Footprinting—cause related strategies for the everyday.

I vowed that this summer I wouldn’t be planning any golf tournaments, being that I have planned one every year for the last five years for the Range of Motion Project. and every summer morning since 2005 has been filled with stress and anxiety about who was actually going to sponsor it, how many silent auction prizes would there be, would people actually play, etc. You know the usual amount of event planning stress. So this year, being that my wedding is Labor Day weekend, I took the year off!

But I have been consulting with the largest real estate company in Chicago, @properties, over the last year to develop their corporate responsibility campaign . I am impressed beyond belief with the owners, Mike Golden and Thad Wong, for their commitment in this troubled market to making this a priority. It all started last August when Mike and I sat down to discuss organizing their corporate giving. I pitched the idea of taking it one step further and creating a corporate giving program and giving it a lasting structure with a community agenda.

Almost a year later, here we are, planning our first event and off to a great start. Sure there have been a few bumps in the road in getting it started and keeping people motivated (being that the advisory board is made up of real estate agents who are all independent contractors). But they all love their company so much and feel extreme loyalty to it. I have never quite seen anything like it in real estate and I have been working in the business for 6 years. These agents believe in the company as much as they believe in their successful businesses. It must be why @properties is doing so well in 2009 and had such a terrific year in 2008, taking market share away from the competitors such as Coldwell Banker and Koeing Strey becoming the largest company in Chicago.

So now here I am again in the heat of July freaking out about our sponsors, silent auction items and how to make this event GRAND! So much for my summer filled with designing wedding programs, gift bags and place cards. But I can’t really complain. I bring this on myself. I have an addiction to the cause and when duty calls…well I just can’t help myself.

We are raising money for a terrific cause: The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. www.nfte.org. I can’t believe I waited till the end to talk about the cause being that this is a blog about cause marketing. NFTE is a wonderful international 501c3 whose mission is to provide entrepreneurship education programs to young people from low-income communities. I went recently to see the group in action and I was blown away at the impact this group is having in some of the nation’s most depleted high schools.

The @properties Friends and Neighbors Community Fund, together with our non profit partners, is creating change in the areas of youth development, education and homelessness in Chicago.

In case you know someone looking to golf on September 21st…www.atproperties.com/golf

So that is what I am doing this summer…what about you?