December 16th, 2008
by Greg Kriegler

My wife sent me an article from the Seattle PI reporting that Toys for Tots (a treasured and uber popular holiday toy drive) has collected only about 5,000 toys so far—compared with the 50,000 toys that have been donated by this time during most years. This regrettable lack of donations really got me thinking:

With national economic turmoil, it’s pretty easy to justify pinching every penny…after all, who knows which of our family members or friends is next to get the rug pulled from under their feet by the national/global economic downturn. As of a week ago, I would’ve been writing this from my ivory tower. At least a few times a day, my mind wanders to two main ideas:

• 1. That I’m lucky to have a job at all
• 2. That I’m doubly lucky to have a job that I love with an extraordinary group of people (more…)

tags: community partnership, corporate charities, seattle, socially conscious, Toys for Tots

August 6th, 2008
by Katie Hoffman

This is Katie Hoffman and I am writing in Lena’s Joblog while she is sailing the seas in Alaska (lucky girl). Some of you may already know that Projectline volunteers every month and we pick the cause based on ideas from employees and sub-contractors. This allows us to help out locally and also get to know each other better. Recently, I suggested that we volunteer for a brand new event designed to raise funds for brain cancer research.

The statistics say that 3 in every 100,000 people are diagnosed with a brain tumor. The average survival rate of someone diagnosed with brain cancer is one to two years. When my sister, Kim Hogle, had five people close to her diagnosed with a brain tumor, she knew it was time to figure out how to get involved and help those families close to her. When she realized that Seattle is fortunate enough to have the Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment and she met Dr. Greg Foltz, Kim was inspired to start the first ever Annual Brain Cancer Walk, called the “Cranium Crusade.” She also got me involved.

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tags: cause-related marketing, community partnership, corporate charities, marketing, Recruiting, responsible, socially conscious

April 22nd, 2008
by Anika Lehde

To be honest, writing up a little blurb about Projectline’s efforts to reduce our environmental impact by choosing innovative gifts has been on my (long) list of things that I want to do for a while. No complaints tho’ – being busy is a a great thing! When I woke up this morning I was reminded by the radio that today is Earth Day, and I figured it was the universe telling me to get off my duff and share some information. I know I don’t want any more throw-away, meaningless, economically-questionable SWAG and I suspect many others are in the same boat. Here are some ideas that you can use for your own firm, or recommend to your clients that want to buck the status quo:

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tags: cause-related marketing, community partnership, corporate charities, kiva, socially conscious

August 3rd, 2007
by Amy Baskerville

This past weekend while having dinner with my parents, my mom looked at me from across the table and presented a seemingly simple request: “So Amy, tell us about your new job.” Coming from one of my parents, this question was much more complicated than it appeared. You see, as far as my parents are concerned, a position in technology, and not social activism, is a difficult sell. Essentially, you’re one of two things—either a giver to society or a taker—a concept very well illustrated in the book Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit, by Daniel Quinn. Although my career passion doesn’t lie in the public sector, managing business problems, developing marketing campaigns and working with technology (that changes our world for the better) and being a positive force is my form of social activism—I call it ‘changing it from the inside’. (more…)

tags: cause-related marketing, community partnership, corporate charities, marketing, socially conscious