Hopelink: The Flip Side of Cause Marketing

Cause marketing can help a company, but what about the nonprofit itself? 

Hopelink is a well regarded nonprofit serving people in North and East King County. Big name corporations want to partner with them in cause marketing. For companies, the association with Hopelink is good PR, helps boost their own brand image, and increases customer loyalty. But Hopelink discovered these partnership were offering little in return. They often took a lot of Hopelink staff time and resources, failed to bring in much money, and failed to turn one-time donors into long time supporters (think LTV). 

So Hopelink set up a written policy to ensure any partnership was a good deal for them. Esmeralda Salazar of Hopelink talks about it at the Movie Mondays site. 

Some things a nonprofit should consider:

• Is the company a good match for your nonprofit? In one case, a famous race car driver brought people into a charity event, but his followers were not the type to support the charity's cause.
• Have the company be truthful about how much money will go to the charity. How much does "proceeds to benefit the cure" really mean as a percentage of your purchase when you buy a company's product? In some cases, it can be ridiculously small.
• Make sure your nonprofit has control over how the company uses your logo and your branding material. Don't let others misuse it.Your brand and reputation are extremely valuable. 
• Get a policy down in writing, and have the company sign an agreement.

One of the most ironic examples of cause marketing: 

Agree?