Momentum Partnerships

social marketing & corporate responsibility (CSR) & business and human rights

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Think before you eat and help save our environment!

Who cares about World Environment Day ? I do! And it seems that each year there are more and more people who care about positive environmental action.  Here are a few facts followed by the low down of some of my favorite initiatives for World Environment Day 2013.

What is Environment Day about?

The motto for this year’s UN World Environment Day is THINK EAT SAVE – an anti-food and food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce your foodprint by making you more aware of the environmental impact of the food choices you make.

We are all invited to raise awareness and take action and nothing is more pertinent and unifying than food – we all need to eat and drink to live each and every day.

a well stocked delicatessen in NYC

a well stocked delicatessen in NYC

Why is food important to the environment?

[Read more…]

Governments and Corporate Sustainability – a Rudderless Ship?

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Governments and Corporate Sustainability – a Rudderless Ship?

Sustainability ‘Made in Germany’ – Way to Go!

1572-3Following the global financial crisis there was a widespread desire to emerge from it with economic reform that would meet the true needs of society. Gone were the days when sustainability thinking was the domain of marginalised environmentalists. It was a wake-up call which required affected governments to bail out companies to prevent financial ruin – setting new terms and conditions for the financial industry in the process.

[Read more…]

Mission Driven Fundraising & Social Marketing Campaigns

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Mission Driven Fundraising & Social Marketing Campaigns

Mission driven fundraising refers to fundraising that is designed and implemented to promote the organisational mission. There are many misaligned fundraising initiatives solely focused on raising money and completely detached from the organisational mission – a topic for another time.

When fundraising and mission merge positive results are almost guaranteed – provided a good social marketing campaign is part of the strategy – no fundraising  strategy can succeed if not enough people know about it – no matter how good it is.

Fundraising Overheads

Fundraising consumes an enormous amount of resources – money and time, often up to half of what is being raised. There has been much public discussion about the acceptable level of expenditure for fundraising campaigns as these resources, on the face of it, compete or are taken away from service delivery resources.

Headlines like “Charity Spends More on Fundraising than Research” don’t inspire public faith in charitable organisations and are regularly reported in the media. [Read more…]

Valentine’s Day – it’s about love, isn’t it?

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Valentine’s Day – it’s about love, isn’t it?

20130209-081937.jpgDid you know that Saint Valentine’s Day is said to derive from a christian tradition involving a Pope in 500 AD?

These days, Valentine’s Day has become a symbol for consumerism with ideas for Valentine’s Day gifts for him and her and ‘experiences’ at varying costs being promoted relentlessly weeks before the occasion. I resent the commercialisation of such a precious gift: the love and affection between two lovers. And that is why I am making the case for no Valentine’s Day or slow Valentine’s Day – borrowing from the slow cooking movement -and it goes like this: [Read more…]

Business and human rights: the basics (part 2): the role of national human rights institutions

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Business and human rights: the basics (part 2): the role of national human rights institutions

Today, following business and human rights: the basics (part 1) which included 4 key introductory texts for anybody wishing to make sense of this rapidly evolving field and become familiar with the issues, this short overview focuses on the role of National Human Rights Institutions in business and human rights.

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) play an important role in the business and human rights sphere and are well placed to help align business activities with international human rights standards in line with their general mandates to promote and protect human rights. Some NHRI”s already address many business related human rights issues through:

[Read more…]

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Australia Day’s Inspiring Australians

Australia Day is a day of celebration for most people but also of sadness for others. It is definitely a day to pose the question: what does it mean to be Australian? Well,  what better place to start looking for an answer than in the beginning.

Reconciliation Australia has put together this fantastic list of inspiring Australians for us and while Australia Day can be considered by many a sad day for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders it lends itself to celebrate their great achievements.

“Each year the Australian of the Year Awards provide an opportunity to recognise someone who inspires us and makes us proud. Whether you call it Australia Day, Invasion Day or Survival Day, the 26th of January provides an opportunity to acknowledge successful and inspiring Australians and what they add to this nation—acts of recognition such as these are building blocks for reconciliation.” quote Reconciliation Australia

 

Click here for more information about the work of Reconciliation Australia and here for information about Australia

Reconciliation Australia has developed another website: Share our Pride with initial funding from the Westpac Foundation and the Coles Group Community Fund. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from across the country have provided input and feedback on the content. Every effort has been made to capture the diversity of Indigenous cultures but to also keep the content simple and introductory. The site will continue to grow and the first priority is to add specific Torres Strait Islander content.

New year’s resolution – where there’s a will there’s a way!

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New year’s resolution – where there’s a will there’s a way!

manthink

Did you know that most New Year’s resolutions fail? How frustrating! This newly won insight is reinforced in many articles about our impending failure being published this time of year.  It instills a certain fatalism and gives us an excuse before we even begin.

The trick  is to either not make any resolutions at all or to focus our attention on the attainable and on how to make it work! One thing, action, habit that can move from intention to action. This list entitled: “5 ways to make your New Years Resolutions Stick” appealed a lot to me – because it moves away from setting grand gestures to simple, achievable goals.

And this ties in nicely with my guiding motto for 2013:

Actions speak louder than words. [Read more…]

Bring on the education revolution to save the planet!

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Bring on the education revolution to save the planet!

What do Australian children need and what can the public and the government do to help protect them and make the future more secure?

Children are naturally vulnerable and most people wish to ensure they are protected and grow up to reach their full potential regardless of their background and circumstances. There are many individual issues that affect the quality of childhood. These include their health & mental health, the provision of sufficient opportunities and the quality of their education to name just a few.

In addition, there is one overarching issue that affects all of us, a common denominator that has not found its way into policy and practice yet: the safety of our planet. Sustainable management of our resources is being discussed this week at the Rio + 20 summit and this is extremely timely.

We have known about the negative environmental impact of large scale economic activity for at least four decades. The assumptions upon which we have based social service delivery to protect children have changed and continue to change. Nothing is simple anymore but children need to inherit a clean and safe environment as the minimum foundation to prosper.  So what do we have to do to attain a sustainable lifestyle for them? How will the effect of climate change influence the delivery of social services to children? What does climate change mean for the policy and practice of protecting children? [Read more…]

social investment implications of 7 billion people

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social investment implications of 7 billion people

Dusseldorf Mediahafen

At the end of  October 2011 it is estimated that the world population will have reached 7 billion people – an achievement and challenge at the same time.

This article focusses on just three challenges and corresponding opportunities that might stretch the traditional mindset for social investments by corporates, trusts and foundation and governments. All three are interdependent and addressing one can have postive impacts on the other.

1: Addressing [Read more…]

“together we can change our world”

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“together we can change our world”

When most people think Girl Guides they probably don’t think of progressive girls and young women who play a significant advocacy role in local and global issues?

Well,  think again everybody!

This is precisely what the 10 million members of the world’s largest  volunteer organisation for girls and young women do, with memberships across 145 countries including Australia.

As their Global Action Theme, girls worldwide say: “Together we can change our world”. This theme is based on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). An activity pack supports the curriculum and helps children and young women to learn about the MDG’s and, most importantly, to take action on the issues that affect them and their communities. [Read more…]