I recently began covering stories about "enterprise 2.0" or "social business" software for CMP, and here's an example of the power which comes from that.
Join My Village was crafted by the folks at CARE, which is based in my hometown of Atlanta, as yet-another way to separate corporations from their money in a good cause. Up to $900,000 will move from General Mills and Merck into the fight against poverty.
The way it does this is elegant. You sign up (they have your name) and you take some simple action, like watching a video on CARE's work in Malawi. Then the sponsors pony up some money. Your time becomes their cash.
Most attempts to extract corporate money for good causes are a lot more straightforward than this. Won't you help our cause? Wouldn't your customers and prospects like you better if you helped our cause?
All well and good. But not good enough in a highly-competitive world of charity giving. (Yes, this is a market just like any other.)
By using social networking in this way — collecting active names — CARE also becomes more self-sustaining. That's another big point for companies interested in giving. They all want the recipients of the gifts (in this case CARE) to find a way to sustain the project after the gift is spent. That's something groups like The Gates Foundation look at — they try to see charitable giving as an investment rather than an expenditure.
Adding a form of social networking to the mix makes it just that. Expect more things like this.
