The grandaddy of 'checkout charity' programs is the MDA Shamrock ☘️Pin-up. The campaign has been around for 37 years. During that time it's raised a whopping $323 million. That's a lot of green! This month you can buy a shamrock at 20,000 retails locations. I bought mine at Star Markets in Newton, Massachusetts!

The good news with checkout charity (i.e. register fundraisers, charity pin-ups, round-ups and donation boxes) is you don't need 20,000 stores to raise a small fortune. Local programs that involve a couple dozen to a few hundred stores can post impressive totals.

A few weeks ago I got a call from a nonprofit with a dilemma. A company approached them about a cause marketing campaign on social media. Great, right? But there was one issue. The campaign involved some pretty strong language, and the nonprofit wasn't sure if they wanted to move forward. Should they connect their cause with cussing? I encouraged them to go for it, but they turned down the partnership.

So, I've been thinking: Is it ever okay to swear in your cause marketing?

Are you new to raising money from event sponsorships? Then I have the course for you.

For over a year now, I've been presenting How to Sell Event Sponsorships - A Step by Step Guide over at  CharityHowTo. During this time, I've been tinkering with the course and making it better and better. The course has always attracted a good crowd and gotten great reviews, but now it's hitting a new level of success and participation and I want to make sure you know about it.

In this 90-minute course, you'll learn:

1. The difference between charity sponsorships and marketing sponsorships and what businesses expect from each.

Everyone wants more hot leads (direct inquiries from potential partners). But what about warm leads (someone who shows interest in your organization)? Would you like more warm leads if I showed you two ways to get them???

Okay, here you go.

First, every nonprofit should have an email pop-up on its homepage. Most of you are familiar with the pop-up I use at Selfish Giving. (Technically mine is a welcome mat, but it serves the same purpose.) Yeah, I know pop-ups are annoying - blah blah blah - but the truth is they work for collecting email addresses. Ideally, you should use a pop-up to collect emails so you can send subscribers email updates, newsletters, etc. But even if you don't plan on sending subscribers anything you should still have a pop-up. Why? For the leads.

Two things today.

First, thanks to everyone for helping the Selfish Giving newsletter recently achieve three new highs. Last week's newsletter had a 52.6 percent open rate! (Most newsletters are lucky if they get a 20 percent open rate.) Yet another new high happened two weeks ago on February 6th when the newsletter had 1,009 clickthroughs on articles. That's the first time clickthroughs have exceeded 1,000. Finally, as the graph above shows⬆︎, the newsletter had a banner month in January with a huge jump in new subscribers - the most ever!

What do these three "highs" mean?

At Catalist we like to say that strategy is just opinion until it is grounded in data. 

To that end, instead of just giving you our opinion on what is evolving and trending in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for 2019 and beyond, we went to the professionals living that work every day. 

We reached out to more than 150 CSR executives and interviewed them, capturing their thoughts, challenges and predictions for the upcoming year. 

So, what did we find out? 

When Brittany Hill from Catalist called me last week she had had enough.

"Your past two newsletters have been all about the New England Patriots. 🏈 Blah, blah, blah," she said. "Instead of bragging, how about if you actually show your readers why and how to work with sports teams."

Of course, I was like....🤭😡😬. She had a point. So, sheepishly, I asked her what she had in mind.

"Catalist interviewed a thousand people to better understand the intersection of sports and social good," Brittany explained. "I can show nonprofits why sports teams need them."

"Like how the Patriots need Tom Brady?," I said.

"Exactly," said Brittany. 🤥 "But instead of giving your readers a reason to hate you, I’ll give them a full report, infographic and an hour-long webinar that will translate the findings into a real strategy that nonprofits can use with sports leagues, teams and even players...."

Pro-athletes have always used their high profile to raise awareness for social injustices (e.g. Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brown, Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King). But we are truly witnessing a new day when a league or team’s bottom line will be directly impacted by their social purpose. 

Americans want more from our favorite coffee brand than to just a great cup of coffee. We want them to be environmentally, fiscally and socially-responsible. We want them to create actual change in our communities. We expect the same from our favorite sports teams. 

But what does that actually mean? Can standing up for a cause really jeopardize fan support for their favorite athlete or team?

Well, it wasn't much of a game to watch, but at least my New England Patriots won! And we had some cause ads to count and watch. Here's my list of this year's Super Bowl cause ads​.

Now, when I shared this list on Twitter, there was some talk that the Washington Post ad should be included. I also had second doubts about including the CBS spot because it seemed less like an ad and more like a PSA for Girls, Inc.

That said, for those of you who submitted a guess of between 7 and 9, you won a Selfish Giving t-shirt! According to my records the winners are Katherine O'Hare, Susan Roschke and Erin Mooney Phipps. Congrats! Just reply with your size and address and I'll send you your tee. Wear it with pride!

I'm in major prep mode for Super Bowl LIII on Sunday. I have my New England Patriots shirt, hat and socks. I've stocked the pantry with munchies - both healthy and not. I've checked all the connections to my TV and made sure to pay my cable bill. And I've prepared a whole slew of biting comments if we win (and a few good retorts if we don't).

I'll also have pen and paper nearby as I plan to keep track of all the cause ads in between plays. And I'm expecting a lot! I'm betting I'll see 8 cause advertisements during the Super Bowl.

What's your guess?

Hit reply and tell me how many cause-related ads you expect to see. If you guess correctly, you'll get a swanky Selfish Giving tee! After a Super Bowl ring, this will be one of the most coveted items from the big game!

Go Patriots! Go cause marketing!

If you haven't heard of Marie Kondo you must be living in a (cluttered) cave. It seems like she's everywhere right now. Perhaps you've read her bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Maybe you're a fan of her new Netflix show Tidying Up. Or perhaps you were turned down for a lunch date last weekend because your friend was "Kondo-ing." You know you've made it big when people are using your name as a verb!

Marie Kondo is on a mission to declutter our homes. But the timing is also right to declutter our corporate partnership programs. Let's get rid of the things that are stressing us out and not supporting our success! A few places to start...

1. Streamline your marketing. If something isn't generating business leads, get rid of it. Focus on things that work and trying things that could work…

Since the beginning of the year, several of you have emailed me asking about conferences to attend in 2019. Thankfully, Rich Maiore and the team at Rocket Social Impact put together a nice list just for you. Thanks, Rich!

But can I be honest? I don't really like going to conferences - unless I'm being paid to speak at them. They're expensive. They're crowded. You have to travel to them. You have to talk to people.🙄The networking is hit or miss. And the information you glean from speakers isn't exactly new or unique. I like to say that conference are for people who don't read.

The good news is that you can still "attend" a conference and benefit from the networking and learning. Here's how….

From the mailbag: Joe, I'm curious...why do you emphasize cause marketing over corporate revenue and the numerous opportunities for engagement apart from cause marketing? It seems like you regularly talk about various ways to engage corporations that are outside of cause marketing, but the focus seems to always be directed back to organizations building a cause marketing strategy.

Great Question! Three reasons.

First, corporate giving is the smallest slice of the pie. As the above graph highlights, there's relatively little money in traditional corporate giving (aka philanthropy) as companies continue to give less and less…

The day I was born it was a chilly 36 degrees. I know this for a fact because I was a spry 40-year old on December 1, 2007, the day I signed up for the social networking site Twitter. I've been active on Twitter ever since and it's by far my favorite social media site.

Don't believe all the naysayers on Twitter. It's a great place to hang out.

1. Twitter is very different from Facebook, Instagram and other sites. Twitter isn't about your friends or network. It's about your ideas. If you are curious and are a voracious learner - like I am! - Twitter is the right social network for you.

2. Twitter is less personal than sites like Facebook. Unlike the latter, you don't have to think twice - or thrice - before you "unfriend" someone. If people aren't tweeting stuff you're interested in, you can just unfollow them. No biggie. Still, like Facebook, Twitter does have a "mute" button if you'd rather silence someone but still follow him.

3. Twitter is a direct link to another person. No gatekeepers! It's like having someone's phone number so you can text them. I've tweeted with marketing executives, authors and even B-list celebrities…

Hanukkah, Bodhi Day, Solstice, Yule, Dongji, Christmas, Kwanzaa, etc. Whatever holidays you observe, I wish happy ones for you and yours. See you in the New Year!

1. Something to share with your partners. How to get employees to give more to charity. 

2. What happens when you wander through a nut factory, a knitting facility, and a children’s charity.

3. TikTok, the social media app for sharing short lip-sync videos, will give $2 million to charity as its users post videos using holiday-themed augmented reality (AR) filters along with the #CreateforaCause hashtag. With each tagged post, TikTok will donate money to DoSomething.org, Best Friends Animal Society and Oceana.

The latest data shows that big companies are employing a larger percentage of the workforce. That's not great news for local nonprofits that rely on smaller, regional businesses for cause marketing programs. Still, it doesn't have to be the end of the world either if nonprofits approach fundraising with businesses from the right perspective.

1. Relax, businesses were never going to be your bread and butter. Unless you’re City Year, The United Way, Product RED, or a handful of other special nonprofits, the money you raise from businesses isn't a big deal. I'd expect you to generate between 5% to 15% of your total revenues from businesses. That's it. As one development executive said to me, "I could cover all that money with one rich donor." Think of cause marketing as the cherry on top of the sundae - a great treat on top of everything else. But alone? Not very sweet.

2. Focus on the tree not the forest. Despite the growing dominance of large companies, there are still plenty of smaller companies out there, especially in the B2B sector. Approach each company as an individual opportunity and customize a fundraiser just for them….

Have you ever heard of the Rule of 5? Last month, in the Wall Street Journal, columnist Andy Kessler asserted that five is the exact number of meetings you need to close any deal. I think this is right (or pretty close) when it comes to closing corporate partnership pacts.

The article was short - and the WSJ has a serious paywall - so here's a summary.

1. First Meeting: Sniff Test. This is the meeting where you get to know one another. Two important points here. First, don't sell. Second, find some point of identification. After all, people eventually buy from people they know, like and trust.

2. Second Meeting: Story Time. Tell stories about your organization, partnership program and what you're up to. Build attention and interest. People love stories so tell them a good one - just make sure it's true!

3. Third Meeting: Prove It. For this meeting…

Ever since the team from Allison + Partners came on CauseTalk Radio to talk about how influencers can power cause marketing, I've become convinced my three-legged stool for cause marketing success, which previously included legs for sales, research and content marketing, needs a fourth for influencers.

More evidence: Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and State Farm's efforts to raise money for wildfire victims in California. Read the whole story over at Upworthy.

While Rodgers is a special influencer because he's a sports star, the benefits of working with influencers is not limited to celebrities. When we cultivate influencers of all sizes (e.g. micro-influencers) we can reap the same benefits - albeit at a smaller scale, including dollars raised. Take this example involving Best Friends Animal Society and Instagram doggy influencer Walter Cronkite (@thedailywalter).

Here are just a few of the perks…