While many companies are working hard to figure out how they can send SPAM emails that trick us into caring about what they have to say enough to navigate to their websites… REI has well, figured a way to trick us into caring enough to at least holster our trigger-happy delete button fingers while we consider what they have to say, and perhaps navigate to their website.

Title: Top Brand Ski Gear + Volunteer Opportunities

The body of the email is focused on selling ski gear (which we knew REI was in the business of anyway), but on the bottom in a fairly prominent green box is the following:

FIND A VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY NEAR YOU! VOLUNTEER MATCH AND REI TEAM UP TO HELP OUT We’ve partnered with VolunteerMatch to make it easy for you to make a difference in your community. More than 40,000 nonprofit organizations – from conservation groups to youth outreach programs – are waiting to hear from you. Learn more about volunteering in your area.

If I am going to get SPAM, I’d love to have a little feel good seasoning sprinkled on it, and I commend the REI team for their cause-oriented thinking in attempting to solve the click-through problem of email campaigns.