Tag Archives: cause marketing forum

(Re)Defining Cause Marketing

Written on January 5, 2011 in Cause Marketing 101
61 Comments

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  4. Visit my Getting Started section for suggestions to find what you’re looking for and to get started with cause marketing. 

Last January I wrote a post on What is Cause Marketing? that got a lot of great feedback. Over the past year I’ve gone back to that post many time and reread the comments again and thought about how I was defining cause marketing.

I felt I had the first part right.

Cause marketing is a partnership between a nonprofit and a for-profit for mutual profit

What I thought needed redefining was just what it encompassed. In last year’s post I wrote that cause marketing involved three types of programs: point-of-sale, percentage-of-sale and licensing.… Keep reading

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In Praise of Cause Marketing Tactics

Written on June 14, 2010 in Cause Practices
5 Comments

I hope you’ll make the trip to the Cause Marketing Forum conference next year. Two weeks after the  event, I’m still thinking about the things I heard and learned at CMF10.

A word that was seemingly on the tongue of every speaker was “strategy.”

Strategy. A plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result.

Every presenter that discussed their cause marketing program either talked of the “strategy” behind their efforts or emphasized the importance of having one.

I get it. And it sounds great. But looking around the conference at all the nonprofits that were new to cause marketing, the best strategy for most of them seemed like a solid set of tactics to get them going.

Tactic. A means for achieving a goal; a maneuver.

A tactic isn’t as sophisticated as a strategy. If your basement floods every now and then [been there] and you pump it out with a floor pump and hose you borrow from your neighbor, that’s a tactic.… Keep reading

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AFP Presentation: Cause Marketing for Nonprofits

Written on February 5, 2010 in Cause Marketer's Journal, Cause Marketing 101, Cause Practices
3 Comments

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Association of Fundraising Professionals Brown Bag today to hear me, Joanna MacDonald and Dan Curtin, General Manager of Zipcar Boston, talk about cause marketing.

As promised, here are my slides from the presentation (at least the most relevant ones). I’ve linked them to several posts that might be helpful to you.

What is Cause Marketing? Read my post of the same name, and be sure to check out the comments.

Point-of-Sale. You can read about several great examples of pinup programs that support Komen, Jake’s Ride and BMC. Not familiar with pinup programs? Here’s a primer.

Percentage-of-Sale. Check out this post I wrote on Absolut Boston and the Charles River Conservancy.

Sponsorships. As I explained today, cause marketing isn’t sponsorship, but I know selling sponsorships are still a big part of what nonprofits do. That’s why I’ve written a whole series on it called Selling Local Sponsorships for Nonprofits.… Keep reading

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Cause Marketing Losers

Written on August 4, 2009 in Cause Marketer's Journal
1 Comment

churchsign_loserLast week I was part of a group of Boston cause marketers David Hessekiel from Cause Marketing Forum pulled together to discuss the field. It was a lot of fun, and I think we all learned something from each other.

In addition to my own organization, there were reps from The Jimmy Fund, Oxfam, Pine Street Inn, Children’s Hospital, Project Bread and The Home for Little Wanderers. We all run cause marketing programs, albeit all at different stages from the dormant to the sophisticated. We all had some success to speak of, but in each of us, myself included, there was talk of frustrations, challenges and even inadequacies.

But there was also a great sense of determination among everyone there to get the job done and support our respective organizations.

For the Home of Little Wanderers, there was talk of low brand recognition and the struggle to communicate all the things they did in the community.… Keep reading

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Cause Marketing for Ordinary Mortals

Written on June 23, 2008 in Cause Marketer's Journal, Cause Marketing 101, Cause Practices
0 Comments

Sitting at Cause Marketing Forum’s annual conference last month listening to all the great presentations from St. Jude’s, Ronald McDonald House and other big charities on their hugely successful cause marketing programs and looking around at all the small nonprofits in the room actively listening and taking copious notes, I was reminded of something the late runner-philosopher George Sheehan said years ago. 

In a similar setting but with elite athletes speaking on marathon training to ordinary runners he was blunt when it was his turn to speak: “Forget what they just told you,” he advised the crowd.  “They’re animals.”  What he meant was that elite marathoners are so gifted and so fundamentally different from the rest of us, their advice and experiences really don’t apply to the rest of us.  That’s one of the things I wanted to tell the other nonprofits that populated the room that day.  Given the chance, here’s what else I would have told them.… Keep reading

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