Dell has announced its #Inspire 100 list of leading influencers in entrepreneurship, philanthropy, education and media who use technology to empower and inspire others. The list launched on Dell’s Facebook page, and the #inspire hashtag on Twitter is tied to Dell’s “Inspired Giving” holiday campaign.

Curators of the list along with Dell include Elliott Bisnow, founder of Summit Series; Josh Kopelman, founder, First Round Capital; Ingrid Vanderveldt, Dell Entrepreneur in Residence; Shauna Robertson, partner, Crowdrise; and Tina Wells, member of Dell Women Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) and Founder and CEO of Buzz Marketing Group.

The four categories of risk takers are: World Changers, Entrepreneurs, Creatives and Tastemakers and one-minute video highlights, interviews and vignettes of those honored are featured on Facebook.Continue reading...

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital celebrates Thanksgiving with messages from its roster of celebrity supporters including Marlo Thomas, daughter of founder Danny Thomas, plus Sofia Vergara, Jennifer Aniston, Robin Williams, Michael Strahan, Luis Fonsi, and Shaun White:Continue reading...

What's the best way for a well-known retailer to introduce its brand to a new country? Come bearing gifts. That, apparently, is Target's strategy. In advance of its spring 2013 launch in Canada, the retail chain is laying the groundwork with PR-positive initiatives, including a push to support Canadian charities, sustainable stores, and a focus on Canadian fashion designers.

Target has pledged to give $1 million to six local Canadian charities in food, active play, education, and the arts. Visitors to Target's Canadian Facebook page through December 9 can select any of the six charities and Target will make a $100 donation and add the donor's photo to its "Gallery of Giving." Facebook visitors can also specify the province where they would like the money to go. The "Give with Target" campaign just launched on November 20 and has already raised over $250,000.

Will using corporate citizenship as a calling card convince Canadians to forgo Walmart and homegrown faves such as The Bay, Sears (which just refreshed its branding ahead of Target's arrival) and Canadian Tire?Continue reading...

In case it's not marked on your calendar, today is World Toilet Day — and it's no joking matter.

An estimated 2.5 billion people, 37% of the world's population, do not have access to a clean and safe toilet. One in three women worldwide risk shame, disease, harassment and even attack because they have nowhere safe to go to the toilet. Sanitation would make 1.25 billion women's lives safer and healthier, which is why people are being asked to petition governments to provide safe toilets and clean water for the world's poorest people.

As the Gates Foundation tweeted today, "The annual gain in economic productivity if everyone had a toilet is $225B." Putting things in perspective, Matt Damon, co-founder of Water.org, wants it to be known that more people have a mobile phone today than a toilet: “Six billion people have cell phones, but only 4.5 billion have access to improved sanitation.” Bill and Melinda Gates, in case you missed it, are putting serious funds toward reinventing the toilet as part of the foundation's water, sanitation and hygiene platform.

GE sponsored (as part of its Focus Forward three-minute short film series on world-changing ideas) the "Meet Mr. Toilet" documentary by Oscar-winning director Jessica Wu, which debuted this past January at the Sundance Festival earlier this year. It features the late Jim Sim (aka "Mr. Toilet"), who founded the World Toilet Organization and the annual World Toilet Day.

Named a TIME Hero of the Environment in 2008, Sim — who died in 2009 — was frank and enertaining about extolling the need for better sanitation and breaking the taboos about talking, well, shit. In fact, the former mayor of Suwon, South Korea, inspired a toilet museum in his former hometown, which opened earlier this year.Continue reading...

"Cher joins 400,000" is not an x-rated film for the AARP set — it's a headline trumpeting news that the singer/actress has signed a petition lobbying Macy's to "dump Trump."

Following Donald Trump's harsh comments against Barack Obama, including a $5 million offer to see the president's passport application and college transcripts, a "boycott Trump" effort has been growing. Macy's CEO was drawn into the fray after protesters zoomed in on Trump's "birther" comments its holiday campaign (top).

Trump's answer to anyone who opposes him is typically a metaphorical version of "you're fired." It's an impotent response to a boycott effort as impotent as Trump's hair piece.Continue reading...

Vietnam is the world's second-biggest coffee exporter, a fact that probably comes as a surprise to most westerners. And now a local entrepreneur is hoping to leverage his country's crucial position as a commodity supplier into a value-added brand play the likes of Starbucks.

Dang Le Nguyen Vu, Vietnam's "Coffee King," seems to have no illusions about mimicking Starbucks overnight. But the owner of the Trung Nguyen brand of coffee told Reuters that he has the U.S. chain in his sights as a marketing model for Vietnam so that its brew and its brand — not just its beans — can have an impact.

"Our ambition is to become a global brand," he told the news service. His company already runs Vietnam's largest chai of coffee houses, and now he's hoping to build a brand that could get a foothold in the U.S. and other mature coffee markets.

Vu argues that Starbucks isn't real coffee — or real committed to its lofty corporate citizenship platform. He swipes at the bigger coffee purveyor to Reuters with the statement that "they are not selling coffee, they are selling coffee-flavored water with sugar in it." What's more, he adds, Starbucks is selling "a story." For all the coffee behemoth focuses on sustainability and corporate responsibility, "at the end of the day, the return on investment is what they care about. They don't grow coffee, do they? We do."

While Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz might beg to differ with that assessment, Vu says he's depending on the sustainability positioning of coffee farmers in Vietnam's highland region to serve as a focus for his brand as he brings it to the west. "American consumers don't need another product," he said. "They need another story."

After Sandy, even Apple is giving to the Big Apple. The Cupertino, CA-based tech giant is giving generously to New York City and Northeast residents who were hard hit by Hurricane Sandy, as reported by 9to5Mac: “We just got the above email via an Apple employee from CEO Tim Cook showing the Cupertino company is looking after those on the other coast of the U.S. Apple will donate $2.5 million to the Red Cross to benefit Hurricane Sandy victims.”

The donation comes on top of an iTunes page for the Red Cross, where 100% of value is passed on to relief efforts. Apple’s recent link on their homepage that directs traffic to the Red Cross iTunes page is a major move as their site garners close to 35 million unique visitors monthly, placing it #23 in Compete’s popularity rank of websites. “It’s a prime bit of real-estate and it’s nice to see one of the five major links on the page go to relief in the wake of Sandy’s devastation of the eastern seaboard,” notes TheNextWeb.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is being praised for boosting Apple’s charitable giving, ad being seen as “determined to change the company’s stingy reputation — as one of the few major American corporations that before had barely donated to charity,” reports the New York Post. “Tech titan Apple at last donated something to charity worth talking about: $100 million… [which] still leaves Apple in an unusual spot — far behind its peers.”Continue reading...

Businesses and brands are increasingly beholden to healthy communities and constituents for their bottom-line growth.

Coca-Cola just released its ninth annual Sustainability Report and second Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Report, making the point that sustainability and corporate citizenship aren't sidebars to the company. "We're working to embed sustainability-minded innovations into every aspect of our business, from sourcing ingredients to increasing beverage options to aspiring to be water neutral and recovering packages for recycling," stated Muhtar Kent, Coca-Cola's CEO.

"Coca-Cola is intent on growing our business by making a difference wherever our business touches the world and the world touches our business,” added Bea Perez, the company’s first Chief Sustainability Officer, who was hired in July 2011.

The company's Sustainability Report is presented as a fully interactive website (tagline: "Every bottle has a story") features videos, social media capabilities, third-party opinions on global challenges and an updated digital design accessible through smartphones, tablets and mobile devices.Continue reading...