Cause Marketing Opportunities A mutually beneficial relationship between a for-profit business and nonprofit organization

Employee Engagement

Employees may be allowed to wear jeans on Fridays if they make a donation to the cause.

Employees may volunteer for an organization and get paid by their employer for their time with wages going to the cause.

Point-of-Sale (POS)

A retailer solicits a donation via a cashier, a screen prompt, or a sign. Some campaigns encourage shoppers to round up to the nearest dollar, while others ask to tack on a dollar amount to the customer’s total. This is a very common type of cause marketing campaign among brick and mortar retailers but can also take place online.

Small items could also be sold at the till (ex: pins with proceeds benefiting CAN)

Portion of Purchase

A business commits to donating a portion of the proceeds or profits from the sale of a product or service. Some programs offer a small flat donation for a set of products or services that vary in price. For example: On World AIDS day, Starbucks donates 5 cents from every beverage purchased.

Buy One, Give One

A business guarantees that tangible social or environmental good will be done through a nonprofit partner when a shopper purchases a product or service. Ex: Tom’s Shoes

Proud Supporter

A business publicizes a large lump-sum gift to charity through advertising, PR, or other channels. Campaigns of this sort are typically reserved for businesses with the advertising budgets to sufficiently publicize the contribution, whether through their own ad buys or advertising/printing budget. Ex: Kelowna Chevrolet

Example Email

Good morning,

My name is Anna da Cunha and I am the Development Coordinator at Canucks Autism Network (CAN).

CAN was founded in 2008 by Vancouver Canucks co-owners, Paolo and Clara Aquilini, whose son has autism. CAN provides year-round sports and recreation programs for individuals and families living with autism, while increasing autism awareness and providing training in communities across BC. You can learn more about what we do at canucksautism.ca.

I am reaching out to you today to explore the opportunity of becoming a charity partner of the Aurora Win-ter Festival.

We believe that this magical festival presents a mutually beneficial opportunity for us to work together to promote Aurora and drive more traffic to the event, while increasing awareness about autism. We could even explore the idea of training some of your staff to better support any visitors with autism.

I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss this potential partnership with you and how we can best support your business, PR and marketing needs.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Warm regards,

Benefits of Cause Marketing

The business typically generates more profits from aiding the charity and the charity normally benefits from enhanced donations, either from the direct donations from the business, or the enhanced exposure offered by the business for that specific cause.

1. Develops responsible brands Organizations that align their services or products with charities usually get enhanced brand exposure that is positively viewed by other people.

2. Increased employee interest It has been recently showed that most employees prefer working for firms that support various causes. In fact, more than 70% of workers wish their managers would do even more actions with regards to supporting a cause. Cause marketing is therefore an excellent method of attracting good employees, which increases overall productivity.

3. Customers value charitable partnerships Most consumers are enticed to companies and brands that are commonly known for creating cause-linked relationships. Furthermore, it also enhances consumer loyalty.

4. Community benefits The community benefits from cause marketing as well. Most organizations consider giving back to their com-munities as an important duty and they also do it happily. Being one of the community partners is a reverent method of conducting business and it is admired by the public, other competitors and employees.

Example Cause-Marketing Campaigns