Cone’s 2010 Nonprofit Marketing Trend Tracker shows yet another reason to report on your campaign or program results–because customers care.  Astoundingly, not even half of consumers think companies and nonprofits share enough about their partnerships. In this case, however, ‘more’ doesn’t just mean more. It means relaying only the information that’s important to consumers as they evaluate your business, your selected cause and nonprofit partner and the campaign in front of them.

Fifty-eight percent of consumers are more aware of corporate/nonprofit partnerships today than in the past (from the Cone study cited above).  Give them what they want while you have their (limited) attention on your cause and product. Here’s how.

• 61% take the time to learn the details of a corporate/nonprofit partnerships before deciding to support it.
  Don’t make the customer hunt. Explain what she needs to do to trigger what action from your company and how it will benefit what cause.Pampers 2008 campaign was ‘gettable’ in 2 seconds. When you buy a package of Pampers diapers, PG would make a donation of one child’s vaccine to UNICEF.  The more specific your commitment is, the stronger the appeal. A commitment of 1 vaccine is stronger than a commitment of 10% of sales (how much is that?), and 10% of sales is stronger than “a portion of the proceeds.”  Avoid qualifications. A good program is as clear as Pampers.  You’ve lost me if only my purchase of Tropicana Light from Safeway during March qualifies.
• 75% want to hear about the impact of your corporate/nonprofit partnership.
  Whether you partner with a nonprofit on a cause marketing or awareness campaign, event or product, consumers want to know the outcome.  How much money was raised and who did it help? How many people were served? How were they specifically affected?  We’re conditioned to want feedback. If I give you advice I want to know if it helped. When I write a blog post I want to know how much it’s read. The desire for feedback means you’ve successfully involved the customer in the cause. They feel personally connected to it and are interested to know how what they stood behind made a difference in someone’s life. As a company or nonprofit, this is the best part! You can stand up and say “Olivia, look how your decision to take this action helped this person.”
• 48% think nonprofits and companies disclose enough information about their partnerships to consumers, donors or others interested in the relationship.
  Which means more than half of the often-called jaded and harried consumer wants to know more about the problem my business is committed to solving and what opportunity I’m giving the customer to get involved.  Give more in the clarity and impact of your program, not in your marketing message. Consistent programs can lead to greater recognition, feelings of personal commitment and streamlined messages. Think about (Product) RED or Newman’s Own. We know what they stand for without reading the fine print. Their consistent campaigns have familiarized us with their mission, although I think both brands could do a much stronger job of communicating the results of their campaigns and donations triggered by our product choices.

What do you think? Do you still pay attention to or evaluate cause campaigns? What most convinces you about a given campaign?

My story

In mid-November I made the personal commitment to buy only gifts that give back, but soon decided that I wanted to make a larger impact than my small list of recipients offered. With $200 I sketched a mock-up and paid for the design and development of iGiveTwice, a Twitter-powered awareness campaign that encourages people to choose gifts that have a social or environmental benefit and shows recommend products. Ethically sourced, naturally grown, fair-wage and fair-trade, and portions of sales donated, are all practices that carry a secondary benefit.
Since iGiveTwice is an awareness campaign and not a product directory (see World of Good and Cause Shoppe for product choices) I knew that I needed to align with extant marketplaces and manufacturers. Via Twitter, I approached eBay’s World of Good (among others) with a proposed partnership that would steer consumers toward their ethical products and raise money for a nonprofit as the result of a viral campaign. A week later, World of Good and eBay Giving Works pledge $1 per campaign tweet to Heifer International, up to $2,500 through December 25. Pure delight on my end.

Two things you can do that will give your purchase a triple impact:

1. Choose gifts that give back this year–whatever that means to you.
2. Tweet about it here to raise money for Heifer International to provide families in need with income-generating livestock.

It’s easy to do–much easier to do than even two years ago. Products that are ‘good for the world’ have long moved past itchy fair-trade sweaters and useless bobbles to designer fashion, tech gear and now, even Pepsi.

One of the immediate benefits of leading a company with a strong social mission is that if you can communicate your product message clearly, your customers will become evangelists for you. Increasingly, customers use their product choices to promote a personal identity.  Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” commercial and (Product)RED t-shirts and iPods are just two examples of this.  If your brand allows people the opportunity to feel that they are doing some good, or joining the ranks of other admirables (Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG bracelets did both), they will buy, wear and tweet about your product because it reflects positively on them.

Last December, Starbucks teamed up with (Product) RED to donate 5 cents of (RED) drink purchases to AIDS treatment and education programs. Although the program was criticized as offering too pithy a donation, in four weeks it raised funds to provide a year of therapy to more than 3,800 Africans with HIV.

On November 4th, Starbucks lauded political engagement by giving a free coffee to anyone sporting an ‘I voted’ sticker.

And then there was the exclusive distribution of Ethos Water. And before that, health care and living wages for Starbucks employees. And at its inception, fair trade coffee.

So why all the generosity, Starbucks?

The company was disparaged for its (RED) promotion and is widely viewed as a yuppie right of passage. Is it exercising altruism to offset yuppie guilt? I believe it’s the opposite. Starbucks (for its flaws and foibles) is leveraging its brand, reach and profits to effect real change. People are more familiar with fair trade coffee in large part due to Starbucks; sales of Ethos Water brought clean water to millions of children; job-seekers can be more discerning with employment opportunities, knowing that the coffee retailer offers health care; and 1.4 million daily doses of antiretroviral medication were paid for in four weeks through (RED) beverage purchases.

Starbucks has adopted practices that are both socially generous and financially advantageous, and that’s the idea of the game. Seventy-two percent of consumers have purchased a brand because it supports a cause they care about. Authentic cause marketing campaigns can boost a company’s sales by nearly 27%, bring it 52% closer to its target demographic and increase staff morale and retention by 56% (LOHAS Journal, Spring 2008). Starbucks is not perfect, but its leading an excellent crusade for social change–funding courtesy of you and me, the consumers.