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Author Archives: Teresa Coles

Teresa Coles

With a heart for social good and a brain for marketing strategy, Teresa combines the two to provide counsel to nonprofits around the country. She has been a lead strategist at RP since 1992.

posted by Teresa

Aug 30, 2012 @ 9:57am

CreateAthon, Chapter 15

The first year of CreateAthon, a who's who of really tired nice people.

I simply cannot believe it’s been 15 years since the very first in CreateAthon at Riggs Partners. It’s the craziest and most wonderful time of the year for us, and we couldn’t be more pleased to welcome eight more South Carolina nonprofits into the CreateAthon family. Plus, we get to work with a great nonprofit from Michigan as one of the six national CreateAthon Brand Makeover winners. There’s goodness all around!

Nonprofits to be served by Riggs Partners and our great group of volunteers include:

The job jackets have been opened, meetings with the nonprofits are being scheduled, and the how-will-we-ever-get-this-all-done question is already hanging in the air.

To which I respond: Just watch.

Comment (2)

posted by Teresa

Jul 31, 2012 @ 9:37am

Spotting the Social Entrepreneur

We’ve got to change the system.

We’ve got to address the root cause.

We’ve got to start doing things differently.

How many times have you heard it? Be it a nonprofit board meeting, a business gathering or a legislative assemblage, everyone’s talking about social change — real, quantifiable, exponential change. Meanwhile, lots of good people in nonprofit organizations work to provide relief and assistance to people who are caught in spirals of poverty, malnutrition, abuse and countless other forms of personal grief. Their work is grounded in social good, and there will always be a need for it.

But what of social change?

Enter social entrepreneurs. Highly creative, energetic and focused people who have a passion for stripping away symptomatic layers, assessing and articulating the truth behind an issue, and leading others to work together toward transformational change.

You may have met a social entrepreneur if you’ve met someone who:

Hungers relentlessly for the betterment of the world condition
Understands that no one nonprofit or group of people can solve the problem
Has the creative chops to develop a big social idea and build scale around it
Can bring public, private and nonprofit sector resources to bear
Has the ability to recruit and mobilize local change makers
Is disciplined enough to align strategy, financial management and pr/marketing
Embraces the use of fiscal metrics and performance benchmarks
Uses these social ROI standards as the basis for fundraising and development

These are the kind of people — those who think far and wide and without regard to personal or political agenda — who can bring about the change our world so desperately needs. Look for them. Aspire to be one of them. Most of all, believe.

For more good stuff on social entrepreneurship, spend some time at Ashoka, then check out Forbes’ Impact 30 list of social entrepreneurs.

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posted by Teresa

Jul 11, 2012 @ 7:00am

CreateAthon at the White House

Teresa (third from left) at the White House

How revved up can you get walking into the White House and being seated alongside the nation’s most influential leaders in corporate social responsibility? Just ask Peyton Rowe, who joined me in DC recently for A Billion + Change’s national forum on the power of corporate pro bono. We were totally spent after a day of meeting and hearing from people who, like us, believe that talents honed in the workplace have a higher calling: to help meet social needs.

This was our third meeting with A Billion + Change, organized as a joint intiative of the Points of Light Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Service. Led by Senator Mark Warner as Honorary Chair and Jean Case of the Case Foundation, A Billion + Change is on a mission to raise $2 billion in pledged pro bono service from corporations by 2013. Corporate executives, nonprofit leaders, and White House administration officials gathered at the White House to celebrate the milestone of 200 pledge companies. Riggs Partners, on behalf of CreateAthon, is a charter pledge company.

Our agenda was filled with an impressive array of speakers, many of whom left us with comments that spoke volumes to the power of pro bono:

Gene Sperling, Director, National Economic Council

“Skills-based volunteering is about long-term vs. short-term, about defining the kind of company you want to be.”

Senator Mark Warner, Honorary Chair, A Billion + Change

“The campaign’s move to 500 pledge companies can be transformational, and can reinvigorate the notion that the private sector has a positive role to play in society and in our economic recovery.”

Wendy Spencer, CEO, Corporation for National and Community Service

“Pooling our resources together, we will make the greatest impact. Just imagine engineers serving as STEM tutors.”

John Finneran, General Counsel, Capital One

“90% of our managers tell us employees perform at a higher level after having been involved in a pro bono project.”

Joe Echevarria, CEO, Deloitte

“The best learning comes from the most difficult assignment, and pro bono is not for the faint of heart.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, Special Assistant to the President and Director, Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation (and founder of Ethos Water)

“This President believes many of the answers to issues affecting our communities are already out there. It’s our job to identify what’s working, lift them up, and build the human and financial capital around them to provide scale.”

While these events are quite grown up, Peyton and I inevitably leave every convocation with a feeling of wonder and enthusiasm befitting a pair of teenage girls. Did you meet him? He’s awesome! Did you hear what she said? They knew about CreateAthon! Can you believe that?

It’s not often in life you get to look at your little idea through the eyes of very big thinkers. When you do, it’s like looking through a pinhole and seeing the light open up before you for as long and wide you can imagine.

For CreateAthon, we believe the light is just beginning to shine.

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posted by Teresa

Jun 27, 2012 @ 5:09pm

CreateAthon Arrives at the White House

To our mothers: please note the lipstick and dresses

Peyton Rowe and I entered the White House this morning to explore and discuss the power of pro bono. Pinch.

We’re attending “A Billion + Change in Action: Connecting to the Future of Corporate Service.” A Billion + Change is a national campaign to mobilize the power of pro bono and skills-based volunteer services in American business.

Riggs Partners, on behalf of CreateAthon, is proud to be one of 50 charter companies that took the pledge in 2012. Our aim? To double the reach of CreateAthon. It’s our way of contributing to the overall goal of A Billion + Change to reach 2 billion hours in pledged pro bono service from corporations by 2013.

Today’s event is packed with insights with White House administration officials, corporate social responsibility executives, foundations and nonprofits about the impact American business can make on tackling significant social challenges through the power of skills-based volunteering. At every turn and with every introduction, there’s an incredible pro bono story.

Peyton and I are beyond thrilled to be here and excited about reconnecting with some of the amazing people we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know this past year. And of course, we’ll be spreading the story of CreateAthon and how marathon models can serve as a focused, fun and joyful way to go pro bono.

Stay tuned for more late-breaking reports!

Comment (1)

posted by Teresa

May 07, 2012 @ 11:26am

Deadlines, Creativity and CreateAthon

Jay: “You won’t believe what I heard on Marketplace driving home today.”

Me: “What?”

Jay: “A Harvard Business School professor did a study on the impact of really tight deadlines on the creative process. Now what does that make you think of?”

He pulled up the transcript right then and there as we sat on a bench at Lexington Middle School, waiting on our daughter who was ever-so busy socializing at the Spring Arts Festival. I scanned it to confirm someone had actually studied this dynamic, and sure enough there it was.

Teresa Amabile, a contributor to NPR’s Marketplace on workplace performance and the author of The Progress Principle, shared some research findings that were frankly not all that surprising in the general work world. For example, she cited that professionals in her study indicated they were 45 percent less likely to come up with a new idea or solve a complex problem on a tight deadline.

Grace under pressure?

(By the way, does that mean they are 55 percent MORE likely to be creative? Isn’t that pretty good?) But I digress.

What caught my eye was this: “We did find some creativity under high pressure, but the enabling circumstances are rare in most workplaces. People have to feel that they are on a mission to tackle something crucial — and they have to be protected from interruptions and extraneous demands.”

Let’s see: A 24-hour work marathon during which a company closes for business and releases its staff to develop marketing strategies and creative deliverables for nonprofit organizations. Might that constitute a higher sense of purpose? Perhaps even generate national, award-winning creative work? Check. Check.

So I’m off to find my soul sister Teresa (she even spells it right, it’s so karma) and load her up with some CreateAthon ammo. I’d love to have a cup of coffee or a good email over her comment that “the most important (thing in motivating people) in making progress is meaningful work.”