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Olivia Khalili's blog

Olivia Khalili

Are Sustainable Businesses Roadblocks To Change?

Slovenian philosopher and theorist Slavoj Žižek swings a sledge hammer at the knees of ‘cultural capitalism’ in this 10-minute video. And I admit, my knees buckled for some moments as I listened to his critique of Starbucks for its fair trade coffee, of philanthropist George Soros and of ‘charity businesses’ like TOMS Shoes.

...

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Want To Open a Nonprofit Store? 10 Guidelines You–and Nordstrom’s–Should Follow

Scandal in-the-making, customer-pleaser, tax write-off, nonprofit cash cow or game-changer?  Which hyphenated phrase will best describe Nordstrom’s new concept store, which will donate all net profits to charity?

I was interviewed recently by American Public Media’s Marketplace on the Nordstrom concept...

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Mobile Giving Meets Mobile Marketing, But Are Americans Ready?

Sure, Americans love their mobile phones and use them handily, but there’s still stunted confidence for mobile financial transactions, whether it’s a payment or a donation. Part of the reticence comes from the clumsiness of many mobile commerce and mobile giving sites and part of it’s a lack of incentives.

Benevity Social Ventures and Obopay recently launched a text-to-donate ...

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Trouble Brewing For Green Mountain Coffee: Do 3 Billion Plastic Cups Negate 30 Years of Sustainability?

Does a history of progressive social and environmental responsibility compensate for recent environmental abuse?

Green Mountain Coffee is staring into the face of this question now with criticism of its environmentally noxious single-use coffee pods that work with its Keurig brewing system.  Last year, more than 80% of Green Mountain’s $803 million in sales came from the nonrecyclable,...

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Is This A Viable Alternative To Crowdsourced Social Good Campaigns?

I’m not the first to make the case that crowdsourced social good contests should retreat quickly into the night.

  • They’re inefficient at creating change;
  • Their current popularity has diminished the value they bring to companies and brands;
  • Consumers are fed up with them (how many vote-for-me solicitations do you get a week that make you feel more like a brand pusher than a change agent?); and
  • For the money and hoopla they involve, they should accomplish more than marketing the company and channeling money to (often unvetted and under-qualified)
  • ...
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Green Mountain Coffee’s ‘Organic’ Sustainability Evolution–with Mike Dupee

This was one of the most educational interviews I’ve done. Mike is able to admit when he’s wrong, to explain the internal motivations and strategy behind his company’s social responsibility programs and to go beyond corporate sound bites.

Click the player to listen to our conversation. Prefer MP3? Right-click and download.

...

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How to Leverage Your Advisory Board (Because Their Name Isn’t All They Can Offer)

You have your board.  Now what?

I wrote before about when and how to assemble your advisory board.  If you already have an advisory board though, what can you realistically expect from the people who comprise it and how do you best leverage their skills and commitment?

The first part–what you can realistically expect from your advisors–should be agreed on before they commit. I spoke with one enterprenenur who realized in hindsight the criticality of setting...

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Why CVS’ Social Responsibility Programs Are Its Most Wasted Resource

If your company consistently runs social responsibility programs, but you doesn’t take the time or have the confidence in its programs to make sure I know about them, it’s doing me and itself a disservice.

Like Walgreens or Rite Aid, CVS is a national pharmacy chain. There’s no visible differentiation between it and its competitors. Maybe the aisles are cleaner and the coupons better, but maybe not.

I don’t see a reason...

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We Can Do More Good With a For-Profit Model: The Lesson of Speed

I used to consult with nonprofits as part of a firm. What I’m about to write comes from my observations doing this work.

We can do more good and do it more quickly with a for-profit model.

Nonprofits aren’t bad, their model just has some flaws. A nonprofit has two tasks: to serve its cause or constituents and to raise money. A for-profit’s only task is to satisfy its stakeholders. The by-product of doing this well is making money.

A nonprofit doesn’t get to the ‘good’ fast enough. There’s a lot of preparation to get started on fighting the cause or delivering services. Nonprofits paid our firm to tell them how and where to raise money. They paid us to do the research and write the proposals. But they weren’t off the hook for time. They still needed to spend time with us on their programs, budgets and contacts. They still needed to woo grant-makers, find new ways to grab donors’ attention and write follow-up reports. All this time took them away from their mission and the cause they were fighting.

Think of a guy who decides to take up running. He spends the first weekend researching and shopping for running shoes. The second weekend buying running shorts, the third weekend mapping the perfect route. On the fourth weekend he goes (but only if it doesn’t rain). That’s how I see the nonprofit survival model.

Compare this to the guy who decides to take up running. He grabs the closest pair of shorts that he probably slept in, laces up the shoes he has lying around and walks out his front door. He’ll move his legs like runners do and figure the rest out from there. That’s how I see for-profit start-ups. Able to get to the mission quickly and willing to course correct along the way.

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12 Ways to Convince Your Boss to Add Social Responsibility

Once you understand that a social mission is an incredible asset for your business your first question is usually “Where do I start?” Many of the pieces I write focus on what an entrepreneur or CEO should consider when building a social mission. But if you are an employee looking to implement from within, your first question might be “How do I convince my boss?”

Before tactics, I want to share a story you can cue for inspiration as you sit...

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The Simple Way that DISCOVER Enabled Giving to Haiti and Raised $3.1 M

It’s the simplest programs that drive action and results. Three days after Haiti was struck by the January 12 earthquake, Discover Card enacted a simple relief program that raised $3.1 million. Card members could contribute their cash back bonus points to the American Red Cross and Discover would convert this to dollars and match the donation.

In addition–and this is critical to demonstrate support–Discover made an initial gift of $100,000 and matched $1 million of card member donations. The company is also waiving merchant transaction fees for 17 organizations providing support to...

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How Cause Capitalism Helps This Underdog Lead the Pack

How many Staples do you have in your neighborhood? I count three of the ubiquitous office supply stores within a 2.5-mile radius of my place. I’m about to introduce you to a man who doesn’t just provide an alternative experience to the titanic chain, but runs an incredibly successful business.

But first, let’s understand how big Staples really is. As the largest office supplier in the world and pioneer of the office superstore concept, Staples netted $23 billion in sales in 2008, or twice as much as Office Depot.

So how does one man earn a chunk of Staples’ market share by doing good and earning a profit?

I interviewed Mike Hannigan who founded Give Something Back with Sean Marx in 1991.  Give Something Back is now the West Coast’s largest independent office supplier with corporate offices in three cities and 12,000 clients and 40 distribution centers nationwide. You’re reading about Give Something Back now, not because of the company’s overnight delivery or tremendous selection of recycled products, but because it donates all after-tax profits to nonprofits through a balloting system that involves its customers and employees. Based on Newman’s Own business model, Give Something Back has donated more than $4 million (80% of its accumulated profits) to nonprofit organizations in the last 18 years. In 2007, Mike and his team did $26 million in sales.

If you’re inspired by Mike’s success in running a profitable business and doing good in the world, I offer some guiding principles to get you started:

Stand for something beyond profit.

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