Uglue: Buy One to Donate One

Indistructible ball

Imagine inventing a soccer ball so tough that even a lion can play with it for hours and not puncture it. Better yet imagine that kids in refugee camps can kick that “futbol” across sharp rocks, broken glass and even against the razor wire fences that surround them, knowing it will endure.

Best yet, you are donating a ball each time customers buy one. That’s the Double Good that One World Futbol offers.

Energizing ball

In an odd coincidence another soccer ball maker doubles up to do good in a different way. sOccket makes a ball that generates and retains energy when it is kicked. It creates enough energy for Africans to charge a small electronic device or a LED light. Soon sOccket will be selling it to Westerners as a fun toy, telling customers they are paying for the balls to be given away or sold cheaply via their non-profit partners, the first of which is Whizz Kids United.

Two onesies

Buy a cotton baby body suit called a onesie from the Tasmanian company, Baby Theresa, and they donate another to orphanages or poor mothers through non-profits that serve them. They take their motto from Mother Teresa, “If you can’t feed 1,000 people, then feed one.”

Since you can’t walk in their shoes …

When you buy a pair of durable canvas walking shoes from TOMS shoes, they donate another to shoeless kids in South America. Or you can literally take the next step and join a Shoe Drop group to hand-deliver them. You’ll feel even better knowing that South Americans get jobs making those shoes in “no sweatshop” conditions. Because the shoes are mainly sold online more of the profits can go towards donations while customers also get good value.

Other footwear makers are following in TOMS steps, doing good by doubling up areSoles4Souls and sturdy CAT footwear. Hint: For visibility, it helps to be the first seller of your kind of product to double up.

Buy a pair. Give a pair.

Get high fashion Fillmore eyeglasses in Tennessee whiskey tortoise (or other kind) fromWarby Parker sent to your home, with a free “no questions” return policy, knowing they will donate a pair to someone else who really needs it.

Dressed up to do good

Buy a frock and Persnickety Clothing will give another one to a girl in Nicaragua. Akin to TOMS they hire sewers in the same country who earn “above-average” wages.

Like all smart partnerships this approach leverages the benefits for all participants - and you can too.

The business wins:

Donating what it sells is more cost-effective than giving money.
Such donations highlight the quality of their products.
They gain a halo in their market as customers give, media covers the story and word of mouth spreads.

The participating non-profit wins:

As an active partner it can participate in deciding who most needs the donations and when and how they should be given away.
It also attracts media coverage for a “first ever.”

3. Other businesses then want to donate products through them.

4. More individuals want to donate or otherwise participate in the movement that’s created.

Those in need win:

They get high-quality items because a company not only wants to do good it also wants to show off its great products.

They get items they really need or want because the non-profit that matches them to the donation is very familiar with their situation.

Customers win:

They get to feel good buying something they want knowing their purchase is helping someone who really needs it.
If they want to feel generous they have the extremely convenient option of paying a lower price for a third product to be donated.

Other ways to partner to leverage support of a cause so all participants win:

1. This year up to one million community volunteers get free admission to Disney Parks in Florida and California. They are certified as volunteering for at least a day by Disney’s non-profit partner, the clearinghouse, HandsOn Network.

2. To spur more people to donate cast-off clothing and get them clean so they are ready to give away, New York Goodwill partnered with the cleaning products maker Method in anattention-grabbing campaign dubbed “Wash Smart, Give Smart.”

Method staff drove through the streets of New York in a specially-made, glass-walled truck - a “mobile laundry room” to collect clothing from individuals, then wash, dry and deliver it to Goodwill outlets.

3. Through its foundation, Home Depot partners, in three ways, with KaBOOM to build playgrounds:

• Donates money.

• Supports employees in volunteering to construct of the playground

• Uses its expertise to recycle and re-use local materials in those projects, showing community members these skills as they do.

As a company, support your employees in using their expertise in partnership with a cause.

As consumers, buy from such companies, telling them you like what they are doing.

Useable Insights:

1. Attract the right partners to leverage your capacity to serve or to sell more – and to savor greater success together?

2. In this uncertain economy where it behoves all of us to be frugal where are the people that are beyond frugal and in dire need of what you sell?

3. What reputable organization knows those people very well so that they could distribute your product directly to them when you make your own “Buy one. Give one.” offer and join forces for the greater good of all partners?

Accomplishing greater things with others than one can alone

Kare speaks, writes and consults on connective communication and collaboration – vital traits in this bottom-up, complex, connected world. This Emmy-winning former NBC and Wall Street Journal reporter was the Obama campaign's Team Collaboration Director. She’s the author of Walk Your Talk and Resolving Conflict Sooner.

• Voted one of Top 5 speakers on Communication: http://speaking.com/top5/

• Be quotable, connect + forge profitable partnerships - phone coaching with Kare http://www.sayitbetter.com/coaching.php - or bring her to speak http://www.sayitbetter.com/meeting_planners.php http://twitter.com/KareAnderson + http://howwepartner.com/