#TECH: Apple Backs Down on EPEAT. Welcome Back To EPEAT!
Apple bruised by PR cuts over EPEAT
No, MKCREATIVEmedia doesn’t wield that kind of influence over 1 Infinity Loop. Or any influence, really. But about two hours ago we posted a summation of Apple’s withdrawal from the very EPEAT environmental standards the corporation helped establish over a decade ago. Our little contribution to the issue was not technological or particularly environmental, but political: Apple (and any other corporation, bank, investment firm, media conglomerate…) wants to set the rules, follow the rules, and be umpire of those rules (for itself) all at the same time.
Well, difficult to say that Apple called a foul on itself. But retiring Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, Bob Mansfield, has released a press release at Apple’s website explaining why Apple has decided to return to the EPEAT community!
Here are excerpts of his letter:
We’ve recently heard from many loyal Apple customers who were disappointed to learn that we had removed our products from the EPEAT rating system. I recognize that this was a mistake. Starting today, all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT.
It’s important to know that our commitment to protecting the environment has never changed, and today it is as strong as ever….
For example, Apple led the industry in removing harmful toxins such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). We are the only company to comprehensively report greenhouse gas emissions for every product we make, taking into account the entire product lifecycle. And we’ve removed plastics wherever possible, in favor of materials that are more highly recyclable, more durable, more efficient and longer lasting.
Our relationship with EPEAT has become stronger as a result of this experience, and we look forward to working with EPEAT as their rating system and the underlying IEEE 1680.1 standard evolve. Our team at Apple is dedicated to designing products that everyone can be proud to own and use.
Sure, Apple wants those government contracts back. But what might also be striking about this volte face is Apple is tacitly admitting it didn’t expect much of a public reaction to their leaving the coalition. “I mean, really! Our stuff is greener than most anybody’s anyway. Why all this fuss?” We can see Apple’s decision on its decision as one little victory for the common person and her/his social networking tools.
Of course, we’re complaining about our latest iPads, whereas people are risking their lives on social networks in Syria and Egypt. But let’s take our wins where we can. And no, MKCREATIVEmedia won’t be taking credit for this change of policy.
Related articles
| Category Advertising, Advocacy, Apple, Civics, Communications, Environment, Event, iDevice, Marketing, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Opinion, Politics, Publications, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#TECH: Once Developed By Apple, Now Abandoned By Apple: EPEAT Standards
Has Apple lost its environmental cred?
It can be tough to love Apple, Inc. Stock prices over $600? Check. Over $100 billion in cold, hard, cash? You bet. Products loved even by those who don’t even own one? Of course! Profits over $6.5 billion a quarter? No sweat. Charitable organization? Er… Recycle program for its gadgets? Well, up to a point. Environmentally-sensitive product line? Yes, sort of. Unless we’re not. Tell you what, let’s just drop that off the list, ok?
Apple helped draw up the EPEAT standards for environmentally-friendly production of technologies back in 200-2001. But this past Tuesday Apple quietly backed out of its commitment to the program. In fact, Apple only responded yesterday, once word started to spread (darn that social networking stuff that Apple products do so well!) and some contracts were put on hold.
Why has the leading tech company withdrawn from its own environmental guidelines? Will the Apple brand be bruised by the move?
| Category Apple, Branding, Case Study, Civics, Hardware Review, iDevice, iPad/Tablet, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics, Public Relations, Technology | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: OneClimate Is A Social Platform Primed For The Environmental Community
Of course those who are engaged in the pressing issues of environmental degradation and global warming want to reach out to audiences as wide as possible. The heavy hitters of social networking (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…) can serve that purpose. But did you know that other social networks focus on particular issues and offer opportunities to talk with others focused on your organization’s concerns? If those concerns include those of the environment (from global industrial waste to local concerns of residue from asphalt runoff), sign up on the social network OneClimate.net. Why join yet another social-networking platform?
| Category Advocacy, Cause Marketing, Civics, Climate Change, Community, Community Gardens, Environment, Greening, Media Review, Nonprofit, Politics, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Technology for Nonprofits | | 2 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#FUNDRAISING: Facebook Gives Pages & Apps To Nonprofits (Zuckerberg Gives Cash)
Facebook’s power on the social-networks scene need hardly be introduced, and thousands of nonprofits and charities have tapped into that power to expand and support their good work. But has the company offered any of its billions to those nonprofits and charities? Facebook, like Apple, does not have a philanthropic foundation like some other corporations, like Dell or Intel. Facebook’s CEO, unlike Apple’s, has given a great deal of charity on his own. Zuckerberg has taken the “Giving Pledge” drive initiated by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, and he famously gave $100 million to the Newark (NJ) school system last year.
So if a charitable foundation is not part of the Facebook portfolio at this stage, what does it do to support the work of nonprofits?
| Category Advice, Advocacy, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Marketing, Nonprofit, Politics, Public Relations, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology for Nonprofits, Thought for the Day, Video | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#GRANTS: Sony USA Offers Year-Long Support To Many Types Of Nonprofits
Nonprofits depend on technology for communication, internal organization, and creative outreach. Many of the tech corporations who design and build the cameras, computers, smartphones, and tablets for nonprofits also offer grants and other avenues of support for those nonprofits and charities. In this post, we turn to Sony USA, which offers numerous outlets where such 501(c)3 organizations can purchase Sony’s products at a notably reduced rate. But more importantly, Sony gives year-long grants to numerous organizations involved in the arts, community outreach and renewal, education, volunteerism, and health and human services.
| Category Advocacy, Civics, Community, Fundraising, Grants, How-to, Nonprofit, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Twitter Continues To Expand Through Mobile Devices
The Pew Internet and American Life Project has brought us valuable statistics and reported notable trends in internet use over the years, and a recent report focused on the growing use of Twitter as a means of social networking. Twitter could be described as a social networking platform that punches above its weight class. Twitter turned six this past March, and by its own accounts has some 140 million users sending some 340 million tweets a day. For the sake of comparison, Facebook has over 900 million.
Yet Twitter’s political and cultural impact is almost equivalent, even if it has only 15.5% as many users. Note the ‘Arab Spring’ as a ‘Twitter Revolution.’ How does Twitter have such an oversized geopolitical impact? The same reason local nonprofits should be developing a presence on the social network.
| Category Advertising, Advice, Advocacy, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Development, Fundraising, Geo-Location, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Mobile, Mobile, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Public Media, Publications, Report, Resource, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#GRANTS: HP Gives Well Above Its Peers Of Similar Revenue
Let’s face it: HP has had some hard times in the printing and computing world. It has gone some time without a CEO over the last few years, and the board has bought some assets that don’t seem much like assets (Anyone seen a Palm Pilot lately?). And in the upcoming year, some 30,000 jobs will be cut by the corporation. Yet I write this post not to bury HP but to praise it, for Hewlett-Packard has been a major corporate donor and socially-engaged company for some time. In 2011 the company brought in about $127 billion in revenues last year, and it gave over $100 million back out through its “Global Innovation” organization. For comparison, Apple drew in $108 billion in the same year, and invested about $0 in corporate philanthropy.
Could your nonprofit benefit from assistance from Hewlett-Packard?
| Category Civics, Community, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Nonprofit, Sustainability, Technology for Nonprofits, Video, Volunteerism | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#TECH: Why & How To Send One Text Message To Your Nonprofit’s Constituents
Ever more people want to communicate with their mobile devices, and they want to communicate on their mobile devices with text messaging. The distinction between those under about 25 and those older is striking − with the under 25s responding to emails, and even aural phone messages, with text. But even those who actually make calls with their cell phones find text messaging a convenient way to share practical information quickly.
Nonprofits are (slowly) starting to take advantage of text messaging as a means to encourage engagement and to inspire giving. One of the first crises/campaigns to get noticed for its use of text was the the American Red Cross’s response to the earthquake in Haiti. But many charities are working up ‘text lists’ to rival their ‘email lists’. The question is, how can a smaller nonprofit easily send out messages to its constituents without contacting them individually?
| Category Advice, Advocacy, Apple, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Crowdfunding, Fundraising, Geo-Location, How-to, iDevice, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Mobile, Mobile, Nonprofit, Report, Resource, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Facebook Stocks Being Sold Off & Facebook Accounts Not Expanding
Should nonprofits worry?
The saga that is the Facebook IPO continues. Wall Street took a break from claiming to be the US Economy yesterday, but as of lunchtime this Tuesday, stock in the uber-social network fell below $30 for the first time. The brouhaha surrounding the IPO has largely concerned possible fraud or withholding of information from public investors, but some are wondering if the real issue is simply the product itself. If it is, what should nonprofits and charities be doing with their Facebook accounts as the company deals with this shakeout?
| Category Advertising, Blogs, Branding, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Marketing, Media Review, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Resource, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Strategic Marketing, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#GRANTS: Dell Computers & Dell Foundation Offer Resources For Youth & Environment
Dell Computers was founded in 1984 in Austin Texas and it became a worldwide leader in online sales of MSDOS/Windows/x86 computers within a decade. Michael and Susan Dell established their foundation in 1999 in an effort to present their booming company as a corporate citizen. The efforts of the foundation are to multiply the work of Dell’s individual employees:
Being a good corporate citizen is more than just writing a check to a nonprofit and checking ‘complete’ next to your external branding strategy. To make a meaningful difference, companies must integrate the process into its business model, strategically align community involvement with business initiatives and avoid diluting efforts by consciously focusing on areas where the greatest impact can be made. That’s the recipe for success in today’s global market.
If your organization would like to apply for support from the foundation, we have collated some resources to help you get started.
| Category Advocacy, Affordable Housing, Civics, Community, Environment, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Greening, Health, How-to, Low-Income, Major Gifts, Nonprofit, Resource, Revitalization, Sponsorship | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ADVOCACY: When A Clever Concept Just Misses, It Misses By A Lot
Sometimes being close really means missing by quite a bit
Sometimes a nonprofit’s campaign can include a fine idea that, alas, doesn’t quite get it right. Like a long fly ball to the 385-foot alley of a ball park that falls in to be caught at 382 feet, the charity can be excited at what seems to be about to happen, only to trudge back to the dugout (or in our cases today ‘back to the glitzy communications agencies’) lamenting about what could have been.
Let’s return this Monday to a theme we led off with last Monday on high-concept advocacy plans that did not quite live up to expectations. The good folks at the Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration (SOFII) provide us all with food-for-thought when it comes to campaigns that might have looked good in the pristine world of the conference room, but came up just short in the real world. And ‘just short’ can mean real human tragedy where the fight against hunger is concerned.
| Category Advice, Blogs, Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Design, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Graphic Design, Health, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Publications, Reviews, Social Marketing, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#CIVICS: Apple’s Billions In Tax Dodges Come Under Scrutiny
The corporation is in California, but not its tax liability
Apple Inc. is making it difficult to feel sympathy for Apple Inc. When the blogosphere challenged Apple the business and Steve Jobs the CEO to act like a good corporate citizen by offering some philanthropic goodwill, we took a fairly conciliatory position that Apple’s job is innovative technology and Apple’s innovative technology has been a real boon to the nonprofit world. When the terrible conditions at Foxconn China broke, we followed the story arc with you and stressed Apple’s willingness to engage its supplier − albeit belatedly. Then the story dissolved amid retractions and mea culpas that threatened many careers outside Apple or Foxconn.
But now The New York Times has reported that Apple Inc. has been pipelining profits to subsidiaries and ghost offices both in the US and abroad that has lowered its tax liabilities by over $2 billion in the last year.
| Category Apple, Civics, Communications, Community, Marketing, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Opinion, Politics, Public Relations, Report, Resource, Sustainability, Technology | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Kony 2012 Covered The Night. Did It Jump The Shark?
Youth cover some of the evening
The sensation that is/was ‘Kony 2012′ has been a part of the nonprofit social-media landscape for six-plus weeks now. The hundreds of millions who made the original video a viral sensation in March were not all supporters of the message, though, and challenges to the drive launched by the San Diego nonprofit ‘Invisible Children’ continue to be made. The original and ostensible goal is to have Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) brought to justice by making Kony ‘famous’ enough that world leaders will be inspired or shamed to dedicate the resources to get him. The effort to make him famous has been done and the culmination of the effort was this past weekend’s ‘Cover The Night’ campaign. How well did it go? Whether the night got ‘covered’ probably depends on where you are and what you want ‘covered’ to mean, but Invisible Children have ratcheted up their campaign with, frankly, the oddest video yet.
| Category Blogs, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Event Review, Events, Fundraising, Marketing, Media Review, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Opinion, Politics, Public Media, Reviews, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Video, YouTube | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ADVOCACY: Kony 2012 Sequel Not Going Viral, Nor Ending Debate
Too little too late?
Last Thursday, Invisible Children released their tepidly anticipated sequel to the stunningly viral video Kony 2012 (over 100 million views). The sequel, “Kony Part II – Beyond Famous,” was almost destined not to make as big a splash in the nonprofit/video/social-media ocean because the impact of the message had already been made, and those millions who responded − positively or negatively − probably don’t need to see a sequel to be re-convinced. Since the first video came out, just over a month ago, the ‘media packages’ people were asked to purchase to support the campaign were quickly sold out and the video’s director/narrator, Jason Russell, was arrested and committed to hospital for mental and emotional fatigue.
We still await the climactic ‘Cover The Night’ campaign of 20 April, but what all this has done to bring Kony to justice remains to be seen. What we want to focus on today, though, is how social networks inspired the explosion of interest around the original, and how those same networks might be dampening the responses to the sequel.
| Category Advocacy, Blogs, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Fundraising, Marketing, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Opinion, Politics, Public Media, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Video, YouTube | | 3 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SM4NP: Kony 2012 Will Get A Sequel & More Context Today
Today is the day. Probably.
As any Hollywood mogul will confirm, when your movie is watched by 100 million people, you need to make a sequel. That market is just too big to pass up. And the renown viral video Kony 2012 has been viewed well over 100 million times. Nevertheless, the reasons the San Diego based firm ’Invisible Children’ will be releasing a sequel to their 30-minute wunderkind seem not really about tapping a market so much as explaining the phenomenon. It has not been released as of this posting, but one can’t help but wonder if we need the prequel/context-setter any more than we needed Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
What do we know about a movie that has not yet appeared?
| Category Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Crowdfunding, Design, Events, Fundraising, Marketing, Media Review, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Opinion, Politics, Reviews, Social Media, Storytelling, Video | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#ENVIRO: CBS/EcoMedia Partnership Expands To Bring Revenues To Green Nonprofits
The alliance between CBS/EcoMedia began just last year in an effort to bring advertising dollars directly to nonprofits, and the success of the program is beyond doubt as five more nationally recognized environmental nonprofits have recently joined the ranks. The effort of the partnership is allow corporate sponsors who buy advertising through the CBS conglomerate to direct some of that money toward the nonprofits themselves. According to the EcoMedia mission statement, “We’ve developed partnerships with cities across America, all of which have environmental projects in need of funding. When companies advertise with us, dollars go directly into these projects, thereby turning traditional television commercials, radio spots, online advertising, and outdoor billboards into EcoAds.” − as this advertisement demonstrates:
| Category Advertising, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Environment, Grants and Funding, Greening, Marketing, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Press Release, Public Media, Public Relations | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SM4NP: ‘Kony 2012′ Still Stirs Engagement, Controversy, And Embarrassment
Director's breakdown raises further questions
The controversy surrounding the viral video ‘Kony 2012′ continues even as its views on YouTube surpass 85.4 million as I write. The director, Jason Russell, had something of a mental breakdown a week ago, when he was arrested for indecent exposure while ranting almost incoherently about support and friendships. As reported by ABC.com late last week, “According to the National Institutes of Health, brief reactive psychosis is triggered by extreme stress, such as a traumatic event or the loss of a loved one. The symptoms, which include delusions, hallucinations and strange speech, can last up to a month, and the person may be completely unaware of them. … Alan Hilfer, chief psychologist at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City, said the backlash over Russell’s “Kony 2012″ campaign could have been traumatic enough to trigger the meltdown.”
How might disconcerting behavior of the video’s producer shift the discussion of the video and the appeal by ‘Invisible Children’ to raise awareness of Joseph Kony’s ‘Lord’s Resistance Army‘?
| Category Advertising, Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Crowdfunding, Fundraising, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Opinion, Politics, Public Media, Reviews, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology, Video, YouTube | | 3 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Advocacy: ‘This American Life’ Retracts Story Of Abuses At Foxconn
It has been a rough week for social-consciousness movements whose leaders have produced stories a bit too slick to be true. We wrote last week about the doubts surrounding the viral video ‘Kony 2012′ meant to inspire a public campaign against Joseph Kony’s child army in Uganda − if that army still exists and Kony is indeed in Uganda. Over the weekend, the producer Jason Russell was arrested for public drunkenness and self-satisfaction, casting still further doubt on the veracity of the campaign and on the nonprofit ‘Invisible Children’.
To add to the unnerving series of good stories gone bad, Mike Daisey’s story/one-man-show “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” has been discredited for his taking numerous liberties with what he claimed were personal encounters at Apple’s suppliers Foxconn in China. His story – somewhat truncated – was broadcast on the popular ‘This American Life‘ public-radio program this past January, causing quite a stir. And it now has been retracted by producer Ira Glass and Daisey has been reconfiguring his story in light of probing questions into its authenticity.
What might be behind the rise and fall of these stories?
| Category Apple, Blogs, Campaigns, Case Study, Civics, Communications, Interview, Marketing, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Opinion, Politics, Press Release, Public Media, Public Relations, Publications, Social Media, Storytelling, Technology | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SM4NP: Kone 2012 Video Goes Viral, But Maybe For Wrong Reasons
But will it hold up to scrutiny?
Today is yet another day in the Republican Primary Season. Today is another day many thousands of Republicans will not want Barack Obama re-elected, but nor will they rally around a viable contender. Yet today also is the day possibly the 75 millionth person watches the viral video phenomenon ‘Kony 2012′. The video tells the moving story of Joseph Kony of Uganda who was certainly known (7-8 years ago) for kidnapping boys and forcing them to serve in his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and the viral video campaign by Invisible Children to raise money and awareness to have him brought to justice.
But Is Kony even alive? Is Invisible Children truly dedicated to helping youth in war-torn central Africa? The very success of the ‘Kony 2012′ campaign shows us how fraught with challenges our media saturated brave new world is.
| Category Case Study, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Fundraising, Media Review, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Opinion, Politics, Public Media, Public Relations, Reviews, Social Media, Storytelling, Video Interview | | 4 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#PROAGING: Social Tech Rewiring Social Connections For Millennials
Each generation seems predisposed to believe the next generation will be materially better off but intellectually or spiritually weaker. Whether it’s Socrates complaining about writing over memorizing, John of Salisbury lamenting the rise of law schools in twelfth-century England, or Grandpa Simpson opining about how much better everything was in his day, thinkers tends to lament the technologies their children develop.
We might now have lived in a internet-connected world long enough to get a meaningful sense of how connectedness might be changing the ways be think and interact with information and with each other. On this year’s Leap Day, Elon University’s School of Communication and the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a report entitled “Millennials will benefit and suffer due to their hyperconnected lives” – a report meant to see how the Millennials see their own world and its future.
| Category Advice, Aging, Civics, Communications, Marketing, Nonprofit, Publications, Report, Resource, Social Media, Strategic Marketing, Technology, Technology for Aging, Technology for Nonprofits | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#PUBLICPOLICY: Online Privacy Becomes Concern For Service Providers
Perhaps the most famous statement of internet privacy from 'The New Yorker' (1993)
Online privacy has been a notable concern for many citizens almost since the inception of the internet, and certainly we have often discussed the issue on our blog over the years. A decade ago, the question of privacy largely was answered with calm warnings to use common sense and with explanations of the averages working against anyone being able to assemble any meaningful aggregate of the real you.
But now not only do companies exist precisely to aggregate your online behavior, millions of us willingly offer our own aggregations via our social-network platforms of choice. Those who strive to ensure some privacy of individuals have been lobbying the federal government to block certain aggregations and pressuring companies to offer ever more powerful privacy controls to customers and members. What seems to be the state of the discussion now?
| Category Audio Interview, Blogs, Civics, Communications, Community, Facebook, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Politics, Public Relations, Site Administration, Social Media, Strategic Marketing, Web and Print | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#PHILANTHROPY: Google Can Give Time, Resources, & AdWords To Nonprofits
Google is the great behemoth of web searching and video hosting. Google.com is default homepage in millions of browsers and YouTube has inspired citizen journalists in war-torn Syria and video mashups of cute kittens in suburbia. Google.org is perhaps not as well known, but its philanthropic outreach is huge, and it offers that money and support numerous ways – some of which your organization can surely take advantage of!
| Category Advertising, Advice, Blogs, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Desktop Apps, Development, Donor Acquisition, eNewsletter, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, How-to, Major Gifts, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Site Administration, Social Media, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#PUBLICPOLICY: Pressure Grows On Apple’s Supplier Foxconn
These are protestors of, not customers for, the new iPhone
The reputation of a nonprofit can make-or-break its efforts. Note the stunning blowback and reversal of the Susan G. Komen Foundation when it quietly tried to back out of its relationship with Planned Parenthood. For a business, the reputation can perhaps take more of a beating and still survive. Note BP’s expanding presence in the Gulf of Mexico despite the human and environmental costs of the corporation’s oil spill in 2010.
And then there’s Apple: perhaps the only company that can have a serious court case against its flagship product (the iPad in China), a publicity firestorm and protests over its (suppliers’) treatment of workers, and can still surpass the $500 share price. How is its PR responding to the oxymorons?
| Category Apple, Case Study, Civics, Communications, Community, Marketing Skills, Media Review, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Public Relations, Technology | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Tech: Apple’s Reputation Gets Pulped – Deservedly So?
Oops...
Tweets often move faster than facts. True, the Apple web store was down for a bit yesterday, but when it came back up, no new iPad or iPhone 5. Indeed, the only notable difference I could see was the prominence of Apple’s report on ‘Supplier Responsibility‘ for 2012.
Which proved to be a ‘fortuitous’ move, given the fact that yesterday The New York Times published a scathing and in-depth report about workers’ conditions at technology-suppliers Foxconn in China. A significant portion of Foxconn’s factory in Chengdu exploded in May 2011, killing four workers. Which slowed output of iPad 2s, which caught peoples’ attention. Which inspired investigations into what was going on at Foxconn. Which are now coming to light and showing the terribly rough conditions at the factory/city. For which Apple is taking most of the heat. Is that fair?
| Category Apple, Branding, Campaigns, Civics, Communications, Environment, iDevice, iPad/Tablet, Marketing, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Public Relations, Technology | | 4 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Communications: Postal Rates Raised Last Week – Not For Nonprofits
The United States Postal Service has been struggling financially for the last few years. The Bush Administration saddled the service with pre-paying its future retiree benefits for a decade (2006-2016), a demand uniquely imposed on the USPS. Bush’s policy meant the service went from profits in the $1.4 billion range in 2005 to one that has laid off thousands of works, closed numerous branches, and still needs to raise postal rates in an effort just to stay open. So what he did to the postal service he did to the country.
This past Monday many postal rates changed. For example, first-class mail went up by a penny and its guaranteed one-day delivery (depending on distance) was removed. Or perhaps you didn’t notice?
| Category Advice, Campaigns, Civics, Communications, Community, Direct Mail, E-Mail, Fundraising, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Budget, Marketing Skills, Measurement, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newsletter, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Politics, Publications, Strategic Marketing, Web and Print | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD