Back in December I told you about Ocean State Job Lot and their annual pinup programs to support the hospital. Despite a sputtering economy, Ocean State not only met its goal, it blew it away!

During the month of December, Ocean State Job Lot raised $212,000! That’s almost 40% more than 2008.

Moreover, these results put them on track to raise one million dollars for the hospital in just six years.

Ocean State’s tag line is The Home of Adventure Shopping. The joy and enthusiasm shoppers and employees find in their stores obviously extends to their giving!

Are you planning a cause marketing program for your nonprofit? Our work with Ocean State Job Lot helped us develop the best practices for our Six Figure Cause Marketing program. I hope you’ll check it out!

Back in September, I introduced you to my friend Beth Pfiel (@readerbean) and her nonprofit The Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation.

Beth had asked for my help creating their first cause marketing campaign, a pinup program with Garden of Eden, a grocer and specialty food store with five locations in New York and one in New Jersey .

Beth had a busy fourth quarter, but we recently had a chance to catch up about the results of the program.

• With just six small grocery stores participating Beth raised over $6,000. Her best store raised $1,700.
• In addition to being the top pinup seller, the South Orange, NJ store did a great job promoting Jake’s Ride, which raised $204,000.

Overall, Beth felt that pinups were a great way to raise additional revenue and to educate Garden of Eden employees and shoppers about Bachmann-Strauss.

Beth stressed that it’s important to get store managers committed to the cause as they are the ones who ensure employees are selling the pinups at the register.

Beth’s already looking forward to next year’s event! She’s hoping to raise more money with her friends at Garden of Eden. But she’s not stopping there. She wants to build on her success and recruit other retailers to support Jake’s Ride and take advantage of the busy cross-promotion a grocer partner offers.

Beth realizes that successful cause marketing is largely a numbers game. If she raised $6,000 with six stores, she could raise more money with 20 stores, 50 stores, 150, etc.

Good luck, Beth!

Are you planning a pinup program for your nonprofit? My work with Bachmann-Strauss and Beth became the basis for my Six Figure Cause Marketing program. I hope you’ll check it out!

It seems every day more and more nonprofits are asking me if I’m available for training and consulting. I am, as is my whole team (because, as you know, we always do things together).

Here’s how you can benefit from our experience.

• I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that anything I could teach you in a teleconference or in person you could probably learn from reading the five years of posts I’ve blogged on Selfishgiving.com. It’s all here, folks. If you’re strapped for cash, but have plenty of time, it’s a great option.

• An easy, affordable way to learn about our cause marketing practices is to sign-up for Six Figure Cause Marketing. You can learn all about the program at the landing page we’ve created, but let me mention a few things.

**If you think $299 is a lot for a teleconference program, think again. This program is designed to raise you real money, and I have the deposit slips to prove it. It isn’t called Six Figure Cause Marketing for nothing. It’s the first cause marketing program for ordinary nonprofits that truly goes beyond the platitudes and theories sold as how-to in other training programs.

**I don’t personally profit from the program. All the money goes to Boston Medical Center.

**Six Figure Cause Marketing is designed to be a teleconference program but it can be done in person, or in any other format you like. Email me at joe@selfishgiving.com.

• Some nonprofits that already have a corporate partner lined up and are eager to get started have us run their cause marketing program from beginning to end. Read my post on our work with the Boston Bruins Foundation. This is a good option if you already have a partner in place and you’re comfortable sharing with us a portion of the proceeds.

Of course, there are numerous reasons why your nonprofit would want to work with mine.

You have a fabulous event that you believe is ripe for sponsorship, but you don’t know how to sell it. We’ll evaluate the event and tell you if it is indeed sponsorable. If it is, we’ll sell it for you.

You have a CEO from a major corporation on your board and while she privately supports your organization, her company has never been publicly involved with you. We can provide her with options that will be win-win for both organizations.

Or, maybe you’ve finally met that dream company that’s said, “We love your cause. How can we support you?” But you have no idea what the next step is. And even if you did your three-person nonprofit couldn’t execute a program. We can take the worry and hassle out of doing it yourself.

The cause marketing programs we typically create for nonprofits are unique and won’t conflict with your other fundraising efforts. I can also assure you that our programs would be challenging for you to execute without experience or training. That’s why we’ve waited five years before offering our services to others.

In short, learning from us on how to execute turnkey and lucrative cause marketing programs is a smart decision. And taking that extra step to work with us on a joint program is just short of genius.

We look forward to hearing from you. You can email me at joe@selfishgiving.com.