Cause Talk Radio: The Cause Marketing Podcast

It’s been a minute, but Megan is back with Joe Waters of SelfishGiving.com for The Joe Show!Joe and Megan spend this episode sharing our thoughts about which COVID pivots have struck them as particularly clever or creative from companies that are creating new opportunities because of COVID - like what Major League Baseball is doing with cardboard fans in the stands - to initiatives that are bound and determined to stay the course, even given the pandemic like Dutch Bros’ fundraising effort for MDA.We also give a little sneak peak into Engage for Good’s Member Meet-Up for September about point of sale fundraising (you have to be an EFG Member to join!) and our new “Learning Club” about the Future of Retail on August 27th, which is free for anyone to join.Joe says there are only a few types of businesses that are still viable point of sale fundraising partners. Tune in to hear which ones!Joe and Megan chat about the coin shortage and how companies like Murphy USA and Taco Bell used point of sale fundraising rou

One in 5 children is living with significant mental illness and half of all lifetime mental health challenges start by the age of 14. To address this issue of pediatric mental health, Big Lots and Nationwide Children’s Hospital have partnered to create an initiative called ‘On Our Sleeves’ since kids don’t wear their emotions on their sleeves but still need our support. Given the additional stresses created by COVID, the issue of pediatric mental health is even more critical now. In this episode of Cause Talk Radio, Megan speaks with Jeremy Ball, VP of Internal Communications, Philanthropy and Events and Donna Teach, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Nationwide Children’s Hospital about their partnership and how they’ve pivoted during COVID to create an incredible, gratitude-focused platform. They discuss the resources the team has developed for kids and families and what their plans are to keep their foot on the gas when it comes to providing resources for pediatric mental health.Links & Note

Megan’s guest today is Jeff Meade, founder of an agency for agencies called Meade.Jeff recently wrote an article on LinkedIn called, “How Agency Leaders Can Support Black Employees”, with 6 practical tips for agencies....or really any organization.Jeff and Megan talk through these tips, ranging from education to the Rooney Rule.More than anything, Jeff and Megan both agree that one thing we can all do to continue this important conversation on racial justice is to “keep your foot on the gas”. This conversation is one small way to do exactly that.Links & Notes How Agency Leaders Can Support Black Employees MEADE Website 00:00 - Welcome to Cause Talk Radio 00:54 - Introducing Jeff Meade 03:25 - "How Agency Leaders Can Support Black Employees" 08:42 - 1. Listen 14:20 - Sponsor: Audible 15:05 - 2. Education 20:23 - 3. Measure What Matters 24:37 - 4. The Rooney Rule 27:59 - 5. Empathy to Engagement

Sweetgreen restaurants are on a mission to inspire healthier communities by connecting people to real food. When the COVID pandemic hit, they realized they could fill a need by providing healthy food to healthcare workers. So they teamed up with Chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen to create the sweetgreen impact outpost fund that would get much-needed nutrition to hospitals around the country.In this episode of Cause Talk Radio, Megan has the pleasure of chatting with Kirby Bumpus, Head of Social Impact and Inclusion for sweetgreen.In addition to learning more about this partnership with World Central Kitchen and how it got started, we also learn more about some of the incredible social impact work sweetgreen is committed to around food education, access and much, much more.Links & Notes sweetgreen’s Impact Outpost Work sweetgreen’s Social Impact Work sweetgreen on Twitter sweetgreen on Facebook 00:00 - Welcome to Cause Talk Radio 00:21 - Sponsor: Audible 00:48 - Introducing Sweetgreen and World Cent

We're back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year's Halo Award winners.This episode features the Silver winner for the Consumer Donation category the No Kid Hungry campaign with Denny’s and Share Our Strength.Megan chats with Share Our Strength Senior Manager Victoria Garcia about their award-winning partnership.This is a long-term partnership that has really worked over the years to improve upon it’s in-restaurant consumer fundraising effort. Victoria and Megan talk about how No Kid Hungry has a big presence at Denny’s Franchise Convention, how executives got involved to increase motivation among their teams, incentives that were part of this effort and how all of this resulted in some impressive fundraising gains.Links & Notes No Kid Hungry Corporate Partner Site Halo Award Write-Up Page Episode Sponsor: Submittable 00:00 - Welcome to Cause Talk Radio 00:21 - Sponsor: Submittable 00:48 - Introducing No Kid Hungry with Denny's

We're back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year's Halo Award winners.This episode features the Gold Winner in the Education category, an initiative called “Drive Bigger”, a partnership between VW and DonorsChoose.Megan is joined by Vashti Barron, Senior Partnerships Manager for DonorsChoose. They talk about how this partnership was activated during a busy summer sales season to give VW a way to help consumers support local classrooms and teachers via donation cards.The two chat about why the partners decided to give dealers the choice of how they used these donation cards, what the business and impact objectives were and what the most successful dealerships did to bring this partnership to life.Links & Notes DonorsChoose Website VW's Drive Bigger Website Halo Award Write-Up Episode Sponsor: Submittable 00:00 - Welcome to Cause Talk Radio 00:21 - Sponsor: Submittable 00:48 - Introducing Drive Bigger with VW and DonorsChoose 10

We’re back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year’s Halo Award winners.This episode features the Silver winner for the Sustainability category, an initiative called Don't Feed the Landfills with partners Subaru and the National Parks Conservation Association.Megan is joined today by Denise Coogan, Environmental Partnership Manager for Subaru and Karen Hevel-Mingo, Senior Manager of Sustainability and Climate Change for the National Parks Conservation Association.Our national parks are our country's crown jewels but their 330 million annual visitors leave behind more than 70 million pounds of waste. In this episode, they discuss how Subaru and NPCA teamed up to run this pilot program in 3 national parks to help develop, test, monitor and refine approaches to waste reduction tailored to each park’s unique circumstance.Denise, Karen and Megan discuss how this partnership began, how Subaru's deep expertise in waste reduction informed act

We're back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year's Halo Award winners.This episode features the Silver winner for the Group Volunteerism category, The CarMax Foundation Supports Play with KABOOM!Megan speaks with Leslie Parpart, Director of Community Relations at CarMax and James Siegal, CEO of KABOOM! about their long-term relationship.The trio chats about how the partnership started with one CarMax employee and has grown into a multi-year, multi-phased relationship, how the partners found alignment around each organization's purpose and a focus on children and healthy living.They also dig into the three components of this partnership engaging over 11,000 CarMax associates in their work, giving over 225,000 kids the opportunity to play and how the partnership helps to build community among CarMax employees.Mentioned Links CarMax Website KABOOM! Website 00:00 - Welcome to Cause Talk Radio 00:21 - Sponsor: Submittable 00:48 - Intro

We’re back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year’s Halo Award winners.This episode features a double Halo Award winner: winning Gold for the Disaster Prevention/Relief category AND winning Silver in the Employee Engagement category is an effort called ‘Creating Grief Ambassadors’: a partnership between New York Life and First Book.Megan is joined by Maria Collins, VP of the New York Life Foundation and Kisha Dimbo, Senior VP of Strategic Alliances for First Book to talk about their award winning effort that focuses on childhood bereavement and how they’re working together to support children and families when tragedy strikes.Links & Notes First Book Website New York Life Foundation 00:00 - Welcome to Cause Talk Radio 00:21 - Sponsor: Submittable 00:48 - Introducing NYLife and Firstbook Creating Grief Ambassadors 09:41 - Sponsor: Inclusivity and Bias Reduction with Submittable 11:01 - Grief-Sensitive Schools

We're back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year's Halo Award winners.This episode features the Gold Winner in the Health category, an initiative called “The Truth About Opioids”, a partnership between Leidos and The Truth Initiative.Megan is joined by Melissa Dueñas, SVP and Director of Communications and Marketing for Leidos and Eric Asche, CMO for The Truth Initiative. They talk about how their partnership focused on widening the conversation about opioid abuse, both among Leidos employees as well as other companies via a CEO pledge and critical metrics and how both partners consider this a marathon, not a sprint.In addition, the conversation covers the incredible brand expansion that the Truth Initiative made when they decided to tackle the opioid crisis and how corporate partners like Leidos have helped make their vision a reality. Links & Notes The Truth Website The Truth Initiative Website Leidos Social Responsibility We

We're back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year’s Halo Award winners.This episode features the Silver winner for the Consumer Activated Corporate Donation category, a PopSockets initiative called “Poptivism”Megan is joined by Jennifer Forman, Director of Poptivism & Corporate Citizenship with PopSockets. They discuss what this program is all about, how it began, why PopSockets decided to entrust its community to create their own custom designs for good and where this program is headed in the future.Links & Notes Poptivism Website Halo Award Write-Up on Poptivism 00:00 - Welcome to Cause Talk Radio 00:21 - Sponsor: Harbor Compliance 00:48 - Introducing Poptivism from Popsockets with Jennifer Forman 12:08 - Sponsor: Harbor Compliance

We’re back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year’s Halo Award winners.This episode features the Silver winner in the Social Service category, an effort called HireHonor: a collaboration between Activision Blizzard and the Call of Duty Endowment.Megan is joined by Dan Goldenberg who serves as Executive Director for the Call of Duty Endowment and VP at Activision Blizzard.We talk about this incredibly successful effort to raise funds and awareness for the issue of veteran employment, how the team focused their efforts to do fewer things better, why they chose to expand internationally and how partnerships with gamers, retailers and sponsors helped elevate this initiative.Links & Notes CODE on Twitter Dan Goldenberg on Twitter CODE on Instagram CODE on Facebook CODE Website Halo Award Write-Up 00:00 - Welcome to Cause Talk Radio 00:21 - Sponsor: Harbor Compliance 00:48 - Introducing Dan Goldenberg of Activision Blizzard and the Ca

We're back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year's Halo Award winners.This episode features the Silver winner for the Disaster Prevention/Relief category, an initiative called Hydrating Our Nation’s Heroes: a partnership between Anheuser-Busch and the National Volunteer Fire Council.Megan is joined by Adam Warrington, VP of CSR for Anheuser Busch, as well as Heather Schafer, Chief Executive Officer of the National Volunteer Fire Council.The trio discusses how this award-winning partnership got started, how the partners decided to be proactive instead of reactive when it came to supplying canned fresh water to wildfire sites, how they got the word out to volunteer firefighters and the impact of the program.They also talk about how the COVID pandemic is impacting this partnership and what future plans entail.Mentioned Links Anheuser-Busch Website Purpose Beyond Brewing Halo Award Write-Up Become A Volunteer Fire Fighter NVFC website

We’re back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation w/ one of this year’s Halo Award winners.This episode features the Gold winner for the Group Volunteerism category, an effort called The Power of One from Vivint Smart Home.Megan is joined by Holly Mero Bench, Director of Vivint Gives Back. They dig into why Vivint focuses on helping families with children who have autism and other intellectual and developmental disabilities after recognizing the profound impact of smart home technology for these families.Holly and Megan discuss the many moving pieces that Vivint activates when it comes to engaging their employees, from international service trips in which employees pay part of their way to providing holiday gifts for families in need. We talk about the role of employee choice in engagement efforts as well as the lessons Holly has learned along the way and the advice she'd give to others who are working to ramp up an employee volunteerism program.Links &am

We’re back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year’s Halo Award winners.This episode features the Gold winner for the Employee Engagement category, an initiative from rail company CSX called Pride in Service.Megan is joined today by Bryan Tucker, CSX VP of Corporate Communications, as well as a LIVE audience who weigh in with their own questions.They discuss the genesis of "pride in service", how CSX determined that one in five of their employees served in the military and the incredibly robust partnerships they activated to engage CSX employees in a cause dedicated to "serving those who serve".We learn what CSX is doing to pivot in response to the COVID pandemic and where Bryan hopes to take this initiative in the future.This episode is sponsored by Harbor Compliance. Download their free, online fundraising compliance guide here.Links & Notes CSX Pride in Service Page Halo Write-Up 00:00 - Welcome to Cause Talk Radio 00:21 - Spo

We’re back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation w/ one of this year’s Halo Award winners.This episode features the Silver winner for the Education category, an effort called WE Teachers a partnership between Walgreens and WE.Megan is joined by Dana Glim, Director of Brand Marketing for Walgreens and Erin Barton, Chief Development Officer for WE. They talk about their longstanding partnership and why the partners decided to focus on supporting teachers in this first year of WE Teachers.The trio dives into the KPIs behind this campaign and the lessons learned including simplicity, employee involvement and supplier engagement. Of course, they also discuss how the COVID crisis will change the partners’ Year 2 plans for back to school and how they're strategizing around the unknown. One thing's for sure: teachers are a critical part of our community and if anything, that's only become more clear in the past months.Links & Notes Me to We on Walgreens Webs

We're back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year's Halo Award winners.This episode features the Silver Winner in the Inclusion category, an initiative called 'Face Your Fierce', a partnership between Abercrombie & Fitch and The Trevor Project.Megan is joined by Carey Krug, SVP and Head of Marketing for Abercrombie & Fitch and Shira Kogan, Senior Corporate Development Manger for The Trevor Project. They discuss how this 2019 effort went all-in to activate around one of Abercrombie's best-selling SKUs, its 'Fierce' fragrance for men, in a year-round campaign that authentically highlighted stories of real people with diverse identities within the LGBTQ community. The conversation digs into the round-up at point of sale, why the partners decided to make this a year-round effort, the metrics both partners were following as well as the impact of this campaign on the youth that Trevor serves.The COVID crisis has made Trevor's missi

We're back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation with one of this year's Halo Award winners.This episode features the Gold Winner in the Consumer-Activated Corporate Donation category, a partnership between DSW & Soles4Souls.Megan is joined by Amy Stevenson, Chief Marketing Officer for DSW and Buddy Teaster, CEO of Soles4Souls. They discuss this 10-year partnership and how the partners really doubled down in 2019 to solve a unique business challenge for DSW: how to provide consumers with a way to donate their gently-used shoes so they could make room for new ones in their closet in a way that supported micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries. They cover how DSW incentivized consumers to donate by providing bonus loyalty points, why it was critical for DSW employees (up to and including the President) to be "all-in" and what actually happens after shoes are donated through this award-winning effort.Of course, the conversation also includes a deep

Eighty percent of jobs in next decade need some combination of STEM skills. Yet only 30% of the STEM workforce is comprised of women. To address this shortage of women in STEM careers, in 2014 Mastercard created an employee engagement effort called Girls4Tech, designed to showcase the in-house expertise of the global payments processor.Girls4Tech won the Gold Halo Award in 2020 for the Skilled Volunteerism Category and in this episode of Cause Talk Radio, Megan speaks talk with Susan Warner, VP of Talent and Community Engagement for Mastercard who founded this incredible program.Megan and Susan discuss the genesis of Girls4Tech, how they achieved massive scale with this program and what Susan considers the "triple crown" of employee engagement as well as the advice Susan has for other businesses considering skilled volunteerism initiatives.Links & Notes*Girls4Tech Website 00:00 - Welcome to Cause Talk Radio 00:37 - Introducing Mastercard's Girls for Tech 08:10 - Sponsor • Accelerist

We’re back with another special edition of Cause Talk Radio in which we feature a deep dive conversation w/ one of this year’s Halo Award winners.This episode features the Gold winner for the Inclusion category, an effort called Day of Inclusion with partners Tim Hortons and Special Olympics Canada.Megan is joined by Chris Wakefield who leads the Regional Marketing and Sponsorships Team for Tim Hortons and Angela Reid, Manager of Partnerships and Business Development for Special Olympics CanadaThey talk about their second year of Day of Inclusion, which is both a social media movement as well as an in-store celebration of inclusion where a yummy donut created by a Special Olympics athlete is sold on a single day. The funds help support athletes with intellectual disabilities and helps promote messages of inclusion.Chris, Angela and Megan talk about how their partnership originally began, all the moving pieces behind their significant activations for this campaign, their respective lessons learned and what's