Banana Republic Surveys for a Cause

I used to work in market research, collaborating with Fortune 500 companies and developing their surveys for brand and advertising awareness, brand equity, demographics analysis, etc. The industry has absolutely exploded with the advent of Internet-based surveys. And we used to prompt all of our surveys with some type of gift/cash enticement to encourage participation by consumers. Basically, you could get a chance to win $50, or $100 or even $200 "gift" (see: cash) for participating in the surveys.

Well, I have to say kudos to BananaRepublic.com for their current website survey prompt that allows you to choose 1 of 5 charities to donate monies to as your "Reward". Banana (and sister stores- Gap and Old Navy, apparently) is donating up to $4,000 to these charities based on survey participation.

I have to say, from my perspective, I take a survey (albeit seldom) because I want to, not because of the reward being offered. But this time, I genuinely took the survey only because I felt I could contribute to a good cause. The choices of charities are:

• Boys & Girls Clubs of America - Provides safe places for youth to learn, grow, and develop skills that will help them realize their full potential (www.bgca.org)
  
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of America - Is the country's largest youth mentoring organization (www.bbbs.org)
• CARE - Works to fight poverty around the world through projects that focus on women, their families, and their communities (www.care.org)
• Dress for Success - Promotes the economic independence and self-sufficiency of disadvantaged women worldwide (www.dressforsuccess.org)
• Soles4Souls - Collects and distributes new and gently-used footwear to people in need throughout the world (www.giveshoes.org)

A nice range of charities, depending on if you have a preference. But really it is just about giving back a little, regardless.