Category — Charity

Thrift stores "are gradually adding perks that impart a more exclusive feel to the shopping experience," reports Patrice J. Williams in the New York Times (1/1/12). At Housing Works, customers pay an extra five dollars to gain early, "Power Hour," access to its Buy the Bag sale, "where shoppers are handed a bag to fill with previously owned cashmere sweaters, tweed skirts and Italian handbags." The bags otherwise cost $25 each. "For some people, early access and seeing the newest, hottest thing is really important," says David Raper, vice president of retail for Housing Works, a nonprofit that supports HIV and AIDs patients.

The Super Savers Club at The Savers chain, "also known as Value Village … entitles members to discounts. The chain even started a Stamp Pass for the holidays: after 15 stamps, each awarded after donating or spending $5, a customer receives a 30 percent discount on the next purchase." At B-thrifty, outside Washington DC, shoppers purchasing a $100 pre-paid card get an additional $25. Goodwill, meanwhile, introduced a Rewards Card in 2010 that is "not that dissimilar from the one at Barneys."

So far, some 30,000 people have signed up for the Goodwill program in the Greater New York and New Jersey region. "We wanted to stay connected with loyal customers, the people who support Goodwill," says Lauretta Cunningham, senior vice-president of retail operations. Lauretta says the loyalty program is part of a larger effort to provide a better overall shopping experience. "We’re not Nordstrom," she says. "But we have people who feel our service is like theirs." Not surprisingly, thrift stores are doing well in the current economy, "growing five percent in the last year, according to the Association of Resale Professionals."

The top thinkers in business management are journalists and academics who are "far removed from business school," observes Alan Murray in the Wall Street Journal (12/5/11). Adrian Wooldridge, an editor at the Economist, analyzes whether this is good or bad in his latest book, Masters of Management. We’re talking about folks like Malcolm Gladwell, Thomas Freedman, Chris Anderson, Robert Reich and Stephen Covey. Adrian profiles various "management thinkers and muses briefly on the possibility that their existence is a sign of management theory’s ‘immaturity’."

However, he "concludes that the disparate nature of management theory is a sign of ‘the profession’s vitality — its openness to outside ideas and its willingness to allow a thousand flowers to bloom." He suggests that management theory’s open, informal and undisciplined culture has "kept it fizzling with new ideas." His book is actually an update of an earlier work, The Witch Doctors, which he co-authored with John Micklethwait, also of the Economist, in 1996. That book took aim at corporate re-engineering, or the ’90s-era trend toward cost-cutting and downsizing, deeming the "cure worse than the original disease."

The new book explores "corporate social responsibility" in a similar fashion. Among others, it cites BP’s efforts to position itself as "the world’s most environmentally conscious oil company," only to find itself viewed as hypocritical, or worse, after "the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico … For all the talk of a ‘triple bottom line’ — targeting people, planet and profits — few companies, in the US at least, have truly taken their eyes off their stock price and quarterly profit." He also notes that "many companies that trumpet social responsibility have found it a useful tool for cutting the cost of materials, improving recruiting, wooing customers and otherwise enhancing the old-fashioned bottom line."

Habitat for Humanity is cleaning up with a chain of stores "that sells donated building materials, furniture and other items," reports Kirsti Marohn in USA Today (5/18/11). Called ReStore, the first of the Habitat outlets "opened in the mid-1980s in Winnipeg, Canada, followed by the first US store in Austin." The idea, according to Habitat senior vice-president Larry Gluth, is to raise money and promote sustainability. Today, ReStore has grown into "more than 750" stores nationwide "with sales estimated between $350 million and $400 million."

This success is "in part because more people are doing home improvement projects themselves to save money, and partly due to a greater concern for the environment." Not only do the stores "divert thousands of tons of materials from the waste stream every year," but those who donate items "get the benefit of a tax write-off." The stores "accept a range of building materials, including doors, cabinets, windows, light fixtures and flooring, as well as appliances and furniture … Retailers sometimes donate products because the manufacturer changed the packaging."

Under some circumstances, "Habitat for Humanity volunteers will deconstruct an old home that’s about to be demolished, removing … anything that can be resold." Given budget cutbacks by governments and private foundations, ReStore is helping make sustainability, um, sustainable. In the Chicago area, there are three ReStore outlets, including one, in Elgin, that "doubled in size after just two years of operation." In Nashville, two stores that "opened in 2005 and 2006 have generated enough revenue to sponsor 17 additional Habitat for Humanity homes. "One of two ReStores in Kansas City last year "earned $550,000."

Noah Fradin is only 18, but he has an idea that could change the way shoppers engage in cause-marketing initiatives, reports Amy Wallace in the New York Times (4/17/11). Noah’s idea is called CherryCard, and it’s really simple: Participating retailers give each shopper a 25-cent voucher with a code on it. Shoppers can then "deposit" the money in an account at CherryCard dot-org and allocate the proceedings to any number of charities. The whole thing is linked to Facebook, so that when shoppers contribute funds, it’s noted on their Facebook page.

The retailers are responsible for funding the 25 cents, and CherryCard collects "a minimal fee per card." So far, just 35 charities are participating, and Noah is still working on lining up some retailers — although the Milwaukee Brewers are participating (the team’s owners are friends of Noah’s parents, who also fronted $2,000 in start-up funds). Noah admits that his youth makes it harder to win over retailers, but "believes CherryCard can be financed out of retailers’ marketing budgets because it identifies them as socially conscious enterprises."

He also says, " … Who better to get people excited about something than kids? We’re excited about everything!" Steve Mariotti of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, commends Noah’s initiative. "Since all net new jobs over the last 30 years have come from start-ups, we’d better be seeing young people willing to take these risks," he says. "They have an intuitive understanding of how social media has changed marketing and branding." The Milwaukee Brewers say they are happy with results, and Noah, who will enter Brown University this fall, is nothing but optimistic. "Let’s end poverty," he says. "Let’s end world hunger. I really do think that’s possible."

“Groupon chief executive Andrew Mason has absolutely nothing to apologize for after giving over half of his advertising time to good causes," posits pundit Lawrence O"Donnell of The Last Word (link). You”ve no doubt heard the controversy over Groupon”s incredibly incongruous and allegedly insensitive Super Bowl ads. One had Timothy Hutton saying, “The people of Tibet are in trouble. Their very culture is in jeopardy. But they still whip up an amazing fish curry!” (link) Another has Elizabeth Hurley waxing poetic about saving the Brazilian Rain Forest before turning to another kind of deforestation — waxing services (link).

Both ads were intended to call attention to social causes while also promoting Groupon’s ability to deliver deep discounts at local restaurants and beauty salons. Both ads have also been roundly criticized, most notably by Huffington Post columnist Saul Gitlin, for trivializing the issues by juxtaposing them with Groupon’s own self-promotion (link). But Lawrence has a different take. He suggests that Groupon’s ads were preferable to others airing on the Super Bowl, such as those that objectified women, for example, which weren’t necessarily criticized. He also thinks the ads successfully delivered important messages to exactly the right audience.

“The people who know nothing — nothing — about Tibet, and know everything about football, are exactly the people you want to deliver that message to,” says Lawrence. “Same thing with the rampant deforestation of the Brazilian Rain Forest.” Noting the failure of traditional activists to communicate Tibet’s troubles or Brazil’s deforestation, he says: "No one — no one — has told more people about those things at once than Groupon." And he thinks the ad was smart marketing, given that, days later, people are still talking about them, and as everybody knows: "There’s nothing more important for a television ad than being memorable and talked about." He thinks Groupon is, in fact, "the MVP of Super Bowl advertising."

The Philadelphia Eagles ascend to higher purpose and win both on and off the field. By Dori Molitor. The row of vertical wind turbines that will soon be perched atop the perimeter of Lincoln Financial Field will be just the most visible sign that there’s something different about the football team that plays there. The solar panels will be a bit unusual, too.