The last (phew!) in a series of live blog posts from the AFP International Conference in Chicago.  If you enjoyed these posts, please share them with a friend and/or sign up to get them via email!

Lynn Croneberger, CFRE is Vice President for Development at Reading is Fundamental.  Laura Goodman is Director of Partnership Development at Share our Strength.

Cause Marketing Examples:

• Checkout Donations
• Product purchases – the fastest growing in a down economy
• Mobile Giving

TIP: Go with a list of corporate assets (what they have to offer) and organization assets (what you have to offer) – helps start the conversation

Types

Events work – company sponsors it and uses their marketing assets to engage thousands of (mostly new) people

BOGO (Buy one get one) – Great examples are TOMS Shoes, Pampers 1 pack = 1 vaccine (UNICEF),  Teens for Jeans (Do Something).  Hard part is that you don’t get to thank them and cultivate relationships for future support

Crowd-sourced – AmEx Members Project, Pepsi Refresh Project, Target’s Bullseye Gives.  Millions of votes but again – no real connection after the voting. Could be powerful but just not there yet.

Real examples

RIF and Macy’s Book a Brighter Future

Give $3, get $10 off next purchase.  Relationship took several years to build. Raised $1M in 2006, $2.5M in 2007, $3M in 2008, $6.5M in 2009 and $3M in 2010.

RIF and US Airways Fly with US. Read with Kids

Found a way to use corporate support and engage customers and employees individually! Crucially important because it allows RIF to collect info and communicate with supporters.

RIF and Nestle (Crunch Bar)

On candy bar packs – by entering the promotion code inside online, Nestle will donate 10 cents to RIF.  Nestle agreed to cap of $250,000 and a minimum of $100,000.  Value was information collection for Nestle.

Share our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Pledge

7 different companies asking their employees and customers to pledge.  22,000 supporters engaged, 80% were new to Share our Strength. Resulted in over $500,000. Whole Foods and American Express helped – but BIG PROBLEM – SOS wasn’t able to thank supporters and engage further.

For more on the AFP Conference, follow #afpmeet and @nathan_hand on Twitter.