Today, we salute community leaders who serve the cities and towns we call home. While this list includes visionary city council members, teachers and active citizens, it also includes business leaders like Starbucks that not only invest in-kind and financial resources to communities, but also create platforms for citizens to actively support local organizations.

We recently partnered with Starbucks to design and implement Vote.Give.Grow. - a program that reflects the company’s deep commitment to supporting communities and helping them thrive. The four-week program, which ran throughout April, invited Starbucks' loyal customers to help direct $4 million in funding from the Starbucks Foundation to 124 local community and national nonprofit organizations in 61 communities around the country. The money was distributed based on the number of votes each organization received, but every participating nonprofit received a portion of the funding.


We worked closely with a cross-functional team from Starbucks and the Starbucks Foundation for more than a year to bring Vote.Give.Grow. from idea to reality. Here’s a snapshot on how it came to life:

• Strategic input into program development: GOOD/Corps team members dug in with the Starbucks team to better understand Starbucks overall approach to community and learn more about key initiatives designed to activate and engage consumers in that philanthropy. This included the Create Jobs for USA campaign and a pilot of Vote.Give.Grow. that took place in New Orleans in 2010. In addition to key learnings from these successful Starbucks programs, we also pulled in best practices from GOOD/Corps’ experience with programs like the Pepsi Refresh Project and our own GOOD/Maker platform as well as related corporate efforts and best practices at the intersection of loyalty programs and community investments like (RED).


• Design and production of www.votegivegrow.com: In close coordination with Starbucks industry-leading social and digital teams, GOOD/Corps designed, constructed, hosted and maintained the digital platform on which all the information and action of Vote.Give.Grow. occurred. Building from Starbucks' brand guidelines and in-store spring collateral, the site provided a welcoming and familiar environment for Starbucks loyalists and enabled users to find, learn about, vote for and campaign on behalf of their favored organization in their city or state.


• Identification of potential nonprofits and selections of final participants: Through our network of trusted nonprofits and social innovators, GOOD/Corps sought out hundreds of effective, reputable organizations aligned to the Starbucks Foundation’s approach of pursuing comprehensive neighborhood revitalization efforts and improving community education, employment, health, housing and safety. With 1.3 million nonprofit organizations in the United States, it was both a daunting and exciting task to find organizations with a proven track record for success that met our objectives for this program. We found over 300 organizations doing great work in their communities which we presented for initial review. After working closely with the Starbucks team, we then presented the nonprofits to thousands of Starbucks partners so they would have the opportunity to curate the list and determine the final participants. We arrived at the final 124 organizations - two unique organizations in each of 61 geographies as well as DonorsChoose.org and Opportunity Finance Network participating in all 61 geographies.


• Support for participating non-profit organizations: Once selected, GOOD/Corps provided tools, resources and one-on-one guidance for organizations large and small, urban and rural, from new to very experienced in social media. A toolkit included tips and templates on everything from email newsletters to tweets to press releases. A humorous, interactive video enabled supporters of nonprofits to engage their friends and family in a fun and easy way. We even distributed downloadable posters, suggested Facebook profile pictures, and hints on how to encourage celebrities to tweet on behalf of an organization. Finally, our team stayed in regular touch with all non-profits leading up to, during, and even after the program to ensure they all had up-to-date information and knew there was a staff person available anytime to connect one-on-one. For us and for Starbucks, success of the program wasn’t just about engaging and activating people to vote, it was also about ensuring the participating nonprofits had a positive experience and walked away with tools that would help them be even more successful in driving change in their communities in the long-term.

Starbucks is exactly the type of partner we love working with - innovative, passionate, values-driven and beloved by its customers. During the month of April, more than 100,000 My Starbucks Rewards members participated in Vote.Give.Grow., casting more than 125,000 votes and campaigning for their favored non-profits through social media. We look forward to build upon the learnings from this program and helping advance the field of social impact.


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In March of 2012, the Columbia Water Center released a film and two infographics in honor of World Water Day. GOOD/Corps produced this work, which highlighted the CWC's search for long-term solutions for the global water crisis.

In "Deeper Than Water", director Gabe Askew visualizes the nature of this crisis by showing the delicate and volatile path that brings fresh water to the sources that use it daily. The film takes the viewer along water's voyage through geography, farming and industry, illustrating how, all the while, water is adversely affected by pollution, deforestation and environmental degradation. In the end, the preciousness of water is undeniable, as is the fact that digging more and digging deeper to access a greater supply of this precious resource is not a viable solution.



The video was released alongside two infographics about Columbia Water Center's projects developing viable solutions for the water crises in India and Brazil.



We are proud to partner with the Columbia Water Center and the PepsiCo Foundation where, together, we can promote awareness and support cooperation in bringing water to in-need communities across the world.


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As a creative and strategic partner for the City of Los Angeles on the LA/2B campaign, we’re excited to share our second infographic: LA/2B: Our Streets. Our City. This infographic reveals how our streets actively shape our city’s culture, connecting lifestyles, neighborhoods and people across Los Angeles. Designed in collaboration with local LA artist Brian Gosset, the infographic showcases the vitality of one of LA's most important thoroughfares (and the new home of GOOD/Corps and GOOD!): Wilshire Blvd.



The LA/2B campaign engages Angelenos in imagining improved mobility in Los Angeles. From citywide workshops to an online townhall, the City of Los Angeles’ Department of City Planning asks Angelenos - How do we get LA to move? How do we push our streets and mobility into the future? The Department of City Planning along with the Department of Transportation plans to use the ideas generated through LA/2B to help inform and guide the development of an updated street and transportation plan.

Improving our streets is the first step to transforming our city! Add your voice to the conversation about the evolution of mobility in Los Angeles. Join the conversation here and become a part of LA/2B.

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In the Summer of 2011, MasterCard launched a shared value initiative in partnership with Stand Up To Cancer, engaging its consumer base to help generate funds for cancer research. GOOD/Corps created a campaign to help drive and grow MasterCard’s social media presence and Facebook fans to create a community of people who cared about fueling cancer research.

We created a positioning that united three truths to develop a platform for people to meaningfully engage with MasterCard.

(1) MasterCard Truth: “Putting the priceless into the everyday”

(2) SU2C Truth: “Delivering resources and funds to advance cancer treatment research and save lives”

(3) Target Audience Truth (those touched by cancer): “More priceless moments of life for myself, my loved ones and my friends”

Through this initiative, we sought to provide value to participants through celebrating personal moments, to society through critical cancer research, and to MasterCard in driving brand interactions with real substance and meaning.

To achieve these objectives, we created a Facebook application inviting our audience to share a snapshot of their everyday moment. For each person’s participation, MasterCard donated $1 to SU2C's cancer research programs.



Everyday Moments was a huge success generating a 197% increase in Facebook Likes for MasterCard over the 4-month span of the campaign, and $125,000 raised for Stand Up To Cancer.



The campaign tracked over 300,000,000 unique impressions (UIR) from social, earned and paid media.

Celebrity influencers and Stand Up To Cancer advocates like Chef Cat Cora, actor Terrence Howard and comedian George Lopez showed their support of the Everyday Moments campaign by sharing moments of their own and promoting the campaign through various media channels.

We also found a significant shift and increase in consumers' positive affinity for MasterCard. MasterCard’s Facebook wall was showered with appreciative commentary as well as personal stories and supportive feedback from those affected by cancer.

Thanks to our partners at MasterCard and Stand Up To Cancer, whose collaboration and partnership is a wonderful example of the potential for shared value programs that drive real business impact alongside social impact.

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We’re currently working with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Opportunity Equation, and over 115 leading partner organizations to build 100Kin10, a new model for collective action and innovation around STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education. For the last year, GOOD/Corps has been a strategic and creative partner supporting the growth of the movement, developing the creative platform for 100Kin10 as well as engagement opportunities for partners and the public.

100Kin10 began as a response to President Obama's rallying cry to recruit and retain 100,000 new STEM teachers over the next ten years -- thereby creating a future where all students have the STEM literacy necessary to be full participants in the nation's economy. Due to its collaborative cross-sector model, 100Kin10 has already received the support of former President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama, who recognized the efforts of 100Kin10 at the White House Science Fair.


To date, over 115 100Kin10 partner organizations ranging from NASA to Donors Choose have pledged commitments. These organizations came together on February 21st to begin working together at the first annual 100Kin10 Partner Summit hosted at Google D.C. At the summit, special guests such as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Google EVP and Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf lauded the group’s innovative bottom-up approach. The GOOD/Corps team helped with event production, facilitated a session on movement building, and presented a talk on innovation.

Here are photos from the event:



It’s through our work with respected and visionary partners like the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Opportunity Equation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google (just to name a few) that we’re reminded of the opportunities for collaborative innovation. 100Kin10 exemplifies what an unprecedented time in history we’re in--- one in which changemakers are leading transformations in nearly all sectors ranging from complex multinational corporations to local communities--- leveraging technology to collaboratively prototype innovations that help tackle the largest challenges of our times.

If you have any suggestions for us, feel free to write us at hello@goodcorps.com.

Photos via John Werner Photography

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