social cause marketing comes to marketing misfitville: TAP DC 2009

Tapping to the beat of a special drum

A very dear colleague, sharp cookie and fellow DC Web Woman Sibyl Edwards has roped me into a wonderful social cause marketing project called TAP DC 2009. Her employer, political consulting and advocacy advertising firm GMMB out of Washington DC, has been selected as a partner to help get the word out about this moving and very important social cause: getting children around the world clean and accessible drinking water.

Lack of water is the biggest killer of kids under 5

Did you know that? I sure didn’t. To help address this situation, UNICEF has launched the Tap Project.
This nationwide effort asks restaurant customers to donate $1 or more for the tap water they would usually enjoy for free. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days. Since 2007, the Tap Project has provided clean drinking water for nearly 1 million children— and 2009 promises even greater success. By 2015, UNICEF’s goal is to reduce the number of people without safe water and basic sanitation by 50 percent.

How you can get involved

• Restaurants
  Become a Tap Project participating restaurant, we’ll provide support materials to help you engage customers and inform local media about your involvement in this important project.

• Volunteers
  Register to be a Tap Project Campaign Volunteer and help us recruit and support local restaurants and employers.

• Employers
  Purchase recyclable Tap DC cups for your employees to encourage participation in
  the Tap Project.

• Everyone
  –> Create a piece of art to help promote World Water Week.
  –> Dine out at a participating restaurant March 22-28.
  –> Donate at tapdc.org or text the word “TAP” to 864233 (UNICEF) to make a $5 donation (A one-time charge of $5 will be added to your mobile phone bill. Standard messaging rates and additional fees may apply. All charges are
  billed by and payable to your mobile service provider. Proceeds benefit the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Service is available on most carriers. You can
  unsubscribe at any time by texting ‘STOP’ to 864233.)

How I’m getting involved

I would never ask you to do something I wouldn’t do myself. So I, too, am in the TAP DC thick of things right along with others (possibly like *you*) who choose to volunteer some of their time to give back to the community… be it local communities or international communities.

I am spearheading some of the blogger outreach for this wonderful initiative. As part of my volunteer role, I am:

• reaching out to various other bloggers to see if they might be interested helping TAP DC spread the word
• sharing info about World Water Week with my social network friends and communities
• connecting with metro area-based restaurants to help introduce World Water Week to them hoping they may be interested in becoming a World Water Week partner
• recruiting my daughter to help me research and identify restaurants in the area … having her help me send out the many outreach emails
• daughter wants to create a piece of art to help promote World Water Week … she’ll also be sharing the info to her friends via her own social networks and school community-based groups

Look … most of you who know me, who know my life and it’s many "adventures" know that I’m a pretty busy gal. But when there’s a good, worthy cause … time *can* be carved out — even in the smallest increments — to participate and get involved. I hope you will please consider sharing TAP DC info to all your friends and followers in social networks. There is much to be done and very little time between now and March 22-28.

Join GMMB, Sibyl, myself … Jill Foster and many, many others in shining the spotlight brightly on World Water Week, March 22-28!

More to come …