Tag Archives: Pledge 1%

Doing Well by Doing Good

Tuesdays With Coleman

A common theme in this blog is how brands should learn as much as possible about what its consumers expect from them and—if those expectations are in line with what those consumers want—deliver on those expectations as often as possible. I like to think that we’ve done that since launching Tuesdays With Coleman more than two years ago. The audio entertainment industry professionals who come to our blog expect us to deliver insights into trends in marketing, branding and the consumption of radio, podcasts, music and streaming audio.

For our last installment of Tuesdays With Coleman in 2019, however, I am going off-brand to discuss something very different: corporate responsibility. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, there is little denying the polarized nature of our society and the increasing difficulty with which governments—here in the United States and elsewhere around the globe—can get things done and improve the lives of their citizens. It is easy to sit back and lament that fact by complaining on social media and blaming others for this predicament; the hard work is doing something to help communities and the needy.

In August 2018, Coleman Insights announced that it was joining Pledge 1%, a global movement by companies to integrate giving into their DNA. Specifically, we pledged to donate 1% of our profits, 1% of our employees’ time and 1% of our services to community and charitable organizations. Since we started this initiative, we have donated thousands of dollars and our employees have given hundreds of hours to a wide array of organizations that help people in need and make our communities stronger. We even delivered a research project on a pro bono basis to a college radio station so that the students could get “real world” exposure to the process before pursuing careers in media. To learn more about our Pledge 1% efforts, I encourage you to visit the page devoted to them on our website.

Coleman Insights employees volunteered at a food pantry as part of its Pledge 1% initiative

Coleman Insights employees recently volunteered at a local food pantry

I was inspired to send our company in this direction by Marc Benioff, the chairman and co-CEO of Salesforce. Coleman Insights uses Salesforce to drive many of our business operations, and while the decision to use their products and services was initially made because of the value we thought they would deliver to our business, we are incredibly loyal to Salesforce and continue to increase our investment because of the company’s commitment to giving back. Marc wrote about this in an excellent New York Times Opinion piece in October, and even if you do not agree with his politics, I challenge you to not admire the man for his commitment to philanthropy and equality for all.

Much like how Marc writes about how companies can be more successful by engaging in activities that help their communities and by providing equal opportunities for their employees, we are feeling the same kind of impact at Coleman Insights. Thanks to a solid economy and strong commitments to research-based strategies by our clients, I am happy to report that we have achieved strong financial results while also taking our Pledge 1% game to a high level. In other words, we are doing well while also doing good.

Why am I making this the subject of our last blog of the decade? Please be assured it is not to pat us on the back; instead, I have two goals. First, I want you, our readers (and many of whom are our customers) to know as much about us and our values as possible. If working with a company that is committed to giving to those in need is important to you, I hope we can enjoy a productive business relationship in the future. Second, and far more important, I urge you and the companies you work for to take a close, hard look at Pledge 1% or other models of giving to the communities you serve. If we all spent a little less time fighting over how to help people and improve society and more time doing the work required to make things better, the 2020s will be a little brighter than the 2010s.

On behalf of everyone at Coleman Insights, I wish you a happy holiday season and a safe, healthy and peaceful New Year. Tuesdays With Coleman will return on January 7th with our “regularly scheduled programming!”

Our Giving Tuesday Pledge

Today is Giving Tuesday, a recent addition to the holiday season calendar. It is a day that has become increasingly important for nonprofit organizations to reach their annual fundraising goals. The leading software platform for nonprofits, Network for Good, reports that the number of donors on their platform has grown from 7,000 on the first Giving Tuesday in 2012 to nearly 60,000 in 2017.

Earlier this year, we announced Coleman Insights joined the Pledge 1% movement, an organization that encourages corporate philanthropy via donations of 1% of equity, staff time, product and/or profit. Today, Pledge 1% is celebrating Giving Tuesday by featuring the stories of participating organizations and people worldwide that are giving back through Pledge 1%. We’re proud to report that we’re one of the companies being featured.

Below is our Pledge 1% story being highlighted today. As we reflect on an incredibly gratifying 2018, we encourage you to consider joining Pledge 1% as a way to integrate giving back into your organization. If you’re thinking about giving to specific organizations today, we can highly recommend all the ones mentioned in the story below.

Coleman Insights President Warren Kurtzman learned about the Pledge 1% initiative while attending the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, and began thinking about how he could implement it within the DNA of his organization. In early 2018, he shared with the team that Coleman Insights would pledge 1% of its profits, 1% of product services, and 1% of employee time to charitable causes.

The first order of business was the formation of a Coleman Insights Pledge 1% committee. The mission of this employee-led committee is to find and learn more about organizations in the company’s local community of Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Once per month, the committee invites a nonprofit organization to present its mission and needs to the group. These presentations inspire employees to volunteer and donate. At the end of the year, the committee will decide which organization will be the recipient of a financial gift from Coleman Insights.  Organizations that have presented in 2018 include The Justice Theater Project, Lung Transplant Foundation, Donate Life NC, and the Exchange Family Center of Durham.

To help us keep track of our volunteer goal, we have implemented a visual aid: an empty fish tank that we drop ping pong balls into. One ping pong ball represents 1 hour of volunteer work. Our goal is to fill the fish tank to the top with ping pong balls.  Coleman Insights employees have been filling up the fish tank with volunteer hours served at a large number of charitable organizations within the Research Triangle area.

Pledge 1% Fish Tank

Team members raised money by playing in the Exchange Family Center’s Pinwheels Mini-Golf tournament.  The Exchange Family Center makes children’s lives better by strengthening their families, teachers, and communities through proven counseling, coaching, and training.

Team members regularly volunteer at the Urban Ministries of Wake County food pantry to help restock shelves and bring in donations. Coleman Insights maintains an ongoing food drive for employees to donate food to the food pantry.  Since 1981, Urban Ministries of Wake County has responded to our neighbors in crisis by providing basic needs – food, medicine and shelter.

Urban Ministries of Wake County Food Pantry

Coleman Insights Vice President of Business Operations Eileen Genna worked the registration table for the Lung Transplant Foundation golf tournament. The Lung Transplant Foundation’s mission is to provide confidential, compassionate, one-on-one support for lung transplant recipients and their caregivers at all stages of transplantation and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

Team Coleman also volunteered with the Raleigh Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources to clean up and mulch Nash Square in downtown Raleigh.

For Thanksgiving this year, team member Jennifer Donnelly helped to organize donations for Southport Business Parks Adopt-a-Turkey campaign. This campaign collects Thanksgiving Dinner fixins to benefit the families of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle so they could have Thanksgiving dinner.

We’re looking forward to another exciting year proudly participating in Pledge 1%!

 

Coleman Insights Joins Pledge 1% Movement

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC, August 14, 2018 – Coleman Insights announced today that it has joined Pledge 1%, a global movement inspiring companies of all sizes to integrate giving into the DNA of their business. Over 1,500 companies in 40 countries have joined the movement.

As a Pledge 1% member, Coleman Insights will donate one percent of its annual profits and one percent of the services its produces each year to non-profit organizations that meet criteria set by a committee of company employees. In addition, Coleman Insights employees will donate one percent of their annual working hours to volunteer on behalf of non-profit organizations,

Coleman Insights President Warren Kurtzman explains, “We decided to publicize our participation in Pledge 1% not to pat ourselves on the back, but to encourage other media and research companies in the industries we serve to build giving back to their communities into their everyday business practices. A program like Pledge 1% is perfect for companies willing to make a specific commitment to supporting community and charitable organizations.”

“We are incredibly excited that Coleman Insights has taken the pledge,” said

Amy Lesnick, chief executive of Pledge 1%. “Coleman Insights can play a pivotal role in building this movement and promoting a new normal in which all companies—big and small—integrate giving back as a core value in their business.”

Learn more about the Coleman Insights Pledge 1% initiative here.