogan Support Your Girls on the front gives 33 percent of each t-shirt sale to Girls in the Game. Girls in the Game (GIG) provides and promotes sports & fitness opportunities, nutrition & health education, and leadership development to enhance the overall health and well-being of all girls.

Okay, so here's the thing. The success and power of this program is in:

1. The alignment of mission of Girls in the Game and the vision of Moving Comfort;
2. The mutual values and commitment to those values;
3. The ideal match between a brand and what can boost the target's needs of an organization;
4. The authentic expression of the message which supports both MC and GIG;
5. The opportunity to be creative, have fun, and share an inspiring success story.

To know that thousands of girls between the ages of 6-18 lives will be touched is awesome. I applaud this partnership and what it means for girls now and the impact it will have on their lives in later years.

All I can is "WooHoo!"

Lace'm Up for $140 for a Cure

Okay this is one expensive pair of running shoes. I know, I am a veteran long distance runner of nearly 35 years and I have make a significant investment in my running shoes as good shoes and the right shoe for me helps prevent injury.

Now, I have never worn New Balance. I don't need a straight-last, mid-foot striker shoe and I don't need the wide toe box. But it's a good fit for someone who does needs those things. The other reason I've not worn New Balance, is because, well, it has suede - which makes for a heavier training/race-day shoe and I've always seen it as a shoe that appeals to men versus Ryka or Reebok for women. But New Balance is counting on women to spend $140 on these pretty pink running shoes as a way to commemorate Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 20th Anniversary. New Balance has been sponsoring this event for twenty years.

It's not so much the cost of the shoe, comparable to high-profile basketball sneakers, but as a cause-marketing campaign it customizes each buyer to have stitched on the tongue of the shoe, "In Honor of" or "Lace Up, " or "Running for" which is really pretty cool. That is what I think women will buy... the emotional attachment to the shoe being customized for them or a friend or loved one. The majority of women have to have the connection to, emotional feeling toward, to be compelled to buy, do are stand for something.

No matter how much New Balance does for breast cancer, I still have them as a male running shoe product ingrained in my head and have for years, but I must admit this may be one way to get this runner to change course.