Whenever cause marketers talk shop, they lament how tough it is to play by our field's formal rules and less formal standards of transparency.
It's easy to understand why many programs don't measure up to regulatory or best practice standards. The process of creating a cause marketing program often involves clashes and compromises between companies and causes, aggressive marketers and conservative attorneys and other players.
All too often, some of the people involved are ignorant of the patchwork of Better Business Bureau standards, state commercial coventure regulations, commercial fraud statutes and IRS rules at play.
There's now an easy way to make sure everyone on your cause marketing team has at least a basic understanding of the field's regulatory framework. We're pleased to provide you with access to an excellent overview by attorney Ed Chansky entitled "
For Goodness Sake."
While Ed approaches this topic from a lawyer's perspective, Cone's Mike Lawrence brings a professional communicator's eye to it in "Transparency: CM's Dirty Little Secret," one of the best-received breakout sessions at our June conference and the subject of our July teleconference. (
It's now available as a recording.)
The "dirty little secret" is that full compliance with transparency standards is relatively rare these days. Two of the many reasons cited: corporate desire to keep sales data proprietary and the difficulty in fitting lengthy disclosures on small packages.
Consumers are demanding ever more clarity from corporations, so Lawrence suggests the following golden rule:
"What exactly is supposed to happen when I buy/do this and how will I know it did?" Repeat that mantra throughout the process of creating a program and you'll increase your chances of achieving transparency.
Declaring unrelated business income to the IRS is another form of disclosure on the minds of many nonprofit executives involved in cause marketing. Enforcement, however, has been very lax in recent years.
Hope that by taking the time to review the information above this summer you'll avoid headaches this fall and beyond.
