Cause Marketing

Nonprofits have been strategically partnering with businesses for some time to build cause-marketing programs. The benefits are plentiful for both the corporation and the nonprofit, but it isn't necessarily the right fit for every nonprofit. Before you begin a cause-marketing partnership, ask yourself these critical questions...

Out of nowhere, a huge fad sweeps the country. It dominates social media and leads to a blizzard of think pieces, which are followed almost immediately by a backlash, as critics warn of the fad’s baleful consequences. Eventually, people get bored and move on to something new. That could well be the story of "Pokemon…

In a perfect world, all of our direct marketing costs would be marginal, so they scaled as we mailed, helping us to pick the exact right quantities and people every time. Of course, in a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to solve the social ills we are trying to solve as nonprofits. So that’s a…

Cause-related marketing has exploded in recent years even though it is a relatively young concept. Cause marketing began, on a national scale, in the early 1980s when American Express partnered with the nonprofit group that was raising funds to restore the Statue of Liberty. American Express gave a portion of every purchase through its credit…

San Francisco area charities surrounding Sunday’s Super Bowl host city, Santa Clara, Calif., benefited from 50 Fund, Super Bowl 50’s philanthropic arm, which raised more than $12 million, a record for the game’s host committee. But nonprofits near Levi’s Stadium weren’t the only ones to receive donations as a result of the big game. The competing cities also wagered charitable efforts based on the game’s outcome or conducted fundraising efforts to create secondary competitions off the field....

The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation has partnered with GoDaddy Inc. to offer one of the largest matching campaigns in the history of veteran nonprofits. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based Parsons nonprofit, led by GoDaddy founder, entrepreneur and philanthropist Bob Parsons and his wife, will match up to $10 million to the Semper Fi Fund this holiday…

There’s nothing like a game to fire up friendly competition in the name of charity. These days, companies are finding challenges are such effective tools to engage employees that gamification has become a key aspect of many corporate volunteer and giving programs. These challenges can extend across departments, companies and sometimes even industry sectors to…

When Jeff Vinik bought the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2010, he wanted to connect with his new community. Born in New Jersey, he had lived most of his adult life in Massachusetts, not Florida, and as an owner, Vinik said he believed that helping the local community was not just the right thing to do,…

Mark Noltner, who lives in suburban Chicago, heard about McTeacher's Nights when he found a flier in his daughter's backpack last year. "There was a picture of Ronald McDonald [on the flier]," he says, and it was promoting the school fundraiser at a local McDonald's. During McTeacher's Nights, teachers stand behind the counter at McDonald's,…

Every National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, countless companies put a coat of pink on their products and donate a portion of their proceeds to breast-cancer charities. But when companies fundraise with goods that are potentially linked to cancer itself, organizations like Breast Cancer Action take notice and dub the practice “pinkwashing”—a term that has been…