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Brand Story We Love: SumOfUs

In 2010, Moveon.org asked Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman to run a campaign asking Toyota to leave the US Chamber of Commerce because of the Chamber’s stance and active lobbying against climate change legislation.

It didn’t succeed and Taren realized that there was a hole in the online campaigning space, that there needed to be a global online movement to challenge big, global corporations.

After taking some time off, she laid the ground work to start the organization. And though SumOfUs is only two years old, it has grown close to 4 million members strong in a short time.

Why we love it:

  • it taps into our aspirational selves, channeling the strong desire we all have to be part of something bigger and more meaningful than ourselves.
  • it gives millions the opportunity to take a stand for justice, for the things we are too small to fight alone.
  • they often move corporations towards more socially responsible conduct that otherwise wouldn’t have happened or would have taken a very long time; they are effective.
  • it distills what can be overwhelming into simple, easy to take actions that engage some participants into greater levels of participation.
  • its name reflects its values which are evident throughout everything it does.

Not everyone will agree with every campaign but regardless, in a very short time, SumofUS has moved mountains. They got Kellogg’s and Wilmar International, a palm oil company, to both sign commitments to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains in the next two years.

They are fighting for the Rainforest and the bees and against execution, and their recent Sea World petition saw more than 1 million signatures.

And when owners sought to close an energy efficient window factory in Chicago, the workers didn’t just fight to get their jobs back — they fought to buy the factory!

75,000 SumOfUs members stood behind the workers, helping them win the right to buy the factory. In May 2013, the brand-new worker-owned company opened its doors in Chicago.

That’s what SumofUs can do by bringing people together.

Susan McLennan

Susan McLennan

Founder at ReImaginePR
Susan McLennan helps brands become better storytellers both through the media and through direct and digital communications. She is an award-winning communicator with a background in television production who has secured media coverage through some of the top media outlets in the world and created content that has won hearts and changed minds locally, nationally and internationally.
Susan McLennan

@SusanMcLennan