What is Socially Responsible Investing?

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is sometimes referred to as “sustainable”, “socially conscious”, “mission,” “green” or “ethical” investing. In general, socially responsible investors are looking to promote concepts and ideals that they feel strongly about.  

They accomplish this in 3 ways:

1-    Investment in companies and governments that the investor believes best hold to values of importance to the investor. These include the environment, consumer protection, religious beliefs, employees’ rights as well as human rights, among others. These areas of concern can be summarized as “Environmental, Social and Governance” and is referred to as ESG investing. In addition, SRI includes shareholder advocacy and community investing.

2-    Shareholder advocacy is exactly what it would seem; socially responsible investors proactively influencing corporate decisions that could otherwise have a large detrimental impact on society. The various goals of shareholder advocacy is to pressure those entities into improving practices and policies and acting as a good corporate citizen, while at the same time promoting long-term value and financial performance. The goals are accomplished through various means including dialogue, filing resolutions for shareholders’ vote, educating the public and attracting media attention to the issue, which generally garners support and puts additional pressure on the corporation to do the socially responsible thing

3-    Community investing has become the fastest growing segment within SRI, with some $61.4 billion in managed assets. With community investing, investors’ capital is directed to those communities, in the U.S. and abroad, which are under served by more traditional financial lending institutions and gives recipients of low-interest loans access to not just investment capital and income but provides valuable community services that include healthcare, housing, education and child care.

To Read Further Visit – Source Article – Forbes

Video Marketing Tips

Use of the internet and online tools for everything from schoolwork, to entertainment, to advertising, is commonplace among many people. It is only natural that businesses would take to the internet to reach out to more customers and create a larger web presence. In correlation with this, video marketing is an extremely effective tool for businesses to use.

Dr. J.T. Dock Houk has some tips to share for the use of video marketing. Understanding business goals. Define the targeted audience that the videos are intended to reach. Define the promotional strategy and how to go about creating awareness. Define the audience demographic that will be viewing the video. Create a video which matches the business goals and are related to the business needs. Following these tips will help with the success of an online video marketing campaign.

5 Fundraising Ideas

Dr. J.T. Houk, JD, PhD, CPhD, whom everyone calls “Dock,” is the CEO of the National Heritage Foundation (NHF). The NHF, is one of the largest charities of its kind in the world and has brought all the advantages of a public foundation to family donors. Since Dr. J.T. Houk has been apart of the charity world for years, he understands the importance of planning a charity event and all the details involved. If you are a business owner and you are interested in planning a charity event for a worthy cause, here are five unique fundraising ideas for you to consider to raise money for a worthy charity.

5 Fundraising Ideas

1.   The Low-End Event

This is a unique fundraising idea that turns the usual fancy-schmacy fundraising event on its head.  Instead of holding a fashionable cocktail party at a high end hotel, hold a hot-dogs and beer event at the Holiday Inn.  Tell your donors that this year is such an important year for your organization, you want to spend most of the money you are raising on your program or mission, instead of the event.  This only works if you still charge the full amount (whatever you used to charge for the fancy event) and are willing to get a little campy with the theme.

2.   The Reverse Raffle

Are you planning to hold a raffle at your next fundraising event?  You may want to try the reverse raffle instead.  With this raffle, instead of buying tickets, every attendee gets one free raffle ticket when they come in the door.  Only instead of winning a prize, the person whose ticket is drawn will win a “gag” prize with some level of light embarrassment, like having to dance with a group of clowns, having to kiss the club’s four-legged mascot, or having to wear a funny wig and march with the band.

People can then “sell” their ticket back to the organization in return for a donation (so they won’t have to be part of the drawing).  For an even more creative raffle, you can set it up so that people can sell their tickets back on a sliding scale… the first 10 will be taken back for a $1 donation, the next 10 for $2, the next 10 for $4 and so on.

3.   Direct Action Fundraising

Unique fundraising ideas work best when they are directly tied to the mission of your organization.  That’s the idea behind direct action fundraising.  Rather than ask people to simply make a donation to your group, tie your request to a specific direct action your organization will be taking as part of its work.  For example, ask people to donate $25 each to buy school supplies for needy children, or $50 to pay for 25 bricks in the new shelter you are building.

4.   Pay to Work

Many people like to roll up their sleeves and get to work – they like to feel more involved in your non-profit than simply writing a check.  If it makes sense for your organization, hold a “pay to work” event that combines fundraising and volunteerism into one great opportunity.

With this idea, you ask people to make a donation in return for a position as part of your volunteer day.  For example, let’s say you are painting a school.  You could find 30 volunteers who are willing to pay a “reverse salary” of $50 each in order to be on the paint team.  You might even be able to find someone to donate $500 to be the “foreman for a day.”  Be creative.

5.   The Certified Mailing

If you’ve got some really big news to share and want to break through the clutter and reach your biggest donors, think about doing a certified mailing campaign.  This is one of my all time favorite unique fundraising ideas, but it needs careful planning and the right list, as your mailing will only be done to big-time donors who already support your organization.

Send out an e-mail to your top donors letting them know that you’ve got big… huge… monumental news (this assumes that you have such news, like “We’re moving” or “We’re raising money to start a new program” etc.)  Tell them to watch their mailboxes.

Then, a day or two after the e-mail, send your top donors a letter by certified mail that tells them the news, and why it is so important.  Tell them why you need money, right now, in relation to that good news, and include a return envelope.

People almost always open certified mail and read it carefully.  If you’ve got a good list, great news, and a good reason why you need the money, this might just be a great way to raise money for your non-profit.

To read the full article click here: 5 Unique Fundraising Ideas

Image www.telegraph.co.uk