School may be out for the summer, but at the Cause Marketing Focus blog, we’ve still got homework on the brain. Perhaps it’s because we recently asked corporate decision makers what they want to see when nonprofit organizations approach them about potential corporate alliances. Their answer: show us you’ve done your homework. Too many times organizations aren’t doing their homework before making the pitch. That insight and others ignited many a conversation at the Cause Marketing Forum. We’re still updating our pages and pages of notes. In the meantime, we thought we could help you with your cause marketing homework by sharing a few more key learnings from the conference.
TODAY’S GENERATION HAS GROWN UP WITH CAUSE MARKETING
Got Your 6, a campaign whose mission is to foster understanding and to empower veterans to lead in their communities, started a groundswell of selfies during their panel discussion with corporate partner Macy’s. Macy’s is donating a dollar to Got Your 6 for every #AmericanSelfie shared on Twitter or Instagram between now and July 4th. “Today’s generation has grown up with cause marketing and expects it of companies,” said Holly Thomas, Group Vice President of Media Relations and Cause Marketing at Macy’s.
FIVE BEST PRACTICES FOR NONPROFITS
From the nonprofit side of the table, Clay Dunn, Interim Chief Communications and Brand Officer at Share Our Strength, offered his five best practices for forming corporate partnerships:
- Include content development in your funding proposal.
- Have impact stories at the ready.
- Anticipate and answer the dreaded ROI question. Outline the return on your partner’s investment.
- Meet the audience where they are.
- Let the partners make the alliance their own.
Tremendous thanks to David Hessekiel, Megan Strand and the rest of the team at Cause Marketing Forum for putting together an amazing conference. It was a great opportunity to see colleagues and old friends and make some new ones! Now…what homework assignments are you working on this summer?
