Causes of the Year

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, "Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can't save all these starfish. You can't begin to make a difference!"

The girl seemed crush, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish and hurled it as far as could into the ocean.

"Well, I made a difference to that one!"

- adapted from The Star Thrower by Loren C. Eiseley

In 2010, Drake & Company launched a staff initiative to give back to our community through service and philanthropy. To be honest, these weren't exactly new concepts for us - as a company, we had donated numerous pro-bono hours to nonprofit clients and participated in holiday giving programs. As individuals, our staff members regularly volunteer their time and talents to organizations they believe in, from running charity races to tutoring in classrooms to serving on nonprofit boards to mentoring.

In an effort to increase these activities throughout the year, we created the Drakeco Gives Back program -- you can read more about it here and here. The goals of the program are to:

• Learn more about the organizations and causes in our community and what we can do to make a difference.
• Increase Drakeco involvement in the community - both as a company and individuals; build a spirit of "volunteerism."
• Promote and lend our support to causes our employees care about.

Well, the staff has voted - and here are our "causes" for 2011.

1st Quarter (January-March): Children's Foundation of Mid-America

Helping children and families is a cause close to our hearts - this organization works to help children who have been abused, neglected or who struggle with family stressors through strong residential homes and family-focused community support program.

2nd Quarter (April-June): Crohn's & Colitis Foundation - Mid-America Chapter

Another cause close to our hearts, as we have staff members affected (personally and within their families). We hope to participate as a team in the Take Steps walk in St. Louis on May 7.

3rd Quarter (July-September): Circle of Concern

This cause is right in our own backyard, serving low-income families in west St. Louis county. In December 2010, the organization fed close to 2,500 people, and we look forward to helping out with their back to school drive.

4th Quarter (October-November): Center for Women in Transition

With Drakeco VP Hugh Whaley serving on the organization's board of directors, we couldn't pass up this opportunity to pitch in. The Center assists women in the criminal justice system in making a successful transition to their families and communities through practicing and promoting restorative justice.

So why are we telling you all this -- just to toot our own horn? Our hope is that the readers of this blog, our clients and others in the association community will take just a moment to check out the causes above (or others in their community). If our efforts lead just one person to find a cause that inspires them to get more involved, then it will be a success.

Just remember the story of the starfish...

If you'd like more information about getting involved with Drakeco's Cause a Quarter, please contact Becky at rasmussen@drakeco.com.

What's Your Association’s New Year’s Resolution?

January first has come and gone but not without mention of the dreaded New Year’s Resolutions.  While some people set them every year, it seems most set them and then don’t stick to them.  According to Wikipedia, a New Year’s Resolution is “generally a goal someone sets out to accomplish in the coming year.”  So why do new year’s resolutions get such a bad rap?  I decided to ask some of our Executive Director’s about their thoughts on New Year’s Resolutions and what resolutions they have made for our associations and foundations at DrakeCo.

I found it interesting that some people are vehemently against making New Year’s resolutions for various reasons. Regardless, Pam Helmsing, Executive Director for the National Christmas Tree Association and the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, makes a great point: 

"I have resolutions for the National Christmas Tree Association and the Christmas Spirit Foundation. They’re simply not new this year, but ongoing resolutions. If your resolutions are good ones, there’s no need to make up new ones every year.”

Perhaps there is just a stigma with the phrase, “New Year’s Resolution” that isn’t going to change anytime soon.  But I do think it’s smart to take some time to reflect on the past year: what went well, what needs change and what can be improved.  It’s good to set goals and things to strive for, otherwise how will we ever achieve more.  Here are a few tips that may help guide you in creating your new year’s resolutions, ahmm, I mean "GOALS."

1. Be realistic. Set achievable goals.
2. Be specific.
3. Break down large goals into smaller ones.
4. Set a timeframe.  Resolutions don’t have to take all year to achieve.
5. Write them down and place where you'll see them regularly. 

What are some of the resolutions you've set for your Association or Nonprofit for 2011?

What Will Become of Social Media in 2011?

Now that it's officially "next year," I thought I'd share this interesting article from Social Media Examiner. Their recent blog post, "30 Social Media Predictions From 30 Social Media Pros" takes a look at how people in the industry think social media will grow, change and impact marketers and businesses in the new year. I found a lot of the points interesting, some I agreed with, and some mentioned services or ideas I'd never even heard of. Sure makes you realize that social media is ever-changing and can be hard to keep up with. I picked a few of my favorite predictions from their list or ones that I found most intriguing. But feel free to read the full blog and share your own opinions. #5: People will demand more from social media. “Business will demand more business-driving proof, readers will demand more substance to blogs and those who are practitioners will have to demand excellence out of themselves." #7: Facebook will become a real e-commerce platform. “Facebook will launch a Facebook-based e-commerce payment system so that users can truly complete the entire checkout process without leaving Facebook.” #11: Social media will become targetable. “We’ll be able to meaningfully segment our social communication, and that will make social media far more useful for companies and organizations of all sizes and levels of sophistication.” #16: Content marketing will drive social media forward. “Instead of pushing sales pitches, Businesses will be pushing content in the form of blogs, infographics, ebooks, whitepapers, free reports and much more. Content development is growing in popularity, and social promotion is the best way to make content marketing successful.” #17: Social media will have an ever-larger impact in the search engine rankings. “In the same way that the search engines currently value incoming links as a way of giving credibility to a website, I think we will also see Facebook Likes, tweets and other forms of social media sharing working their way into the formula.” #20: Influence will be measured by follower and fan engagement. “Social media will continue to evolve toward followership/fans as a measure of influence. It will be less about growing a huge fan base, and moving more toward growing an interactive and engaged fan base.” #24: Expect to see more traction, innovation and spending in group buying in 2011. “Services like Groupon, Living Social and BuyWithMe will continue to grow, spawn competitors and change the way businesses offer—and customers reap—the benefits of discount deals.” #27: Social media measurements will become visual. “As social media strategists explain the measurement aspect, the shift from data tables to visual statements will begin. Rather than Excel sheets, expect PowerPoint presentations to visually tell the success of one’s social media strategy.” #29: More collaboration between social media players. “Location-based services such as Gowalla and Foursquare will be enveloped by Facebook Places. Also, Groupon and Facebook will strike a partnership in order to integrate Groupon’s service into Facebook deals. I wouldn’t be surprised if Zynga joined in on the action and added a game layer on top of these services.” #30: Facebook will welcome its one billionth member to massive worldwide fanfare. “The Check-in button will become just as, if not more, popular as the Like button via sites and apps. I also predict some form of Check-in button will roll out for websites because it can be clicked each time a reader visits a website, versus the Like button’s one-time click.” Do you agree or disagree with some of these predictions? What do you foresee happening to social media in 2011?