Cause related marketing or cause related everything?
Howard Lake | 7 June 2011 | Blogs
There’s currently a big problem for charities throughout the country.
And, that big problem is how UK charities can sustain themselves in the current economy where “charity begins at home” has never held so true, and the Government cutbacks could wipe out one third of voluntary organisations, according to Polly Toynbee at The Guardian.
The irony is, in these tough economic times, people need charities assistance more than ever whilst the Government’s cutbacks are making it harder to serve these people.
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Research released by marketing agency RAPP, in May 2011, found 11% of consumers said they would reduce their giving.
And according to the survey by trends and forecasting specialists The Trajectory Partnership, 8% said they will cancel one or more direct debits to charity, 16% said they would not be able to afford to support the same amount of charities, and 17% say they would not be able to give as much to the charities they currently support.
A big problem – so what can charities do?
They say, in order to find the right answers, you first need to ask the right questions.
With that said, the question we asked ourselves here at Charity Greetings, was: “How can charities generate more revenue from their current supporter base in a difficult financial environment?”
I’m sure this question has been echoed by charities throughout the UK. And here’s the answer: rather than just ask people to give more, as charities normally do, find ways your supporters can switch their consumer spend from other people to you.
As you already know, cause related marketing has been around for a long time now. It is still widely regarded as a ‘must have’ amongst top brands who adopt a ‘who cares wins’ marketing strategy with more emphasis put onto consumers to buy products that help good causes. It has proved very successful.
So, the questions to ask yourselves today is, “What products or services can charity supporters switch their consumer spend without any or limited barriers to entry?”
In my next blog post, I’ll talk about the factors you should consider when choosing which products and services to promote to your supporters and which affinity partners to use.
Craig Hartzel is CEO of Charity Greetings. Charity Greetings provides white labelled charity cards shop to charities. To open a free card shop visit www.joincharitygreetings.com
You can support charity by sending a greeting card, including birthday cards by going to www.charitygreetings.com.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.