Cause Marketing

When I was in nonprofit management I heard a lot of pitches from retailers or suppliers wanting to sell something to my list of supporters. But there was always a sticking point. Oftentimes they wanted me to just turn over my donor list. That was a nonstarter. Later they wanted to put my logo on their merchandise or sales platform, usually without any upfront money. Those terms, too, were unacceptable. Now a West Coast coffee roaster called Newhall Coffee Roasting Company offers an approach and terms that I think a lot of nonprofit managers could swallow. Sell fresh-roasted coffee with your nonprofit branding on it and you get to keep a “significant percentage of the proceeds.” Called Newhall Coffee for a Cause , all sales take place on a customizable webpage and Newhall handles all fulfillment and returns. Marketing materials like fliers, brochures and postcards are also available to participants. Very few would-be partners get this part right. The biggest 500 nonprofit charities in U...

The grand-daddy of all buy one, give one (BOGO) cause marketing is TOMS Shoes , which I've profiled in the past. TOMS gives away a pair of its alpargatas-style shoes when your buy a pair. TOMS has never advertised heavily, but so great was the buzz that TOMS generated that its founder, Blake Mycoskie, was featured in TV ad on the left for AT&T. I've also profiled BOGO efforts from HUGO Fragrances , Pampers , LJ Urban which built a house in Burkina Faso when you bought one of their homes in Sacramento, a solar charger called Solio that provided a match for a soldier serving abroad when you bought another. On April 1, 2009, I even ran a post saying that India's Tata Motors was doing a BOGO for their $2,500 Nano car. It was an April Fool's Day joke that no one ever called me on. I now confess now that I made up the whole thing. These next BOGOs, however, are no joke. Buy a men’s tie, either a necktie or bowtie, from Figs and they’ll send a school uniform to a school...

Today’s post describes three BOGO (buy one, give one) cause marketing campaigns from outside the United States. Read yesterday's post on BOGO here . Included in this list is 'Plus One' from Darford International, a dog food manufacturer in British Columbia, Canada, which is the most brilliant example of BOGO cause marketing I’ve ever seen so far. It's well named, well thought-out, and, I think, likely to improve Darford's long-term sales prospects. The wonderfully-named Baby Teresa , based in Tasmania, Australia, offers BOGO onesies. Baby Teresa also takes applications to join them when they distribute the onesies in developing world countries. B1G1 is a kind of giving society based in Singapore that enables companies to do transactional cause marketing without a bunch of set up or hassle. Among its offerings is a business card that offers a $1 donation to the charity of choice for the person who redeems it. Plus One , from Darford International in British Columb...

'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 mount...

It’s gut-check time my charity friends. How strong is the appeal of your cause? Could you call a major donor to secure the funding to take advantage of a great advertising opportunity that falls into your lap last minute? Could you rally your fans to support your entry in the American Express Members Project ? Is your fundraising still doing fine, even in the Great Recession? Could you get competitors to sponsor your event? I saw the double-truck ad to the left in the July issue of Spirit magazine, the in-flight magazine of Southwest Airlines . For 11 years Southwest has sponsored the Phoenix Luv Classic, a benefit golf tourney for the Ronald McDonald Houses . This year the tournament raised more than $300,000, the ad reports. But for me the news isn’t the dollar amount, which is respectable given the economy. Instead the story is the list of sponsors. That list includes direct competitors with Southwest, including Virgin Atlantic , and JetBlue , and indirect competitors Aer Lingus , ...

Years ago I worked with the American Legion and I heard a side of the story about the development of the groundbreaking GI Bill that's not commonly known. Namely, that the American Legion that had agitated and lobbied for the bill and Harry Walter Colmery, a lawyer and former American Legion National Commander, drafted it . President Roosevelt signed the bill into law on June 22, 1944. Now thanks to a timely email from Laurie Shaffer of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, I’ve learned about a campaign that has generated more than $750 million since 1934 and thereby helped preserve some 5.3 million acres of waterfowl habitat in the United States. The effort is called Federal Duck Stamps . Perhaps like me you’ve heard the name but aren’t familiar with its ins and outs. Here’s how it works: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servic e produces an annual limited-edition illustrated stamp, similar to a postage stamp, although it can’t be used as postage. The price for 2010 edition is $15. A healthy ...

Look at the illustration on the left. Now read the copy. Now back to the illustration. Now read the copy. Sadly, the illustration doesn't really illustrate the copy, does it? I'm not a graphic designer or an art director. So I'm at a loss to explain the graphic design for a cause marketing campaign that was being promoted with table toppers at a Corner Bakery in Denver last week. Here's the campaign: When you buy a BBLT or a Chilled Berry Almond Swiss Oatmeal at Corner Bakery, they'll donate a "portion of the proceeds" to community gardens in the form of a grant. There's just such a garden about a block and half from where I saw this table topper, although I don't know if it's targeted to receive a Corner Bakery grant or not. I guess I sorta get the tomato plant changing hands. Although why you'd transplant it with a green tomato on I can't imagine. But where's the illustration of the BBLT and the Chilled Berry Almond Swiss Oatmeal...