Newsletter: Cause Marketing vs Corporate Giving ⚖️; Are Dollars Stores the Next Tobacco Companies? 💵; Newsjacking the New Aquaman Movie🐬
From the mailbag: Joe, I'm curious...why do you emphasize cause marketing over corporate revenue and the numerous opportunities for engagement apart from cause marketing? It seems like you regularly talk about various ways to engage corporations that are outside of cause marketing, but the focus seems to always be directed back to organizations building a cause marketing strategy.
Great Question! Three reasons.
First, corporate giving is the smallest slice of the pie. As the above graph highlights, there's relatively little money in traditional corporate giving (aka philanthropy) as companies continue to give less and less. (BTW, this graph comes from Curt Weeden, a corporate giving expert in the News Strategies Program I'm involved in at Georgetown University.) So while total giving in the United States is over $400 billion, corporate contributions are just $20 billion. Womp womp. Check out the numbers: dead people give almost twice as much as corporations do!
Second, the real money is in customers and employees - and not the company checkbook. Take the example of Kmart's partnership with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Despite struggling and closing hundreds of stores since the partnership began in 2006, Kmart has still raised $112 million for St. Jude through register programs involving customers and employees.
The money raised from the top register programs is impressive...and growing. (BTW, this graph comes from Engage for Good. (Twitter handles: @DaveCause, @MeganStrand).
Third, done well, cause marketing is the tide that raises all boats. When you focus on corporate giving you raise money from companies, but the impact is siloed. When you focus on cause marketing you focus on building your nonprofit's BRAND - the honey that attracts corporate partners - and elevate your ability to raise money from everyone: individuals, foundations AND companies.
Don't get me wrong: corporate giving is great. Raise as much money as you can with it. But, remember, it's siloed and transactional. However, cause marketing can be transformative for your organization. And, I suspect, transformation is just what you want.
✍️ Partnership Notes
1. Is Taco Bell a purpose-driven brand? Global Chief Brand Officer Marisa Thalberg (Twiter handle: @ExecutiveMoms) discusses their initiatives in this interview. Also, listen to this CauseTalk Radio interview from March 2018.
2. Are dollar stores the next tobacco companies? Are they bad news for public health and local economies? Do companies like Dollar Tree and Dollar General still make good corporate partners, or are they too much of a liability for your nonprofit? Tread carefully, friends.
3. This is a good list. The Inc. 5,000 of fastest growing private companies in the United States. Bonus: you can organize this list by industry, state, city or metro.
4. Happening at six locations.⬆️Through January 22nd, Duck Donuts will donate 10% of a customer's order to a participating school of choice. (Twitter handle: @fourdiamonds). This is a good example of a regional nonprofit working with a large chain - 70 locations, mostly on the East Coast - and targeting just the stores in their area. Try it!
5. The PEEPS Helping Peeps Sweepstakes is encouraging PEEPS fans to donate five dollars to The United Way. The grand prize winner will receive a behind the doors tour of the PEEPS factory! 🐥You either love them or hate them...I just happen to love them!
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
1. Most content for corporate partnerships is created for the top of the funnel (awareness stage), but what about the bottom of the funnel? Research shows that case studies are the most effective content for helping convert and accelerate leads later in the funnel. (Case Study Service)
2. Four ways to persuade trustees to invest in marketing. Don't take NO for an answer!
3. 60% of businesses aren't measuring the impact of their purpose initiatives on society. Three brands to learn from: The Body Shop, Mastercard and The Economist.
4. “The Big Six” veteran organizations are being out marketed by newer, smaller organizations like Wounded Warriors, Team Red, White and Blue and others. This just isn't happening to legacy veteran organizations. Tell me: are you the nonprofit equivalent of Sears or are you the one replacing them? 🤔
5. How is your aquarium "newsjacking" the new Aquaman movie? Ride the wave!
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause Marketing**
1. Director of Corporate Relations & Foundations, Cradles to Crayons (Boston, MA)
2. Content Manager, Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals (Remote)
3. Sponsorship Specialist, Wounded Warriors Project (Jacksonville, FL)
4. Coordinator, Corporate Partnerships, New Business Development, National Park Foundation (Washington, D.C.)
5. Account Manager, Corporate Partnerships, National Park Foundation (Washington, D.C.)
**Have your cause-related job featured here for FREE. Hit reply to this email and give me the details and a link.
🧠🍌 Brain Food
1. Looking for some great fundraising blogs to read in the new year? Here are 50!
2. 8 fundraising trends to watch in 2019. I'm watching digital assistants.
3. You loved this deck on Costco when I shared it a few weeks ago. This article asks what I asked: "What is it about Costco?" Apparently, it's not about saving money.
Have a question, comment or just want to say hi? Just leave a comment below or head over to Twitter. 🙏
