5 Nonprofit Cause Marketing/Corporate Partnership Trends for 2015

To get a handle on what’s in store for 2015, NonProfit PRO rounded up some of the nonprofit industry’s finest, who were kind enough to share their nonprofit trends for 2015. Here are five trends on cause marketing/corporate partnerships.

CAUSE MARKETING/CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS
Joe Waters, founder and blogger, Selfish Giving
1. The future of cause marketing is content marketing. If cause marketing is a partnership between a cause and a for-profit for mutual profit, content marketing will be the glue that cements the relationship among stakeholders — cause, company, consumer.

The goal of content marketing is to drive outcomes. So if you’re hoping to land a cause marketing partnership or to share it with consumers or to demonstrate the results to a brand or your supporters, you’ll need content marketing that engages without selling. Content marketing is the only kind of marketing left, and for nonprofits it’s bigger than sales, fundraising and branding.

2. Beacon technology will dominate checkout charity. Love or hate them, offline checkout programs (pinups, roundups, donation boxes, etc.) will begin to be replaced by mobile programs using Beacon technology.

Beacon technology is “micro-location” as it’s designed to work in a physical location (like a store) with your phone — specifically your retail apps. With a Beacon transmitter, businesses can better interact with smartphone-toting consumers in or near their stores. Sure, they can push coupons to them when they walk in the door, but they can also give them one when they linger in a particular aisle or over a specific product. Companies can even push reminders to consumers. “Last time you were on our website you were searching for a blend of coffee that we now have in stock.”

The tie-ins with cause marketing are endless, especially as more retailers adopt services like Apple Pay so shoppers can make purchases directly from their phones.