Today I discovered Laura P. Hartman. She is a Professor of Business Ethics and Legal Studies at Chicago’s DePaul University with extensive knowledge of both American and European business cultures. For the past year she has also been instrumental in launching the Zynga Gaming Network’s giving initiative as Director of External Partnerships. Zynga’s first initiative, Sweet Seeds for Haiti, raised more than $1 million during the campaign from the sale of virtual sweet potato seeds. The money raised supports two charities that work with the school children of this struggling island country. The campaign was so successful that Zynga CEO (and Laura’s brother) Mark Pincus, was recognized last week at the Crunchies awards in Silicon Valley.
Laura was lead author on a paper written in 2007 with Robert Rubin and K. Kathy Dhanda comparing corporate social responsibility in America and Europe. Since I work with clients on both continents, it seemed a great place to start my research on social gaming, social interactions and social responsibility at both the personal and corporate levels. Integral to the Social Rose model is the understanding that we have a personal responsibility to our community to assist in its continuity through charitable contributions of both time and treasures.
It is well recognized that European and American corporate cultures differ in their approaches to corporate social responsibility. I will leave this discussion for the experts. Individuals often look toward corporate giving as an indicator of their giving plans. Although studies have shown that some European consumers are more comfortable basing decisions on spending dependent on the manufacturer’s corporate social responsibility plans, I perceive that this is also true for Americans who are educated concerning the causes they choose to support. For instance, friends who support unions are more likely to shop Costco versus Sam’s Club. Those who know the impact of health care coverage among part time workers are more likely to shop Starbuck’s over Dunkin’ Donuts. Those involved in the auto industry will tend to buy American manufactured cars rather than imported cars.
Where Americans excel is in non profit giving. Although we are struggling with a changing economy and spending less during this time of transition, we are finding creative ways to give to those causes we support. The hospitality industry has taken a hit as corporations and non-profits are scaling back traditional events. Whether we will see a reversal of this in 2010-2011 is expected but by no means assured. What is evident is that is that individuals are still vested in finding ways to give back. Stepping into the void are corporations using their relations with non-profits to target their contributions to causes that reflect the communities they serve. Social media platforms, in particular Facebook, are leading the charge to find creative way to trumpet causes and provide mechanisms for individual giving. The Causes groups on Facebook attract a huge following.
This holiday season saw several different campaigns on Facebook. Highlighting two different approaches to corporate philanthropy are the afore mentioned Zynga and Chase Banks Facebook campaign. I participated in both. Both were successful in meeting their objectives. The approaches were vastly different. Zynga’s Farmville social experiment was monumental and yet perhaps easier to implement since it is built on a model of social interaction. The long held theory that consumers would be more likely to purchase a product that had a well defined social component was proven. Chase launched a multi-day campaign to vote for 20 charities from across the country to receive a part of a $5 million donation. The 20 charities will undoubtedly trumpet the success of this campaign. Likewise, smart boards and development offices from nominated non-profits will build on the momentum generated to try for a piece of next year’s efforts if the campaign is repeated.
Lessons learned for the socially savvy include identifying what is personally appealing in your community, educating yourself regarding the issues vital to the growth and longevity of your causes, and find fun and creative ways to participate through various forms of social interactions that allow you to maximize your contributions. It will be interesting to watch and participate in the future of corporate giving as we embrace social media. For the more than 70 million farmers in Farmville, we are sure to see more exciting campaigns in the future.
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