Community Partners are Key to Cause Conference Success

The AMA’s Cause Conference has grown to become the largest partnership conference on the west coast for nonprofits. But, as with any new event, it started small. So, how has this conference grown to be so popular? “Growth has been mostly organic by nonprofit and business support organizations and professional associations,” explains Parker Pike, founder of the Cause Conference. Each year, many San Diego organizations are approached that align with the conference’s target audience; executives in marketing, community relations, new business development, PR and advertising. The partnership, which requires no financial obligation, is an exchange of marketing resources to help both the conference and the Community Partner. “They help us spread the word to their members through their various marketing mediums.” In return, these organizations receive many great benefits surrounding the event, including media promotion, name inclusion on collateral pieces, and presence at the event. In addition, the San Diego AMA extends a discounted rate to the organization’s members to attend the conference.

But it’s not just the promotion that intrigues the partners. USD’s Institute for Nonprofit Education and Research has been a Community Partner for the past four years. “We believe in the conference’s goals to assist nonprofits with their marketing and to teach people new ways to reach audiences and to inspire them to support their organizations,” suggests Laura Stein, Assistant Director for the Institute for Nonprofit Education and Research. The 2010 Cause Conference will focus on the latest marketing and fundraising information to help nonprofits reach new heights despite the recession. It will include topics such as partnerships, social media, public speaking, return on investment, and marketing leadership. “This is a well-organized, engaging and stimulating event. I enjoy catching up with many of my nonprofit colleagues and meeting some new people, too. I believe this conference is time well-spent for any nonprofit professional.”

The 12^th Annual Cause Conference Community Partners:

• Academies for Social Entrepreneurship
• Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP)
• BIOCOM
• International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
• Net Impact
• SANDAN
• San Diego Direct Marketing Association (SDDMA)
• San Diego Grantmakers
• The San Diego Foundation
• San Diego Social Venture Partners
• Stay Classy
• TechAmerica
• United Way of San Diego
• UC San Diego Extension
• USD/SOLES Institute for Nonprofit Education and Research
• Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) San Diego

For more information about the AMA San Diego 12th Annual Cause Conference visit the conference website at www.sdama.org/conference.htm. You can also follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn (members only), and Twitter!

5th Annual Parker Pike Nonprofit Marketing Scholarship

The San Diego American Marketing Association would like to announce the return of the 5th Annual Parker Pike Nonprofit Marketing Scholarship.

As in previous years, the $1,000 scholarship will be awarded to a San Diego County college student who has demonstrated exemplary application of business and marketing practices to help a local, regional or national nonprofit organization that is a legally recognized, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization.

The 5th Annual Parker Pike Nonprofit Marketing Scholarship is due by 5pm on Friday February 19, 2010. Winner will be notified via personal phone call from selection committee member by March 5th, 2010. Winner will be invited to attend and be recognized at the 12th Annual Cause Marketing Conference at USD on March 10th, 2010.

Please help us spread the words about this great opportunity to all students on your campus. Thank you very much for your help.

To download the application, click here: 5th Annual Parker Pike Nonprofit Marketing Scholarship application.

Keynote Spotlight: Lead or Disappear

The top 10 questions that every non-profit needs to answer to survive.

About the Keynote Session:

If you have a great cause but too little support something is wrong. What most potential corporate partners and individual donors say is that too many non-profits are unfocused and undisciplined. Will presents real case studies from 2009 with clients who created a potent strategy and a compelling message to turn donor support into an investment instead of a gift.

About the Keynote Speaker:

Will Marré is the co-founder and former president of the Covey Leadership Center where he translated the concepts of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People into powerful leadership courses taught to millions of executives worldwide. Today Will is an evangelist of socially strategic enterprise that transforms Corporate Social Responsibility into Corporate Social Opportunity.

Will has been a business leader and consultant for 25 years to world leading companies such as Disney and Procter and Gamble. Now he is on a mission bringing his experience, vision and personal fire to the world to create a future of sustainable abundance.

Will is passionately helping organizations improve the quality of their people’s lives and accelerate economic and social improvement throughout the world. Using cause marketing with New York Stock Exchange companies to develop social-eco commerce, Will co-founded the Seacology Foundation that has saved nearly 200,000 acres of fragile island eco-systems and rainforests and 2 million acres of coral reefs.

Will is currently on the advisory board of the Human Performance Institute, a new Johnson & Johnson company dedicated to improving health and life satisfaction measures throughout the world. GE has also tapped Will to help them communicate the “green” value of their revolutionary organic LED lights. His personal passion for sustainable business innovation is also helping the renowned Grameen Foundation lift 100’s of millions of people out of grinding poverty through micro-credit.

In 2004 Will founded The American Dream Project to ignite leaders of the future to develop and find the ideas, tools and relationships they need to create the next chapter in American and world history. Will recently received an Emmy Award© for writing the learning documentary “Reclaiming Your American Dream” that continues to air on Public Television stations around the country.

Will is dead serious with a humorous style. He connects up-to-minute research with clear insights into a river of powerful ideas. As a leadership expert and an unrelenting advocate for a sustainable future, Will always brings his original ideas, unconventional views and infectious passion.

Will currently serves as Consulting Director of the Corporate Responsibility Forum at the University of California San Diego linking civic, non-profit and the business community into a common vision of the future for the San Diego California region. Will serves on the leadership faculty of UCSD extension, the visiting Scholar of Social Enterprise at Clemson University and is a former Leadership Scholar in Residence of The University of San Diego.

Will’s new book SAVE THE WORLD AND STILL BE HOME FOR DINNER was released in September 2009. His daily blog, “Ten Years to Save the World” is at thoughtrocket.com/blog. You can also follow Will on Twitter (@willmarre) or Facebook.

Location and Time:

8:15 - 9:00 a.m. in the Main Theater

To register for the AMA Cause Conference on March 10th click here!

Session Spotlight: More than a Mission - Marketing to the Savvy Donor

About the Session:

Savvy donors are focusing on more than your mission when they make the decision to support a non-profit. This requires demonstrating an effective use of resources, technology, and creativity in operational strategy. This panel of experts will share examples of nonprofits reducing expenses, joining forces with others (like in Balboa Park with combined back office successes and plans), merging with others, using technology to be smarter and faster, and how they research non-profits.

About the Moderator:

Professor John Burnett has spent 41 years trying to mold the minds of young men and women. In his tenure at five universities, and several visiting positions, he has witnessed the evolution of college students majoring in Marketing and has come away with a startling conclusion, i.e., except for technology, they still exhibit a wide range of commitment and maturity. The major challenges remain; to teach them to think, become introspective, plan for the future, share their insights and concerns with others, and find their talents and passions.

Because he tries to practice what he preaches, his own evolution has had several profound changes. As a young professor he engaged in the traditional rituals related to “publishing and not perishing.” His dissertation was on the effectiveness of fear appeals in a health care context. His interest in advertising was born through a tangential relationship with the industry. As a child and high school student he was able to visit and work at the Leo Burnett agency [his grandfather and Leo were cousins]. Since then his research and writing interests have focused on advertising. In 1979 he wrote his first book, Promotion Management, and followed it with, Advertising: Principles and Practices, which is now in its eighth edition and a world-wide best seller. He has also written thirteen more books across a variety of topics, including principles of marketing, crisis management, marketing communications, and marketing for nonprofits. His 60+ articles in both academic and trade journals have considered various topics over time, but most recently he has researched the areas of nonprofit marketing, strategic branding, and marketing to the homosexual market segment.

During the mid- phase of his career, he added consulting and executive training to his resume. Especially beneficial was his alliance with AT&T. From 1982 to 1992, he taught in their executive training program in Basking Ridge, N.J. Courses included a three–day workshop on marketing communications, a two-day workshop on strategic branding, and a two-day workshop on services marketing. Attendees were middle managers working in both the B-to-B and the consumer side of the business. He also was hired to work as an outside strategic planner by AT&T to partner with several ad agencies that had contracts with AT&T. During this period in his life, he did training and consulting for IBM, Johnson & Johnson, the Dallas Mart, First Data, the Hawaiian Tourist Bureau, Lubbock General Hospital, Scott & White Clinics, Miller Brewing, and several other smaller organizations.

The year 1988 served as the next major change in John’s career. In that year the Burnett family suffered a major crisis. As part of the recovery process, he became interested in two new opportunities. First, after reading many self-help books on surviving personal crisis, he posited the hypotheses that crisis management, as presented by business, had a great deal of overlap with the personal crisis process. Consequently, he began writing a business book that outlined a proactive process for identifying, mitigating, and resolving business crises. In turn, he created a half-day seminar on how businesses can implement this proactive crisis management process. This crisis seminar was presented to organizations such as Colorado Mental Health, LeGrand Hart Public Relations, and Coors. He also realized the need for nonprofit organizations to learn more about strategic marketing. Another book emerged, Nonprofit Marketing Best Practices, published in 2007. In turn, he has developed a half day workshop on Marketing for Nonprofits, which he has taught all over the world

Today, Dr. Burnett offers both for-profit and nonprofit seminars to interested businesses, both large and small, that have an appreciation for strategic thinking. Nonprofits in which he is a Board member or has created a marketing plan include; Colorado Neurological Institute, Arapahoe House, Center for Hearing, Speech and Learning, National Pain Foundation, Central City Opera, Colorado Mental Health, and the Brain Injury Association of Colorado. He also engages in the legal community both as an expert witness and consultant.

John is married to Nancy, a psychotherapist, and has three adult children. He received a BS in Marketing from Southern Illinois University, as well as a MS in Economics. His doctorate is from the University of Kentucky.

About the Panelists:

• Jim Farley, Leichtag Family Foundation
• Duane Trombly, San Diego Social Venture Partners
• Christy Wilson, Rancho Santa Fe Foundation
• Rory Rupert, Balboa Park Cultural Partnership

Location and Time:

4:00 - 4:45 p.m. in the Main Theater

To register for the AMA Cause Conference on March 10th click here!

Session Spotlight: Social Media Success Stories

About the Session:

Everybody is talking about social media these days - Facebook, Twitter, blogs. Social media can be very beneficial for your non-profit, or it can take up one of your most precious resources: time. In this panel session, you will get a solid overview of how to use social media to market your non-profit, plus you will hear from three San Diego non-profits on how they are successfully integrating social media into their marketing plans.

About the Moderator: Becky Carroll
Becky is founder of Customers Rock!/Petra Consulting Group, a consultancy focused on engaging customers through conversation, social media, and WOW customer experiences. Her client roster includes several Fortune 100 companies such as Electronic Arts, Hewlett Packard, Fujitsu, Verizon, and Ford in addition to top executives, small businesses and non-profits.

Becky is the author of the business blog Customers Rock! (http://customersrock.net), listed in the top 5 of the Top 50 Customer Service blogs and among the Top 25 Marketing blogs. She also writes the blog Teaching Social Media (found at http://teachingsocialmedia.blogspot.com). She is a contributing author on the social media business books Age of Conversation and Age of Conversation 2. She is a regular personality on The Big Biz Show, a nationally-syndicated radio program, discussing topics related to marketing, social media, and customer service, and has also appeared with The Big Biz Show on WealthTV.

Becky teaches the “Marketing via New Media” class at UC San Diego Extension and sits on the Network Solutions Social Web Advisory Board. She also has her own internet radio show, Customers Rock! Radio, heard on wsRadio.com and via iTunes.

Becky is a regular keynote speaker and panelist at industry conferences and webinars on the topics of customer loyalty and social media including BlogWorld, SxSW Interactive, and Customers 1st. Additionally, Becky’s expertise has been sought out as a judge for several awards, including the Association of Support Professionals Top 10 Websites Awards, the Service and Support Professionals Innovator Awards, San Diego American Marketing Association’s Marketer of the Year Awards, the MI:6 Video Game Marketing Awards, and the Web Marketing Association’s Web Awards.

Previously, Becky served as Director of Social Media for social media advertising company Brickfish and was a Senior Consultant for industry-leading Peppers & Rogers Group. Additionally, she worked at Hewlett Packard for 14 years, capping her tenure as Director of Marketing for the UK and Ireland. She began her career at the NASA/Ames Research Center. Becky holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, and an MBA in Marketing Management from California State University.

Location and Time:

1:50 - 2:40 in the Main Theater

To register for the AMA Cause Conference on March 10 click here!

Keynote Spotlight: Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding - The new nonprofit imperative

About the Keynote Presentation:

A select group of nonprofit organizations, of all sizes, are moving beyond traditional thinking about brands and branding. They are strategically and purposefully building and managing their brand. In the process, they are adding significant value and establishing a strategic competitive advantage that is powering substantial short and long-term growth. Identifying how your organization will stand out in the cacophony is vital in today’s environment and essential in differentiating, strengthening and creating value for the organization. This keynote will equips your nonprofit and your company– whatever your size, with the principles and practices to build and strengthen its brand in the community with the ultimate goal of creating a stronger cadre of supporters, achieving significant community impact, raising more funds and making a greater difference.

About the Keynote Speaker:

Jocelyne Daw is international recognized for her pioneering work in cause marketing and a sought after expert on business-community partnerships, community branding and integrating marketing and fundraising for significant results. A well-known speaker and consultant, Jocelyne has embraced a steadfast commitment to strengthening nonprofit organizations and businesses work in the growing field of community engagement. She has been retained by many leading nonprofits and companies both in Canada and the United States to provide strategic counsel that propels their work. Jocelyne is the author of "Cause Marketing for Nonprofits: Partner for Purpose, Passion and Profits” and the soon-to-be released book, coauthored with Carol Cone, "Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding: The Seven Principles to Power Extraordinary Growth."

Location and Time:

1:00 - 1:45 in the Main Theater

To register for the AMA Cause Conference on March 10, click here!

Session Spotlight: Building Partnerships on Purpose

Sponsorship Accountability…Beyond the Proposal - Cracking the Corporate DNA Code to Cultivate Effective Cause Marketing Strategies

About the Session:

New times require new models and new responses…If partnering with corporations is a critical link in your cause marketing value chain, this session will uncover what it takes to craft effective strategic partnerships with corporations, and give you the inside scoop on what drives their decisioning. This will be followed by a panel discussion with several corporations sharing how they align issues, focus giving, evaluate potential partners and deliver results to their stakeholders in these unprecedented times.

About the Moderator:

NEVILLE BILLIMORIA, Senior Vice President of Membership/Marketing & Chief Advocacy Officer, Mission Federal Credit Union

Neville is an effective communications and values leader, with more than twenty five years experience growing organizations through external marketing, media, and sales effectiveness as well as internal organizational alignment, corporate communications, and leadership development. In his current role, Neville has accountability for a strategic array of crucial member-focused and outward facing functions including; leading and managing the Marketing, Community Relations, Business Development and School Business Services departments for San Diego’s 2nd largest Credit Union with over $2B in assets serving more than 137,000 members. This includes shared responsibility with the CEO for promoting Mission Federal Credit Union’s public image and brand. As Chief Advocacy Officer, Neville interacts with a host of external constituencies including the financial industry as a whole, the credit union movement in particular, media, public relations, the educational community, and the greater community of San Diego. Neville also founded and serves on the MFCU Community Foundation Board of Directors. His span of control includes all outward facing areas with annual budget accountability for Membership/Marketing and the 501 3c Charitable Foundation exceeding $3 million. Neville also teaches at UCSD where he serves on a number of Boards including the UCSD Alumni Board.

The Panelists:

• Joanne Pastula – CEO, Junior Achievement
• Ed Wallace – VP Community Affairs, Sony Electronics
• Kelly Prasser – Regional Manager of Corporate and Community Relations, Sempra Energy

Location and Time:
11:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m in the Main Theater

To register for the AMA Cause Conference on March 10 click here!