Online Cause Marketing.....Is It Good?

There has been a lot of chatter about online cause marketing over the past several months.  Chase Bank, Pepsi, PayPal and Ebay are only a few of the many companies who use cause minded contests to hand out cash to charities. Spirit Jump has taken full advantage of several of these contests and that has given us first hand knowledge about what works, what doesn't and why social cause marketing should be the wave of social media future.

Recently blogger Beth Kanter posed a question on her blog: "Should We Just Blow Up Nonprofit "Vote For Me" Social Good Contests? We were shocked at the number of comments in favor of doing away with "Vote-For-Me" social good contests. Many people claimed that it was too easy to cheat, that the contests pitted one charity against another and that in the end the bad outweighed the good. 

While we agree these contests are not perfect there are many invaluable reasons why individuals, companies and nonprofits should not shy away from "Vote-For-Me" social good contests:

1. For small nonprofits online contests provide the opportunity to be seen. While you may not win the big Pepsi grant, your nonprofit will be seen by hundreds of thousands stopping by to check what all the buzz is about. These large companies advertise their social good contests everywhere including television, online and radio. Nonprofits benefit from this mass advertising.
2. "Vote-For-Me" contests allow the community to make a decision/have a voice. Under normal circumstances foundation funds and grants are given based on the decisions of board members, and usually to the same charities year after year.  Social media has opened those board room doors allowing other charities a chance at funding and allow YOU to help decide what charity should be the recipient.

There are many reasons why cause marketing and social good contests work but mostly they provide an opportunity to participate in a process that has been, for the most part, because it gives individuals and charities a voice.

Cards 4 Cancer Day Video

We made this video using pictures of cards made by people around the world. We are putting on a project called Cards 4 Cancer Day. On or around 4-10-10 people around the world will be delivering cards they have made & collected to local cancer centers. We are looking for people around the world to help us with this project.

To get the word out Spirit Jump is throwing a contest to encourage people to blog and make videos about Cards 4 Cancer Day.  There are 5 $50.00 gift certificates up for grabs from One Hope Wine.  You can get amazing wine, gift baskets, wine openers and more. There will be 5 winners here is how you can get one of these $50.00 gift certificates:

1) The Cards For Cancer Day blog post that receives the most comments by noon (EST) 3/16/10- Contest has been extended to 3/22

2) The most creative blog post about Cards For Cancer Day by noon (EST) 3/16/10- 3/22

3) The two most creative & fun YouTube videos about Cards For Cancer Day by noon (EST) 3/16/10-3/22

4) The team to recruit the most team members from 3/9/10-3/16/10. For a team member to count they must sign up using a full name and email address.  The team member must also type in the name of the team they are joining.-Contest has been extended to 3/22

To be considered for this contest you must email the link to your blog post and/or YouTube video to cards4cancer@spiritjump.org  Submissions must be received by noon (EST) Tuesday March 16.  Winners will be announced live on the Spirit Jump Show 3/16/10 8-9pm EST.  Winners will also get an opportunity to be guests on our show that night!


You can read previous blog posts to help you write yours HERE

If you want to start a team you can do so by clicking HERE