Written by Melissa Estepp '15
A few weekends ago I had the pleasure of attending the Cause Marketing Forum (CMF) in Chicago, Il. Cause marketing, as defined by the CMF, is a wide variety of commercial activity that aligns a company or brand with a cause to generate business and societal benefits. Literally we are talking about “marketing for a cause”.
Although the act of cause marketing has been around for quite some time, it has become a hot topic and a buzz-word in the recent years as the corporate and non-profit world collide to create “good”. The most important part to understand about this “good” that is created (similar to a sponsorship) is that it must spread through to both the non-profit organization or fund and the corporate partner.
Where it differs from the sponsorship world is that this “good” can mean many different things to many different companies. Yes, ROI is still a concern, but there is more to it than that. It is about more the “good”. The good feelings, the good experiences, the good memories, the good chatter...the good…cause marketers strive to make the world a better place one partnership at a time. The CMF provides a place for the best of the best cause marketers to gather and discuss best practices, worst practices, and new ideas.
As a volunteer at the CMF, I assisted with various administrative tasks and was able to sit-in on many conference sessions including the co-founder and CEO of Purpose Jeremy Heimans’ session on how to take a campaign and turn it in to a movement and CEO of Donorschoose.org, Charles Best’s session on how you can leverage crowdfunding. Both Purpose and Donorschoose.org are leaders in innovation within the world of cause marketing and Purpose was awarded as one of the most creative business innovators by Fast Company during the Forum.
I also had the privilege of joining a group led by Latria Leak, Assistant Director or Community Relations for the Orlando Magic, which discussed how not-for-profit companies can strategically partner with sports teams. It was no surprise that many current best practices involve a promotion for ticket sales. There is however, an upward trend in the partnership between sports teams and non-profits, as sports teams try to engrain themselves within their local communities and expand their brand nationally and even globally.
I had an amazing time networking and learning and I look forward to being a part of the organization for years to come.
Check out the conversations from #CMF2014! For more information about the Cause Marketing Forum, please visit www.causemarketingforum.com.
