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Cause Marketing Via Buy One, Give One, #1

'Buy one, give one' (BOGO) has been around for a couple years now and the cause marketing practice is still growing dramatically. It's not for everyone, but for those that can pull it off BOGO generates mad publicity and word-of-mouth.

BOGO means that when you buy one of something, another one is given away to a needy party. A variation is when you buy one thing and it triggers the donation of second, but different item.

For the next three days I’m going to list and briefly describe all the BOGO I’ve seen. No doubt I’ll miss some so I hope you, my faithful readers, will add to the list.

Please email me BOGO examples at aldenkeene @ gmail . com, or use the comments below.
  • Buy a Cricut Expression or YUDU machine at Michaels crafts store and the retailer will give a Cricut or YUDU machine to the school of your choice. The Cricut is a home machine cutter and the YUDU is a home silk screen machine. Both are made by Provo Craft.
  • When you buy a photo printed on canvas and mounted, called a ‘gallery wrap,’ Picture it on Canvas gives a $35 gift certificate to an unspecified charity.
  • Whitten Grey gives a little girl’s dress to a girl in a developing country when you purchase one of their organic cotton dresses. The purchase generates a code. You go to the Whitten Grey website, enter the code and designate the country where the BOGO dress will go. You can even include a note with the dress.
  • Happy Blankie, founded by pre-teen David Holdridge and his mother Emily gives a free animal shaped blankie to a child in one of five places... Thailand, Uganda, and three locations in the United States... when you buy one. Buyers get to designate where the BOGO blankie goes.
  • Warby Parker sells classically style prescription eyeglass for men and women for $95. In conjunction with charities including Restoring Vision. The BOGO pair of glasses go to needy people in Latin America, Africa and South Asia, 24 countries so far.
Tomorrow: BOGO from outside the United States, including the most impressive effort I've seen so far.

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