Cause’s Effect

Digging trenches for a water system under the hot Guatemalan sun — a world apart from her normal Pocatello, Idaho, workday in both miles and mission — a DownEast Home & Clothing employee had a question for a company executive.

So she turned to him and asked.

The trip was no “I’ve-got-to-get-away-from-my-job” attempt at finding herself. Rather, it was a company-sponsored expedition with CHOICE Humanitarian, a Utah-based nonprofit that targets the root causes of poverty in rural villages of developing countries. She wanted to know how the villagers had afforded the project’s cement. When Rich Israelsen, DownEast’s COO, told her that employee contributions had played a role, her response bypassed his ears and went straight to his heart.

“She said, ‘That’s why I love this company,’” he recalls. “I remember it word for word. It was a great moment, one that affirmed to me that our employees were getting it, that they wanted more from the company they work for. They wanted a company that was something above and beyond a balance sheet, something that they could grasp hold and be a part of.”

It’s not just employees. Consumers are expecting more out of the companies with which they do business, as well. The 2010 Cone Cause Evolution Study showed that 83 percent of Americans wish more of the products, services and retailers they use would support causes. In addition, 88 percent consider it acceptable for companies to involve a cause or issue in their marketing — a 33 percent increase since 1993.

“It almost goes without saying: You have to be there,” says Sport Chalet chairman and CEO Craig Levra, whose 55 stores partnered with Tennessee-based nonprofit Soles4Souls to deliver 1.2 million pairs of shoes less than two weeks after the Haiti earthquake. “Customers get it. It’s almost like talking about being ‘green.’ Who actually talks about it anymore? You just do it. It’s understood. Being socially and cause-aware to the best of your ability is a given.”

Get engaged
Cause or cause-related marketing is more than just a passing trend, say those involved. It’s a sign of our culture — guided in part by a younger generation that’s more “connected” with what’s happening around the world than ever before.

These efforts are increasingly tied to the company bottom line, to meeting customer expectations and to experiencing a sense of “doing the right thing.” Retailers are offering matching donations, coupons and merchandise given in response to contributions; some are even inviting customers to go on trips with the charities involved.

Take Soles4Souls, which has given away more than 14 million shoes to people in more than 100 countries since 2005. They’ve been collected in a variety of ways — and those who want to get even more involved can sign up to join a distribution expedition.

It’s part of what makes the difference between being “aware” and being “engaged,” says founder and CEO Wayne Elsey, who also wrote the book Almost Isn’t Good Enough: The Human Connection Changes Everything. Soles4Souls has expanded to include Clothes4Souls and Hope4Souls, the latter to collect medical materials, building supplies, non-perishable foods and other items that might be of use elsewhere.

“Personally, I had to stop and realize that no hearse pulls a U-Haul behind it,” says Elsey, a former shoe-industry executive who experienced his own moment of engagement watching a shoe wash ashore after the 2004 Asian tsunami. “I started asking myself, if I died, what my legacy would be. I had no idea — no clue — the level of need, even in this country.”

Charity drives sales
Greg Buzek, founder and president of consulting firm IHL Group and a trustee of the Retail Orphan Initiative (RetailROI), recently released results of a survey showing 94 percent of consumers might be influenced to shop in a certain store depending on that store’s charitable involvement. Further, nearly half (49 percent) of those surveyed under the age of 35 would buy products perceived as “inferior” if they were tied to charity. Buzek sees that as a great opportunity for tying in private label brands.

RetailROI — which puts a spotlight on the more than 400 million vulnerable children worldwide, encourages companies to create internal programs for employees and raises funds in various ways — produces the pre-NRF Big Show Super Saturday research event in New York. This year, the gathering raised nearly $300,000 for charities involved in orphan care.

RetailROI also recently partnered with IBM to launch a national campaign making it easier for retailers to help customers donate using an Auto RoundUp feature powered by IBM’s SurePOS ACE retail software.

RetailROI partnerships have built a school in Liberia; put in a border-monitoring station for Nepal and India that helped rescue more than 30 girls from human trafficking in its first six months; and funded the expansion of Safe Families (a foster care diversion program) to four U.S. cities.

“We all start out of college with idealistic passion, wanting to change the world,” Buzek says. “But then what typically happens is that we get involved with paying off school loans and our kids and our career and we drift to the place of making the best of the world we know instead. What we’re realizing with RetailROI, though, is that we can re-engage that spirit with some little change in our day jobs.”