Northwestern Mutual Childhood Cancer Program

Campaign: Northwestern Mutual Childhood Cancer Program
Company: Northwestern Mutual
Nonprofit Partner: Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and Starlight Children’s Foundation
Launch Date: July 26, 2012
Agency: Cone

Campaign Description:

At its July annual meeting of more than 10,000 financial representatives and staff, Northwestern Mutual announced a new multi-year philanthropic program to fight childhood cancer in partnership with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and Starlight Children’s Foundation. A focal part of this campaign, employees could swipe their badge at oversized lemonade stands to have a co-branded Alex’s Lemonade Stand Fundraising Kit mailed to them. In the first 10 days of the program, nearly 30 teams of financial representatives and employees committed to host local ALSF fundraisers. The company donated nearly $500,000 in grants to the two nonprofit organizations and will activate a range of programs and events across the country over the coming year.

Our Take:

At first glance, this program appears to be a basic corporate contribution effort. Digging deeper, you’ll find an active employee engagement component. Using its annual meeting to announce this campaign was an efficient way to launch this initiative, making it simple for employees to get involved with the swipe of a badge. Additionally, the program name will be crowdsourced via employee contest this September in conjunction with National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Jennifer Ryan with Northwestern Mutual shared that the company has “many financial representatives who have been touched by pediatric cancer and share a passion for helping this cause” and also shared that in 2013, reps will have the opportunity to volunteer with Starlight Children’s Foundation in their local communities. The company expects to add consumer-focused events in 2013.