In A Tough Economy, Non Profits Should Try Cause-Related Marketing

Cause-related marketing (CRM) offers a uniquely powerful way for non-profits to partner with corporate supporters during difficult economic times. The post In A Tough Economy, Non Profits Should Try Cause-Related Marketing appeared first on VMR. In A Tough Economy, Non Profits Should Try Cause-Related Marketing was first posted on June 1, 2011 at 9:05 pm.©2015 "VMR". Use of this feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this article in your feed reader, then the site is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact me at hugh@vmrcommunications.com

Cause-related marketing (CRM) offers a uniquely powerful way for non-profits to partner with corporate supporters during difficult economic times. And for those of you struggling to make sense of how to make good use of social media like Facebook, you’ll be happy to know CRM also happens to be a terrific strategy for both businesses and non profits on social networking sites like Facebook.

You can think of CRM as a win-win-win for (1) business, (2) non profits and (3) the non-profit’s beneficiaries.

In this edition of our newsletter I’d like to focus on clarifying our terms to make sure we understand what CRM is and what it is not.

First off, CRM is not marketing aimed at changing societal behavior. So, for example, an MADD radio campaign to reduce drunk driving would not be an example of CRM.

Also, CRM is not a type of corporate philanthropy. Corporate philanthropy generally requires that a business give financial support or in-kind grants to a charity without any expectation of corporate gain in return.

With CRM, a business may have altruistic motives but CRM is expected to positively benefit the business’ bottom line while benefiting a charitable cause in the process.

Let’s look at one early (though not the earliest) example of CRM. It occured in 1983 when American Express partnered with the Statue of Liberty Restoration Project. What’s important to note here to understand the difference between CRM and corporate philanthropy is the non-charitable business impact to American Express’ bottom line.

Put simply, American Express had a business objective of increasing transaction volume and new customer acquisition volume. Its non profit partner, The Statue of Liberty Project, had a charitable objective of ensuring the long-term well being of the Statue of Liberty. In order to accomplish both of these objectives, American Express and the Project chose a CRM strategy in which American Express donated one penny for every transaction and one dollar for every new card issued to new customers.

The result was outstanding for (1) the charity, (2) the business partner’s bottom line, and (3) the many millions of tourists who would later visit the Statue. In only four years, $1.75 million was raised for restoration, new American Express customer applications grew by 45% and customer transaction activity jumped 28%.

This example is one of many that illustrate how CRM has been used for the benefit of both non-profits and their for-profit partners.

NEXT WEEK: An example of a successful online CRM campaign using Facebook.

Photo Credit: charity: water by Julia Roy

The post In A Tough Economy, Non Profits Should Try Cause-Related Marketing appeared first on VMR.

In A Tough Economy, Non Profits Should Try Cause-Related Marketing

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