Cause Marketing/Corporate Partnerships

The Chronicle of Philanthropy released its list of the "10 Companies That Gave the Most Cash in 2013," which serves as a reminder that nonprofit corporate partnerships need to make sense for both parties.

Marketing discovers and engages buyers while branding makes loyal customers. The Salvation Army Indiana Division recently sponsored a special event with both concepts in mind.

Joie Fuentes, senior director of sales and marketing for Branders.com, recently spoke with FundRaising Success about the "Give a Way" campaign in which the company provides merchandise to national and regional nonprofit organizations to help them brand their causes.

Three fundraising professionals on the front lines discussed a multitude of issues surrounding the fundraising sector, including corporate trends, major donor concerns and changes to the tax law at the Association of Fundraising Professionals New York City Chapter's annual meeting.

Dunkin' Donuts is selling travel cups for $3.99, with $1 from each sale donated and distributed among four regional food banks. As an added incentive, the cup gets customers 99-cent refills until Dec. 31. Talk about a great incentive for a great cause!

To promote its charitable work, JPMorgan Chase financed and sponsored the “American Giving Awards,” which were televised by NBC on Saturday night. The two-hour show, with Bob Costas as host, profiled recipients of Chase donations.

The producers and the network said Friday that the awards show was a feel-good holiday season special.

Ten NBC-owned television stations across the nation will team with nonprofit news outlets in an attempt to beef up their enterprise and analytical reporting, the network announced Monday. NBC affiliates in Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia will work with non-commercial outfits in those cities — KPCC public radio, the Chicago Reporter and WHYY public radio and television, respectively — while all of the network's owned-and-operated stations will get early access to investigative reports from the independent, nonprofit newsroom ProPublica.

Next Jump, provider of rewards and loyalty programs, announced the launch of OO.com, the company’s first consumer facing shopping site. In conjunction, Next Jump  kicked off a $500,000 fundraising initiative called SA500 Kids to bring technology into classrooms at more than 100,000 public schools across the country.

Today I received an e-mail from customer experience management solutions company Tealeaf Technology that really caught my eye. It is a great example of marrying customer engagement and corporate philanthropy to do good for the fundraising sector and the bottom line.

Apple has announced to its employees that the company has matched more than $1.3 million in donations in its program so far. Combined with the $1.3 million in personal contributions initially donated by employees, it brings the total sum of the "Apple Matching Gifts Program" to more than $2.6 million in less than two months.