The 10 Commandments of Cause Marketing: An Infographic from Selfish Giving

Selfish Giving, a cause-related marketing blog, is written by Massachusetts based consultant Joe Waters. Here's the link to learn more about Joe's blog. 

Joe collaborated with Karen Wu, a lawyer from New York City, to create this wonderful infographic or all of you who have questions about the legal issues that arise in cause marketing. To read more about this infographic visit Joe's website, Selfish Giving.

 For all of you who have questions about the legal issues that arise in cause marketing, the graph will be an excellent start.  - See more at: http://www.selfishgiving.com/blog/cause-marketing-law-infographic?utm_content=buffer21ddf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#sthash.a030GZCv.dpuf

 For all of you who have questions about the legal issues that arise in cause marketing, the graph will be an excellent start.  - See more at: http://www.selfishgiving.com/blog/cause-marketing-law-infographic?utm_content=buffer21ddf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#sthash.a030GZCv.dpuf

Share Your Ears

If you’ve been anywhere near social media the past few weeks you may have noticed many of your friends uploading pictures of themselves wearing a pair of the iconic Mickey Mouse ears from Disney World and captioning them with the “Share Your Ears” hashtag.

From January 29 to March 14th, Disney will donate five dollars to Make-A-Wish (up to $1,000,000), for every photo of the ears shared online with the caption ‘#shareyourears.’

Disney has had a long time partnership with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In fact, the very first wish was granted in one of the Disney parks nearly 35 years ago. Together the pair have granted more than 100,000 wishes to children with life threatening illnesses.

Why share your ears? I can think of many reasons, but, honestly, Disney said it best, “A wish-come-true brings to life excitement and wild imagination, which is exactly the life-changing experience a seriously ill child and their family need to help them feel better – and sometimes, even get better. It’s only possible because of people just like you.”

Also, if you share your ears, you can enter to win these blinged out ears: 

 So, friends, if you have any of the old iconic ears laying around as reminiscent reminders of the magical time you had at one of the parks, pick ‘em up and snap a picture so more children can forget about the battles they are facing and experience a day in the wonderful world of Disney.

Check out other ear photos and learn more about Disney’s Share Your Ears promotion at: http://shareyourears.org/

Cause Marketing, What's That?

When first approached with the idea of doing a blog on cause marketing, I had little to no knowledge of what the heck cause marketing actually is. Out of curiosity, I asked several of my fellow classmates and was almost always confronted with the same, “What are you talking about?” look of dumbfoundedness.

So, friends, I am here to enlighten you on the wonderful  world of cause marketing.

What is Cause Marketing?:

Cause marketing is the partnership of non-profit businesses with corporations in order to benefit both companies. Both partners combine their assets in order to connect with a larger body of consumers, increase value both socially and economically, and to communicate the values of both organizations.

Why do it?:

Cause marketing is different than typical corporate philanthropy in a couple of ways. One major distinction is the proceeds generated from cause related marketing are not outright gifts to the organization as they are in philanthropic efforts and therefore are not treated like typical tax deductible gifts. Nonprofits benefit both from the added exposure from their corporate partner and their fundraising efforts. The corporations in turn benefit from increased brand loyalty and enlarged brand reputation. Typically brands who participate in cause marketing have an increased positive brand image, which leads to consumers choosing that brand over competitors when faced with a purchasing decision.

Cause marketing, if done correctly, can be seen as a win-win for both partners. Everyone gets expanding exposure and enlarged brand image, which in turn can lead to increased revenue for both parties!

If you’re wanting to learn more about cause related marketing, I found http://grantspace.org/tools/knowledge-base/Funding-Resources/Corporations/cause-related-marketing to be a particularly helpful site when writing this post!

Everyone Has to Start Somewhere: About ME

Hi everyone! I’m so happy you decided to stop by and check out my blog! This blog’s purpose is to educate readers about Cause Marketing and how much it impacts our society. You may need to bear with me as I am very new to the blogosphere! I am elated to learn along with you all as I aspire to be part of this exciting sliver of the marketing world in the near future! There are many exciting and interesting things happening right now in the world of Cause Marketing and I can’t wait to share it all with you.

Before we get to all of the in depth articles, I want to tell you a little about myself. I am currently a marketing student at a small university in northeast Iowa. My mom was always an integral part of the business world while I was growing up, and after spending many hours at her office, I definitely caught the marketing bug. I am obsessed with learning anything and everything about the marketing world. I also am very active in several organizations on my school’s campus that promote various non-profit organizations. When I was assigned to make a blog for class, I struggled to think of a way to combine these two loves of mine. So, how did I end up learning about Cause Marketing? My professor actually suggested it to me! All it took was one look over a few of my fellow blogger’s articles and I was hooked!

SO, please, join me as I begin this quest to educate you (and myself) on the wonderful world of Cause Marketing!