Report of Findings
October 8, 2010 Summit
Six months ago, over 125 innovators and disruptors gathered on the MIT campus
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to develop new principles for how organizations
can engage individuals to solve social problems. Participants included marketing
and advertising professionals, corporate representatives, government staffers,
nonprofit leaders, students and university researchers.
From the outset, the 2010 Summit set expectations audaciously high and
challenged participants to enlarge their mental framework to see the practice of
cause marketing fitting into a broader ecosystem bustling with new opportunities.
To frame the conversation, the morning began with a short welcome and went
straight into the Conversation Gauntlet, which featured the same moderator
interviewing six different innovators in a consecutive series of ten minute 1:1
conversations. The insights shared by a nonprofit founder, digital advertising
executive, CEO of a crowdsourcing platform, corporate philanthropy advocate,
expert on X-Prize grand challenges and a federal government innovator created
a mosaic of perspective and understanding for what is now possible.
For the remainder of the day, Summit participants divided into six breakout teams
to process what they heard and generate new ideas based on the broader
framework and new insights. At the end of the day, Summit participants
presented a sizeable list of ideas for organizations to go beyond cause marketing
and ways to implement them.
In the weeks and months following the summit, CauseShift considered how to
summarize the findings of the day. By laying out all the ideas side-by-side, the
team saw a pattern emerge for how these ideas could be encapsulated under
three driving principles of success. The following pages summarize and illustrate
these findings for all aspiring organizations to consider and adopt.
To view the complete library of outcomes and a list of 2010 Summit sponsors,
partners, and attendees, you can visit: http://beyondcausemarketing.com

     

 
1   Released: 4/15/2011  
  
 

Principle #1: Measure Progress with Reverse Metrics

Drives: Goals and Objectives

What This Means: New metrics are required; focus on ending problem.

Shifts: How success is measured. Itʼs not about getting bigger or more resources
but rather about how to actually achieve the mission.

Old Way of Thinking: Too much emphasis on accumulating dollars or followers.

Dollars and followers are not a direct line to eradicating a problem.

Depends on: Good, reliable data.

How: Emphasize progress to a decreasing, finite goal.

Ideas to Implement:
1. Long-term metrics focused on impact and results, not just donations.

2. Develop new methods to measure metrics and record results.

3. Social life cycle analysis can provide a framework for companies to

quantifiably compare ethical strategic decisions and forecast the potential
economic advantage. For example, local vs. foreign manufacture. It would
be cheaper to choose foreign, but local may increase brand value, reduce
uncertainty in shipping time, create job increasing disposable income, etc.,
making good action the right strategic direction.

     

 
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Principle #2: Master the Art of Adaptive Scale

Drives: Operations/Tactics

What This Means: Develop solutions that fit local, individualized needs and can
scale in a flexible, adaptive manner based on protocols, not rigid franchises.

Shifts: How success is delivered.

Old Way of Thinking: Approaches have been either "one size fits all" or too
small/esoteric to replicate. Need ability to find what works and adapt to unique
conditions of community, however that is defined.

Depends on: Understanding local needs.

How: Increase participation and engagement.

Ideas to Implement:
1. Partnerships based on strategic objectives and shared value.
2. Demonstrate value and impact of coming together to change, deliver and
affect; celebrate collaboration.
3. Community driven partnerships/collaboration.
4. Human interaction: more long-term impact; face-to-face; act before you
talk.
5. Use story telling and other frameworks to target and engage all
stakeholders.
6. Engaging specifically with small businesses to create local impact through
real partnership.
7. Redefine global - Local = individual communities and individuals, while
global = collection of local impacts.
8. Local and manageable.
9. Redefine local.
10. Empower end user to impact change and define the success of the effort.

11. Instill the idea and ethics of citizenship from an early age.
12. National, grass roots format for sharing what works -- crowdsourced, local
share standards, best practices.
     

 
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Principle #3: Every Cause Needs an Expiration Date

Drives: Business models and organizational values

What This Means: Build obsolescence into business plan and organizational
mission.

Shifts: How success is enabled.

Old Way of Thinking: Organizations – for profit, nonprofit and government -- are
designed for long-term sustainability (e.g., organizational structure, leadership
change, etc), which can often distract them from what they are trying to achieve
in "ending" a problem. Serving the cause instead of solving the cause.

Depends on: Leadership and organizational willingness; Understanding of what

it takes to solve the problem; Establishment of expiration conditions.

How: Design for success and expiration.

Ideas to Implement:
1. Recognize what people want to do and give.

2. Create a positive and meaningful behavioral change for all stakeholders in

the cause.

3. Change practices of engaging in the solution such as leveraging a

company's resources to solve a problem.

4. Action and new forms of philanthropy.

5. Deliberately invest in innovation for sustainability -- for your community,

audiences, environment, then start small, measure, iterate and vocalize to
be your own Bono.

6. Let values drive logistics and educate consumers young.

7. Be confident and stand behind actions/programs.

8. Learn and improve.

9. Adjust; authenticity: transparency.

     

 
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10. Starting with and keeping the recipients of the cause at the core of
purpose and defining success. The “What” and “How” (marketing strategy)
can and should fluctuate.

11. Create momentum for others to follow.

12. Shift control of message.

13. Create a social entrepreneur position within companies. Salary to be tax

deductible to the for-profit, as long as social entrepreneur has trackable
positives for causes. Also, social entrepreneur within company to aid mind
shift in business to long-term vs. short -term bottom line.

14. Create new incentives that encourage social entrepreneurs to launch

results-oriented businesses.

15. Businesses first do no harm.

16. Strategy and cause aligned with corporate values.

17. Companies defined by social mission -- culture inside out; ideas that have
impacts in community; sponsors ideas from those within communities.

18. Connect activities to value.

19. What do you have to offer that can help?

20. New breed of company defined by social mission. Culture is built from the
inside out -- B Corp.

21. Long-term impact and short-term win. Defined beyond revenue. Revenue
+ energy saved = community.

22. Add value beyond cause -- think Starbucks model.

23. Build ecosystems and be systems based -- think United Way.

24. Move away from "generic donations" and let people know exactly where
the money goes, e.g, Toms Shoes. You buy a pair of their shoes and they
supply a pair of shoes for a child in need. This is the "one for one" model
and easy to market.

     

 
5   Released: 4/15/2011