I interviewed Eric Groves, Senior VP of Sales and Development of Constant Contact, an email marketing service, for an upcoming episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast.

During our visit he shared a little information about a non-profit component of their business. I share it here because I love what they are doing and because there are elements that think many small businesses could and should consider mirroring.

The program is called Cares4Kids. Any Constant Contact customer can nominate one children focused not for profit organization to receive a free Constant Contact account. It’s a simple, thoughtful and powerful approach to community building and support.

Here’s what I like about it. It helps organizations that need help. That alone is reason to like it, but I really like that it allows the customer to be the bearer of the gift and the gift is product. These two elements make up the heart of this very powerful strategy.

Find ways to help your customers do good and spread the word about your product while doing good and you’ve got a winner for all involved.