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Pets Are Advocates Too

Do you have a dog or cat in need of grooming? If so, here is an opportunity to advocate for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill clean-up efforts. Consider taking your pet to a groomer who will donate your pet’s fur to Matter of Trust, a San Francisco nonprofit organization that has established a process for collecting animal fur and human hair to create nylon “booms” that naturally absorb oil from the water. Last week retailer PETCO began shipping donations of pet fur from its grooming salons to aid in creating these booms to soak up and remove oil from Gulf of Mexico waters. Once fur shipments arrive in the Gulf Coast region, volunteers gather to assemble the booms and prepare for their deployment. The booms are made by stuffing donated nylon stockings with hair and fur. With nearly 1,000 grooming salons pitching in, PETCO expected to ship up to a ton of donated fur per day hoping to reach 5 tons through this past weekend.

As a pet owner, I say it’s about time my pets begin contributing to society! Joking aside, this is a truly unique and worthwhile program. Get your four-legged friends to advocate for the wildlife in the Gulf who so gravely face endangerment.

   Advocacy, CSR, Company/Organization Advocacy, Issue/Cause Advovacy, Non-profit, Weber Shandwick    Add a comment

Advocacy Karma

Recently became aware of this very cool mobile application that lets consumers advocate for causes just by scanning certain products in stores or restaurants with their iPhone or Android. It is called CauseWorld and it is sponsored by Citibank, Kraft Foods and Proctor & Gamble who have provided nearly $1,000,000 for you to donate. No purchase of their products is necessary – you walk into a store and scan the barcode of products. Each time you scan a product you earn “karmas” and when you earn enough, you can donate them to a variety of charities with which CauseWorld partners.

A really innovative way of turning advocacy into action.

   Advocacy, Brand/Product Advocacy, CSR, Issue/Cause Advovacy, Social media, Weber Shandwick    Add a comment

Finding People in Chile

Google today launched a person finder to quickly connect those looking for missing people in Chile and those with information about earthquake victims. You can choose between – “I’m looking for someone” and “I have information about someone”, and then query the database or enter new information. A great way to advocate for people searching for loved ones in this new world calamity.

   Advocacy, CSR, Issue/Cause Advovacy    1 Comment

Reaching out to Advocates

I found myself landing on a new site called Justmeans. It has an interesting premise which is  that companies can subscribe and communicate with those interested in their good work. Companies who join use Justmeans’ distribution service to syndicate their work to various social networks. They have an impressive array of clients such as HP, Seventh Generation, Timberland, Financial Times, Best Buy, Intel, Accion, Campbell Soup (disclosure: some are clients although I learned about this site through my son who is involved with Starting Bloc). I was able to find out about what different companies are doing in the responsibility space all on one site. Since I am always interested in new conferences, I learned that Justmeans and the FT are organizing summits and have two coming up in NY this fall. For companies looking to reach advocates, it is an interesting way to communicate with those that matter. Check it out. I am going to follow some companies’ twitters through justmeans and see how it goes.

   Advocacy, CSR, Company/Organization Advocacy, Issue/Cause Advovacy, Non-profit    Add a comment