CSR Awards: CSR on a Shoestring – Fleishman-Hillard/The Allstate Foundation

Campaign: The Allstate Foundation, “Your Choice to Empower”

To help survivors of domestic abuse empower themselves by achieving their educational and professional goals, the Allstate Foundation teamed up with Fleishman-Hillard to create a program leveraging the power of digital communications. With a modest grant, the team strove to generate campaign awareness and participation throughout the blogosphere and social media networks.

It’s a Digital World After All

Fleishman-Hillard’s strategy included several key tactics:

● Developing the campaign’s Web site and Facebook application with a strong call to action for visitors to vote daily for their “choice” charity;

● Using Facebook Connect to share the message with friends and family, as well as providing a host of share tools directly on the site; and

● Conducting online outreach to bloggers and communities passionate about philanthropy, issue-oriented topics, corporate social responsibility, financial topics and domestic violence awareness.

The Power of Being Viral

Thanks to word-of-mouth and social media outreach, by fall 2009 the campaign garnered a total of 305,426 votes, 210,092 unique site visitors and 6 million total impressions. During the span of the campaign, the Facebook fan page attracted 1,799 new fans, a 3,049% increase from July 15, 2009-September 14, 2009. ■

Honorable Mentions:

Otter Tail Power Company: On for Generations —
Minnesota’s Otter Tail Power Company celebrated its 100th anniversary with Customer Service Center open houses, proclamations from four states, employee celebrations, and numerous ”pay it forward” projects—resulting in customer goodwill and positive press coverage.

Abelson Taylor: Hearts AT Work —
Focusing on children’s health and well-being, Abelson Taylor employees donated 1,263 books, raised $350 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and contributed 189 prom dresses and 150 accessories for low-income Chicago high-school students.

Comcast: Comcast Voluntweetup Media Event for Nonprofits —
To encourage nonprofits to utilize social media, Comcast hosted a successful event, Voluntweetup, which was attended by 38 nonprofit executives, 12 social media trainers and 2,000 viewers on the online live stream camera.

March 1, 2010