It's My Birthday! Using Special Occasions for Cause Marketing

Today's my birthday! Nothing like being a day closer to 50! (Ok, I'm a few years from that, but I think about it a lot for some reason). Fortunately, I have my twin brother, Jeff, to keep me company for the ride.

If you're an email subscriber, I had some great gifts in my newsletter yesterday. I hope you took advantage of them. I'll be sending out books in the next week or so, and notifying others about free consultations, webinars and gift cards. Please be patient. I got a huge response!

A special occasion like a birthday is a great time to point out the value of using special occasions, holidays and even special moments for cause marketing. These times are your fundraising friends! Here are some helpful resources for you.

Pinterest Holiday Boards (I have holiday cause marketing boards for most of the major holidays!)

4 Reasons to Have a Halloween Fundraiser Next Year, 8 Ways to Get Started (As the second largest consumer holiday of the year, Halloween is a great holiday for cause marketing!)

Pinterest Board: #FWB40 - Special Occasion Fundraiser (This is the companion board to my new book that will be out in December. I have a whole chapter on special occasion fundraisers.)

Charities and the Royal Baby (This is a wonderful post from Howard Lake on how UK charities used the birth of the royal baby to generate awareness for their causes. Bloody brilliant!)

A couple things to remember:

Be flexible. Some special occasions are less formal than Christmas or Thanksgiving. In 2013, car maker Volkswagen used the Discovery Channel’s annual airing of Shark Week to launch a hashtag fundraiser to help save sharks. The auto maker donated $2 for every tweet with the hashtag #VWsharkweek.

Don't forget special moments. A UK charity is asking parents and children to donate the money they get from the Tooth Fairy. These Tooth Fairy Heroes will help save elephants from being killed for their tusks!