5 Nonprofit Cause Marketing/Corporate Partnership Trends for 2015

• Companies are rapidly expanding their cause-related activities and exploring ways to be more sustainable and responsible. While partnering with a nonprofit is one way to earn a halo, it’s no longer the only way. Not by a long shot.
• Companies are adopting a nonprofit agenda without the nonprofit partner. Panera has its Care Cafes. Patagonia offers to repair its customers’ clothes instead of selling them new ones. Uber has committed to hiring 50,000 veterans in 2015. The car service has also created the UberMILITARY Advisory Board to build out a team of subject-matter experts to put forward new initiatives to help military communities. What’s missing from these three programs? A nonprofit partner.
• • The Ice Bucket Challenge and other viral fundraisers allow companies to target do-gooders directly, without the aid of nonprofits. These “Halopreneurs” are savvy millennials who are motivated, influential and wired for success. Halopreneurs can address issues they care about without working directly with nonprofits. In short, they don’t need to join a cause-walk or attend a gala to help.

This doesn’t mean that nonprofits won’t ultimately benefit from company and individual fundraisers. They will. But they’ll be more dependent than ever on others to make things happen.