Best Practices

To help cause marketing newcomers avoid “reinventing the wheel”, a number of authors and organizations have penned concise, but extremely useful articles on cause marketing best practices:

Best Practices Articles

• 2005 Cone Disaster Response Survey  Americans say that they have more trust in companies than in government to respond to disasters, according to this Sept. 2005 poll. The overwhelming majority of Americans expect companies to play an important and long-term role in helping affected regions rebuild. The poll finds that more than half of Americans have greater confidence in Corporate America’s ability to respond effectively to disasters than they do in their own government agencies.  permalink
• A Feel for the Neighborhood:
  Cause Marketing Hits Home with Local Execution  
  NEW FROM PROMO MAGAZINE: This cover story describes how brands and retailers are hitting home with local execution of cause marketing campaigns. permalink
• Advice on Approaching Corporations from Jason Saul, managing director of Mission Measurement  In this Q&A with Philanthropy Journal, the founder of Mission Measurement offers advice on how nonprofits can more successfully approach corporations for support and to build alliances. permalink
• Better Business Bureau Standard 19   permalink
• Cavill & Co.: Australian CRM Research  Australia's leading CRM agency has underwritten four studies of consumer, company and employee attitudes. permalink
• City Year -- Corporate Strategy   permalink
• Companies & Environmental Messaging: A Delicate Balance  CMO Magazine turns to business and nonprofit leaders for advice on mixing business and environmental messaging. permalink
• Complying with Better Business Bureau Standard 19: Transparency    permalink
• Consciousness-Raising, Hair-Cutting Experience  What we can learn from a little girl's donation of a ponytail to Locks of Love. permalink
• Corporate Social Responsibility
  Philip Kotler & Nancy Lee   permalink
• For Goodness Sake: Legal Regulation and Best Practices in the Field of Cause Marketing   permalink
• GLAXOSMITHKLINE, SALESFORCE.COM AND NATIONAL ACADEMY FOUNDATION WIN PRESTIGIOUS CORPORATE PHILANTHROPY AWARD   permalink
• Habits May Be Good For You -- NY Times on Social Marketing  This fascinating article describes how marketing techniques shared by Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble helped health workers save lives in Ghana by changing hygiene habits. permalink
• Learning from Innovative Back to School Programs  Gleaning strategic insights from some of America's largest education-related campaigns. permalink
• Measuring Results of the Great American Cleanup   permalink
• Mixing Celebrities and Cause Marketing: Tips from a Pro  Celebrity expert Rita Tateel's top tips for working with celebrities. permalink
• On Cause Branding  Cone Inc. founder Carol Cone describes the benefits to companies that integrate social commitment into their business strategy and suggests best practices to develop sustainable and impactful initiatives.  permalink
• Ovarian Cancer Grows as a Corporate Supported Issue  Raising Awareness of a Subtle but Devastating Disease. Because calendar months and colors have been claimed by one health issue after another, it can be easy to lose track of causes. September is national Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, in recognition of the leading cause of death among gynecologic cancers in the U.S, and a number of groups - from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF) to L’Oreal Paris to various Hearst women’s magazines are making it their business to spread awareness about this deadly disease.  permalink
• Putting Cause Marketing to Work for Your Restaurant  The National Restaurant Association shares these helpful tips on creating local cause-related promotions. permalink
• Small Business & Cause Related Marketing:Getting Started  The author of a new book on cause marketing for small businesses share three easy tips for getting started. permalink
• Sponsorship for Grant Writers  You've spent years perfecting your grant writing skills: shaping a logical argument for why your project needs funding, creating detailed budgets to reinforce your narrative, and gathering a variety of attachments to support your case. Now you've been asked to create a corporate sponsorship proposal and wonder what you can use from your grant writing experiences. Well, as we say in New York, "faw-git-about-it."  permalink
• Starbucks: A New Twist on Affinity Credit Cards   permalink
• Strategic Entertainment Alliances: Doing It Right    permalink
• The Ten Commandments of Cause-Related Marketing  By Kurt Aschermann, Chief Marketing Officer and Managing Director Corporate Opportunities Group, Boys & Girls Club of America (B&GCA)  permalink
• Tiny Outfits, Big Hearts
  Businessweek on Small Biz CM  Small businesses can't match the charitable budgets of large companies, but that doesn't mean their impact can't be just as vital, according to this BusinessWeek Online article.  permalink
• Transparency as defined by the Better Business Bureau  In this brief article, Claire Rosenzweig, CAE, President & CEO of Better Business Bureau Serving Metropolitan NY describes the BBB's standard 19 which covers cause marketing transparency -- a must read before setting up any program. permalink
• Turning Intangible Benefits into Tangible Cash  A key element in delivering value to a corporate sponsor rests in placing the sponsor's message before a significant number of people. Advertising agencies in particular will want to quantify the number of impressions the sponsor will receive through a sponsorship, just as they would measure the number of people who would see an advertisement placed in a magazine. For example, how many people in the stadium will be able to see the sponsor's billboard? If the event is telecast, how many additional people will get a glimpse of the billboard? The anticipated audience for a message can be calculated and this tangible, measurable benefit compared to the cost.  permalink
• UNICEF Licenses Greeting Cards to Hallmark   permalink
• Using The Web to Build Successful Cause Marketing Relationships  A growing number of businesses and nonprofits have discovered that online technology can “turbo-charge” their cause-related marketing partnerships, according to Kelly McMackin, vice president of cause marketing partnerships for Kintera, Inc, a leading provider of software and services for nonprofits.
  
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• Where is Cause Marketing Headed in 2010: Mike Swenson  Barkley CMO Mike Swenson explores where cause marketing is headed and suggests strategies and tactics for success. permalink
• Winning Proposals: Four Key Questions for Nonprofits  By Carrie Varoquiers, President, Cause Partners permalink
• Words to the Wise   permalink

Conversations with Cause Marketers

• Kurt Aschermann, Boys & Girls Clubs of America  First published in 1997, Kurt Aschermann’s “The Ten Commandments of Cause Marketing” quickly became one of the industry’s most quoted articles. Nowadays, however, you’ll rarely hear Kurt talk about “cause marketing”. Reached at the Boys and Girls Clubs of America headquarters in Atlanta, Kurt explained why.  permalink
• Breaking into Cause Marketing   permalink
• Conversations with Cause Marketers: Carol Cone   permalink
• Conversations with Cause Marketers: Andy Phillips, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society   permalink
• Conversations with Cause Marketers:
  Sue Adkins, Business in the Community (UK)   permalink
• Conversation with Billy Shore
  Founder of Share Our Strength   permalink
• Cindy Schneible,
  VP Cause Marketing
  Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Fndn.   permalink
• With Faith in Corporations Low,
  Cause Marketing Can Rebuild Trust
  A Conversation with Ed Keller,
  CEO of RoperASW   permalink
• Conversations with Cause Marketers:
  Michelle Alfandari, President,
  Moda International Marketing   permalink
• Conversations with Cause Marketers:
  Christine Petersen, CMO, TripAdvisor.com   permalink
• Conversations with Cause Marketers:
  Frank Walker, Chairman,
  Walker Information   permalink
• Conversations with Cause Marketers:
  Darell Hammond, CEO and Founder, KaBOOM!   permalink
• Conversations with Cause Marketers
  John Hayes, Chief Marketing Officer,
  American Express   permalink
• Conversations with Cause Marketers:
  Marc Gobe, author of "Citizen Brand"   permalink
• YouthAIDS' Kate Roberts: Using Marketing Skills and Media to Keep Young People Alive  Kate Roberts is the founder and director of YouthAIDS, a global education and prevention initiative that uses pop culture, music, theater, movies and sports to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. Roberts spoke with Knowledge@Wharton about cause-related marketing, among other topics. permalink
• Conversations with Cause Marketers:
  Jenny Kompolt
  Online Charity Auction Pioneer   permalink
• David Fisher
  Consumer Promotion Director
  General Mills, Inc.   permalink