The Boston Bruins are teaming up with iParty and Fuddruckers again to raise money for The SPARK Center. This program was a great success last year, raising $45,000. You can read all about it here.
The B’s have been a great partner, as have iParty and Fuddruckers. While this year hasn’t proven to be the dominating season last year was for the Boston Bruins, the team is still first in the hearts of all the kids, parents and staff involved with The SPARK Center.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the AMA Boston event on Cause Marketing During Challenging Economic Times. It was a great event.
As promised, below are links to some of the topics I discussed.
What is cause marketing. One thing that was clear from everyone on the panel is that Bonnie, Erica Vogelei from Cone and I all had a different understanding of what cause marketing is. Here’s my perspective. If you’re a cause marketing skeptic you may want to check out my post on Defending Cause Marketing. Be sure to read the comments under both posts as they are very helpful.
The Power of Pinups. My cause marketing efforts revolve around two key areas, point-of-sale and percentage-of-sale, especially the former. For a primer on point-of-sale, or pinups as I like to call them, check out this post, which has lots of links. My last pinup program was with Ocean State Job Lots. But I’ve also posted on other programs by Hannaford Supermarkets and New Balance.
If you’re interested in learning more about percentage-of-sale programs, read this post about Starbucks & Product (RED).
Cause marketing and social media. One of my favorite topics. Be sure to connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc. on the right sidebar! Here’s a good sampling of my posts on the subject. Also, check out my post on Foursquare and Harvard and how the latter can school cause marketers on how to raise money with location-based social media.
This presentation didn’t have any slides, but if you’re a PowerPoint-aholic check out these slides from an event I spoke at just a couple weeks ago.
Three final things.
First, if you have a question, leave a comment and I’ll reply to you. I might even write a post on your question! And you can make sure you never miss a post by subscribing to my email newsletter, which goes out twice a month.
Second, I’ve posted a whole series on Selling Local Sponsorships for Nonprofits that explores the selling process and how to prospect, pitch and close. It’s helpful if you work in nonprofit sales.
Finally, speaking of pitching, let me leave you with one. The team at BMC is available for hire.
Thanks again for listening. I hope my accent wasn’t too thick (a problem sometimes even for a Boston crowd!).
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.
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!
Joe Waters is Director, Cause Marketing for a Boston hospital.
The views expressed at Selfish Giving are his alone, and are definitely too witty, insightful and fascinating to be anyone else's. View My Bio or Email Me.
