In We First I contend that purposeful engagement represents an enormous opportunity for brands in the social business marketplace. But exactly how does a brand do this? And in what ways can they engage their employees so that they not only earn goodwill with their customers, but also inspire their employees to promote their companies with pride?
Causecast is a remarkable platform that enables both. It serves as a cause integration platform for both brands and non-profits providing the technology and services that make it simple and effective for brands to address some of today’s most pressing problems. It does this by partnering with clients to engage both employees and customers in volunteer and donation opportunities that are relevant to the core values of the brand. While on the execution levels they enable companies to incorporate these opportunities into the brand’s website, campaigns and throughout their organizations.
Such services are not only invaluable but necessary. While many brands would like to be more purposefully engaged, the process must be simple and actionable before they can actually make a commitment. For example, Virgin Mobile Canada and Virgin Unite are using Causecast technology to track and reward volunteers participating in its RE*generation program. So volunteers who donate their time to at-risk and homeless youth organizations across Canada can earn rewards like tickets to the hottest concerts and events across the country by going to volunteer.virginmobile.ca.
Ultimately this power of platforms like Causecast is scale. As Andrew Bridge, director of brand and communications, Virgin Mobile Canada, explains:
Causecast has made it easy to track and manage the volunteer efforts on a massive scale, giving us the ability to help more at-risk and homeless youth than we would have otherwise been able to impact through the RE*Generation program.”
Such efforts are part of what is an exciting and inspiring movement. To encourage greater corporate engagement, Causecast has launched its public beta of Cause Integration Profiles and announced a partnership with Corporate Responsibility Magazine to promote and syndicate the listings of socially responsible companies.
Cause Integration Profiles are open to any company interested in raising the exposure of their corporate social responsibility initiatives, the causes they support and the grants offered by their foundations. In addition to being showcased in a directory on the Causecast website, the data is also available for syndication via real-time data feeds to employment databases and other corporate information distribution partners.
The Cause Integration Profiles provide companies that have integrated cause into their organizations with a unique way of showcasing their CSR initiatives. For consumers and prospective employees, the Profiles provide better visibility into the companies with whom they are considering working for and buying from.
Ryan Scott, Founder of Causecast explains the benefits to companies as follows:
“Research has shown that employees want to work for companies that care, and consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that give back. Our Cause Integration Profiles give companies a way to showcase their efforts and provide consumers with a free, transparent resource to find information about any company’s cause marketing and CSR initiatives.”
The tools, services and success of Causecast are social proof of the private sector’s response to consumer and employee demands for greater social responsibility from the companies they support. By making purposeful engagement simple and effective, Causecast enables brands to resonate more effectively with their customer communities and benefit for the new dynamics made possible by social media. Companies participating in such programs deserve our support as they are the leaders in a private sector movement for substantive social change.
To find out more about Causecast visit causecast.org, to apply for a Cause Integration Profile go to csr.causecast.org, or to become a distribution partner contact profiles@causecast.org.