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Saatchi & Saatchi Donates to UWATX During SXSW Panel

Saatchi & Saatchi don’t just talk the talk. They hosted a SXSW panel on Sunday titled “Do Good. Feel Good: The Science of Altruistic Acts,” and showed the audience firsthand exactly how doing good can make you feel good–by ending the panel with a check presentation of $1,000 to UWATX!

Saatchi & Saatchi is an international global communications and advertising agency network with 140 offices in 76 countries. S&S’s global chief creative officer, Kathy Delaney, sat on the panel along with Devon Eyer of Johnson & Johnson, Michael Norton of Harvard Business School and Sebastian Buck of Enso.

UWATX development officer and Young Leaders Society manager, Keith Richardson, accepted the check on behalf of United Way. The $1,000 will be put toward the YLS $180K Challenge to provide full-time service coordinators at three local middle schools. Keith’s perspective of the panel:

“When first hearing the title of the panel, “Do Good. Feel Good: The Science of Altruistic Acts,” I knew I would be impacted by the content. As the manager for YLS, I’m always looking for ways to engage our donors more with our work, so linking volunteerism to positive physical effects hit home. The panel discussion began when moderator Kathy Delaney welcomed everyone in attendance by introducing the topic as a “different kind of wellness.” Kathy’s opening statement, “If you want to be happier and healthier, giving back or doing good is essential,” truly set the tone for the panel.

The first part of the panel focused on examples of real people seeing health benefits from doing good around the country. One example that stood out to me was a study conducted by Science Magazine showing that spending just $5 on someone else will make you feel better than spending that $5 on, for example, yet another latte. When we choose experiences over material stuff, researchers from Cornell found those individuals tend to be more intelligent, open-minded and outgoing. Another example that really stood out was when Michael Norton spoke about how Crate & Barrel changed its marketing strategy to focus on empowering their customers to also be philanthropists. As part of an email marketing campaign, Crate & Barrel gave each of its customers $50 to use on DonorsChoose.org. The company actually saw a significant increase in sales because of this campaign.”

We are honored to have been selected for this gift, and thank Saatchi & Saatchi for thinking of UWATX, as well as spreading the word that doing good truly does make you feel good! Want to feel the effects yourself? Donate now or check out our volunteer projects

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