Cartoonists often portray tiny devils and angels whispering into the ears of their characters to symbolize the good and bad impulses that influence our decisions.

More cause marketing campaigns are activated by low-cost and no-cost social media and public relations than by advertising.

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I've worked for several nonprofit organizations over the years-from higher education to educational travel to the performing arts-and I always thought that nonprofits could learn a lot from the corporate world. In my experience, nonprofit organizations are generally reluctant to openly discuss profit, unless it's in regards to fundraising initiatives. Nonprofit organizations need to make money just like everyone else. How else can they accomplish their missions, after all?

In spite of my day job, I'm not an unabashed cheerleader for all programs positioned as doing well by doing good. I know that cause marketing efforts run the gamut from lousy and flawed to good and even transformative.

Imagine if the donation amount in cause marketing was variable. How would that affect participation and results for the company and the cause? For example, we're all familiar with the cause-marketing campaign that asks you to send in Yoplait carton lids to donate 10 cents to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Imagine, instead, that the donation amount varies based on the degree to which people participate.

Radical transparency and vocal consumers-powered by social media-are rewriting the rules of marketing every day. Brands are being forced to be more agile, with marketers scrambling to keep up with highly connected, fully participatory and increasingly demanding consumers. It's a relentless pace that Target's VP of PR, Dustee Tucker Jenkins, recently described as, "Hours are like days, days are like weeks, weeks are like months." If this acceleration makes you dizzy, you're not alone.

For much of his life, Patrick Downey was the perfect personification of the Converse brand. He was an artist who had developed his own unique, personal style-the crown jewel of which was his uniform of dark pants, flannel tops and Chuck Taylors. He wore it every day. And this is exactly how his family and friends remember him.

Are you a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in the United States? If so, you could be eligible for the Google for Nonprofits program.

A headline recently stopped me in my tracks: "Marketers don't practice ROI they preach."