by Jancy Quinn
On a Southwest flight from our San Francisco office last week, I got a huge smile on my face as the flight attendants closed the overhead 
compartments. Not because I was excited to take off, but because every overhead bin was covered with children’s drawings.
The drawings accompanied a logo for Ronald McDonald House. I grabbed my camera & noticed a few other passengers pointing and commenting as well. I immediately turned to my colleague and we both shared how much we loved the images especially since it supported a charity. It was such a creative use of the space (one that I’ve never personally seen used for advertising space before). I think I would have been turned-off or annoyed if it had been a ‘paid’ advertisement on the plane, but the fact that it was promoting and supporting a non-profit made me really love the idea.
Understanding that more and more companies are trying to show their triple bottom line and how they support and connect with causes and their communities, it made me think of how many creative ways there are to show this support. Supporting a charity doesn’t need to simply be a line on an advertisement or a note on a newsletter. Why not consider fun and unique ways to support or promote your own non-profit or the causes that are close to your company? Can you partner with the non-profit to showcase the cause, people or work? Could you promote it in an alternative space to help create a conversation and actually draw attention to the cause versus just saying that you are a proud supporter?
At Red Sky we take a distinct pride in connecting like-minded organizations from different industries to elevate causes from tackling hunger to promoting more active, healthy lifestyles. One great example is Dump Hunger, which partnered Western States CAT, Albertsons and Wells Fargo together to raise 748,465 pounds of food last year alone for the communities they serve, using the vivid visual of filling multiple CAT dumptrucks with food each year. It has also been impressive to be part of excitement and participation in Activate Treasure Valley locally, which unites PacificSource, Albertsons and the Treasure Valley YMCA together to promote healthier lifestyles through events at Idaho Steelheads and Boise Hawks games, Weight of the Nation screenings and a recent Zumbathon.
At the end of the day, everyone and every organization wants to make a difference. But it is all the more powerful when you see the creativity spurred by this common goodwill and how it can pay forward this level of inspiration to others. I know that I won’t look at an overhead bin the same way again.
