5 Nonprofit Cause Marketing/Corporate Partnership Trends for 2015

To get a handle on what’s in store for 2015, NonProfit PRO rounded up some of the nonprofit industry’s finest, who were kind enough to share their nonprofit trends for 2015. Here are five trends on cause marketing/corporate partnerships.

CAUSE MARKETING/CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS
Joe Waters, founder and blogger, Selfish Giving
1. The future of cause marketing is content marketing. If cause marketing is a partnership between a cause and a for-profit for mutual profit, content marketing will be the glue that cements the relationship among stakeholders — cause, company, consumer.

The goal of content marketing is to drive outcomes. So if you’re hoping to land a cause marketing partnership or to share it with consumers or to demonstrate the results to a brand or your supporters, you’ll need content marketing that engages without selling. Content marketing is the only kind of marketing left, and for nonprofits it’s bigger than sales, fundraising and branding.

2. Beacon technology will dominate checkout charity. Love or hate them, offline checkout programs (pinups, roundups, donation boxes, etc.) will begin to be replaced by mobile programs using Beacon technology.

Beacon technology is “micro-location” as it’s designed to work in a physical location (like a store) with your phone — specifically your retail apps. With a Beacon transmitter, businesses can better interact with smartphone-toting consumers in or near their stores. Sure, they can push coupons to them when they walk in the door, but they can also give them one when they linger in a particular aisle or over a specific product. Companies can even push reminders to consumers. “Last time you were on our website you were searching for a blend of coffee that we now have in stock.”

The tie-ins with cause marketing are endless, especially as more retailers adopt services like Apple Pay so shoppers can make purchases directly from their phones.

3. Nonprofits will have new rivals for cause marketing dollars. Cause marketing will get much tougher for nonprofits in 2015. Here’s why: Companies and individuals don’t need them as much as they did before (sorry, nonprofits):

• 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.

Miriam Kagan, senior fundraising principal, Kimbia
4. Nonprofits are increasingly looking for corporate opportunities to partner, sponsor, support, etc., their missions, events and fundraising. As the industry at large builds more ties, not only will the work of finding partners and developing the right offers for them become more important (and having the right staff to do so), but how those partnerships are structured, what the partner’s role is and how those relationships are promoted to the general public will become something more and more nonprofits have to work on, not just the big ones that already have those relationships in place.

Rachel Armbruster, CEO, Armbruster Consulting Group
5. The days of standard sponsorships are gone. Organizations are focused on developing partnerships. This requires more effort from partners and charities to activate and share campaign messaging with their audiences. Building these programs and monitoring progress has become a priority. Establishing key milestones and minuting progress ensures annual goals will be realized and help with retention.