Often, while checking out at a store I’m asked, “Would you like to donate a dollar to ______?”

For the longest time, I said “yes” to almost every one because I felt too bad to say “no” and I truly want to help everyone…until I realized I was donating a small fortune each year, so I stopped (for the most part).

However, while at Kroger last week, I said “yes”…because I found their strategy to be incredibly smart (and they really sold me). And for that reason, I’d like to highlight it in this post.

Instead of donating a dollar, I was asked if I wanted to round my change up to the nearest dollar and donate it. Amazingly simple concept yet so ingenious!

If you’ve ever worked in the restaurant business, you know people *LOVE* whole numbers. How many times have you gotten a tip of $5.32???

Plus, a dollar can sometimes seem like a lot, whereas $.57 might be a little easier to give up.

So while each person actually donates less than a dollar, I’m assuming that more people agree to donate…and thus, more money for the charity! Love it!

So visit your nearest Kroger and “round up”! Did I mention the money is going to help the victims in Haiti? Great cause, great strategy. Well done, Kroger!

Yesterday afternoon, Amanda Arms posted this message on her Facebook wall:

I didn’t know Amanda at the time, nor were we Facebook friends…but my wedding photographer was.

Around noon, Jennie (who knows I couldn’t turn down a loving pit bull) sent me an email mentioning what she saw on Facebook. I asked her to have Amanda contact me.

Around 8pm last night, Michael and I became foster parents. — Upon meeting this very sweet dog, Michael and I couldn’t help but take him in and work at finding an adoptive family for him from the warmth of our home. We gave him a bath too : )

By 3pm this afternoon, “Turbo” had a new adoptive family (I even had backup adoption offers based on my own Facebook post. I think Amanda did too).

So within just 2 days, Turbo went from being a lonely stray, to living in Amanda’s garage, to living in my spare bedroom, to living with his new family — all because of one Facebook post.

This whole situation made me feel awesome. I felt good that I was able to help save a stray from the pound (and possibly euthanasia). I felt happy that social media once again proved its worth in a charitable situation. And I feel empowered to make this scenario happen again.

Michael and I are hoping to foster another pit soon…and hopefully repeat what happened today. We even tossed around the idea of one day starting our own pit bull rescue…one day.

But the real reason I’m writing this post is because I hope this story inspires other people to send a few tweets or Facebook posts next time a cold stray shows up on their door!

Earlier this week, my friend and co-worker Creed showed me a really cool idea he stumbled upon online — the colorless Coke can:

The idea was created by Harc Lee, and I love it!

Instead of the cans being colorfully sprayed with numerous shade of paint, a convex logo is used. Instead of using toxic paint, manufacturers would process the aluminum with a pressing machine that indicates the brand identity on surface.

While this “naked” can looks really cool, it also could have a huge impact on the environment!

Think about it — energy and paint would be saved during the manufacturing process and the colorless can could help reduce the air and water pollution that comes from coloring. Plus, the energy and effort required to separate the toxic paint from the aluminum would be reduced in the recycling process. Wouldn’t an entire step in the recycling process be surpassed if there was no color on the cans?

I honestly think this is one of the BEST ideas I’ve heard in a long time! And wouldn’t Coke really be making a powerful statement if they went with this?

Because Coke is so big and well-known, I don’t think it would have any brand recognition problems if this can was used. In fact, I think the statement of “look how eco-friendly we are” would give them even more props. Plus, can you image how big of an impact this would have on the environment??!

I found a statistic that 67,000,000 Coke cans are sold EACH DAY across the globe. That’s a lot of Coke and also a lot of paint! How much energy would be saved? How much pollution would stop happening?

I think this is one of those most innovative and environmentally conscious ideas I’ve ever seen and I really hope someone picks up on it. This could really make a difference!

What do you think?

If you live in Knoxville or plan to visit the area on Thursday, September 10, I encourage you all to check out Knoxville Twestival! It’s only $25 to attend and it’s sure to be a good time! PLUS, all ticket sales will be donated to the Salvation Army of Knoxville!

As many of you know, I’m heavily involved with the first annual Knoxville Twestival on September 10, 2009. So far, we’ve gotten a lot of great charity submissions, but we’re still taking more (until Friday, August 7 at 11:59pm)…so please get yours in if you’re interested in being the beneficiary charity of this big event!

What’s Twestival? Well…Knoxville Twestival is part of a charitable event taking place in communities all around the world. Twestival uses the power of the local Twitterverse to encourage community members to come out in person to a fun event to be held in Knoxville on September 10, 2009, and to donate money to a designated local charity.

Knoxville-area, non-profit organizations interested in benefiting from the event should tell us why your charity should be chosen as the designated charity for this year’s Knoxville Twestival. The first 100 entries received by Friday, August 7 (at 11:59pm) will be published on the Knoxville Twestival blog on Saturday, August 8, where readers will be able to vote for their favorite charity. On August 11, Twestival organizers will choose one winner among the top three vote-getters.

As soon as the winning charity is announced, our Twitter-powered fundraising will begin on that organization’s behalf, culminating in the September 10 Knoxville Twestival event.

We haven’t announced the event details yet, but I can promise it’ll be an awesome event you won’t want to miss!

For more information, check out the Knoxville Twestival homepage!

Did I mention we’re also looking for sponsors and volunteers? For information on how you or your company can be involved, visit http://knoxville.twestival.com/get-involved!