Cause-focused marketing is virtually everywhere. Consumers are inundated with brand messages promising positive societal impact across all consumer touchpoints, from print and TV (remember those heart-stirring cause-focused Jeep and Dodge Super Bowl ads?), to digital, on-pack, in-store, social media and even in-flight entertainment. It's what I like to call the causeification of marketing-the widespread integration of cause across the marketing mix.

Like their for-profit counterparts, nonprofit marketers often get excited about the "shiny marketing objects of the year." This year social media continues to take on a huge share of interest at conferences such as NTEN's NTC (Non-Profit Technology Conference), and there's a whole separate conference that tours globally (Social Media For Nonprofits).

So you've figured out Google Grants and paid search advertising - but have you balanced your overall search efforts, and looked into search engine optimization (SEO)? SEO is the non-paid, somewhat trickier side to search marketing, but it is equally (and some would say even more) important. Are you a complete newbie? Well, then welcome to SEO 101 - please make sure your cell phone is in the off position, and keep all hands and arms inside the cabin at all times.

If you are reading this on Monday, April 15, I am volunteering at the Boston Marathon for the sixth consecutive year. This is something I look forward to each spring. When the time comes to register as a volunteer I don't think twice about it (even if it means using a vacation day). I've served at three different stations over the years: finish line Gatorade, mile 17 gel stop with my local running club (go Wicked!), and now at the race start in famed Hopkinton, Mass.

With the arrival of spring comes another season of thon fundraising. From Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore., good-hearted folks are once again hitting the roads and hitting up their friends for contributions to support good causes.

You put out donation canisters in all kinds of locations, but did you put them high enough to really maximize your yield?