Corporate Relations & Engagement

IHOP is on a mission to raise $2.7 million for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and other local charities with its National Pancake Day celebration, set for Feb. 28, and it is making it easier than ever for guests to participate with an online giving option and a month-long bounce-back balloon sales offer.

National Pancake Day invites guests to enjoy a free short stack of pancakes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. with the hope that they consider making a voluntary contribution to support the Children's Miracle Network Hospital in their area.

Buyers and sellers on eBay donated $54.8 million to U.S. and U.K. nonprofit organizations in 2010. A donation was made every 24 seconds through eBay Giving Works in the U.S. and eBay for Charity in the U.K., raising more than $91 every minute for nonprofits.

Nonprofit brand strategy consultant Michele Levy provided 11 marketing communications best practices that fundraisers should utilize in their communications strategies in a recent webinar, Ten Marketing Communications Activities You Must Do.

2010 Nonprofit Consultant of the Year Lori Van Dusen passes along some of her advice to fundraisers.

Reach Out and Read CEO Earl Martin Phalen discusses his organization and its fundraising techniques.

Right above the tip line on credit card receipts, Irvine-based Yard House restaurants offers customers the option to round up their dining bill to the nearest dollar. It is, for thousands of Yard House customers, an easy way to give to charity.

It's also part of a new era in charity-related innovations.

In the year-plus since the launch of Round it Up America, customers at the Yard House's 27 restaurants have given more than $250,000 – at an average donation of 80 cents each.

Blackbaud has furthered its dedication to the local and nonprofit communities with its new focus on corporate citizenship. Blackbaud will continue to deliver on its corporate value "service to others makes the world a better place” with a team dedicated to the growth of its corporate citizenship commitment.

Overstock.com announced that it has teamed up celebrity designer Angelo Surmelis to celebrate Veterans Day. Overstock.com will be selling the "angelo:HOME Hero Chair" designed by Angelo Surmelis. In addition, through the end of the year, every time an Overstock.com customer purchases the "angelo:HOME Hero Chair", $50 dollars of that purchase will go directly to the Wounded Warrior Project. To learn more about the chair visit www.overstock.com/woundedwarriorproject

An increasing number of non-profit groups are competing for corporate backing during during tough economic times, but getting money out of firms without philanthropic traditions, like some hedge funds or private equity firms, can be a struggle.

"New economy" firms, which are focused on services and technology as opposed to manufacturing, often make targeted donations compared with companies that in the past gave broadly to a number of civic organizations

Hawaii’s people and businesses are as generous as ever, despite the economic slump.

But how local people and businesses give is rapidly changing and that transformation has some nonprofit leaders heartened, while others are worried. Optimists welcome the decay of what they saw as paternalistic philanthropy. These optimists see the rise of a new philanthropy in which individual donors are more empowered, and nonprofit success is rewarded with recognition and more donations.