Toyota launch ’100 Cars for Good’ campaign to assist nonprofits

Toyota have put a fresh new spin on their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies this week by announcing a new program which will award 100 new vehicles to the same number of different nonprofit organizations. The Japanese car maker is using social media taking their partnership with Facebook to determine just which organizations will receive the vehicle. Public participation is strongly encouraged as the recipients of the  vehicles will be voted upon by visitors on Facebook.

The ‘100 Cars for Good’ program kicks off next week on March 7th for nonprofits to register to be in the running for a new car. Any registered 501c(3) nonprofit organization is eligible to participate and they just need to visit Toyota’s Facebook page linked here to become eligible. The company will be giving away a range of cars to the nonprofits including the Prius, Tacoma, Tundra, Highlander Hybrid and Sienna plus each vehicle will also include a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty as part of the prize. The application process mark stage one and the opportunity to register for inclusion will run until March 21st. At that time all applicants will be reviewed by an independent body of judges with expertise in philanthropy and social responsibility to provide a final list of 500 organizations for the voting process .

The 500 finalists will be notified as being eligible for the voting stages and will be encouraged to use Toyota/Facebook to exhibit videos, build a nonprofit profile and share the news with friends and supporters to encourage voting which kicks off on May 9, 2011. At that stage Toyota will feature five of the selected finalists each and every day for the next 100 days. Each organization will receive a day in the spotlight with their full profile on Toyota’s Facebook page and internal voters can choose who they feel is most deserving of the award. Facebook users are allowed to vote for one nonprofit daily, during each day of the voting process which runs until August 16, 2011. I think it’s an exciting way for Toyota both to support a large number of organizations but perhaps equally valuable is the awareness factor that each and every one of the 500 organizations selected for the final stages will benefit from during the program. There is every reason to think that many members of the public will become actively involved in the voting campaign will then wish to learn more about other nonprofits that perhaps they were not aware of prior to this event. It further demonstrates the flexibility of using social media to create positive change and raise cause awareness simultaneously and I’m sure we’ll see many more similar approaches to the one taken by Toyota and more recently Pepsico.

Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. added:

“Over the past two decades, Toyota has contributed more than half a billion dollars to philanthropic programs in the United States, and now 100 Cars for Good will put the public in the driver’s seat for one of our philanthropic efforts. We wanted to engage the community and the supporters of thousands of worthy organizations in this process— allowing their voices to be heard as we award 100 vehicles based on their votes.”

It’s a great campaign and even if you just happen to know someone involved with a nonprofit please let them know about it. To register your nonprofit with the campaign starting next week or to participate in voting beginning in May please visit the Toyota Facebook page and click on the 100 Cars for Good tab at the top of the page.

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Toyota introduces the ‘100 Cars for Good’ program