buildOn & Listen Up Espanol Selected as Finalists for Cause Marketing Halo Awards

buildOn is thrilled to be selected as a finalist for the 2013 Cause Marketing Halo Awards. Our “Going Beyond Ourselves” campaign with our friends at Listen Up Espanol (LUE) is one of the four finalists chosen for the Best Transactional Campaign. We’re humbled to be competing with other prominent nonprofits, such as the American Red Cross and the National Park Foundation. The Gold and Silver winner in each category will be revealed at the 11th Anniversary Cause Marketing Forum Conference in Chicago, held in late May.

We’ve written about our relationship with LUE before and after the company took a group to build a school in Nicaragua, and throughout the process we’ve been inspired by the company’s philanthropic goals and commitment to live up to its core values: to go beyond themselves and grow brain cells.

“buildOn allowed everyone to be a part of something collectively. We are doing things together that are bigger than one individual can do on his own,” said LUE’s Co-Founder and President Tony Ricciardi.

LUE sent a film crew to film the experience building a school in Nicaragua, and that footage was turned into a beautifully edited documentary that was presented to all of the LUE employees during its annual Christmas party in 2012. “Not everyone at the company was able to do the build, but I wanted them to actually see it and feel it because they contributed to it, and to get a sense of what it might’ve felt like in the village,” said Ricciardi.

Now the company, which raised over $100,000 for buildOn in 2012, is planning on building a school in Haiti. “We are investing in kids,” Ricciardi said. “The school is also a resource to the community. It’s a place that allows other people to congregate, and to build deeper relationships.”