Greetings!  
 
About the best thing I can say about a recent University of Michigan cause marketing study is that it created a lot of buzz (including several posts on our new Companies and Causes blog.)

It's unfortunate that the study's author used her very limited, experimental findings as evidence for a more general claim that cause marketing depresses individual giving.   That generated several alarming stories in the trade press.

Having read the 26-page report, I have no problem imagining that under some narrow set of circumstances, a consumer who purchased a cause-related item might reduce their personal giving to a cause.    But that's about all the research proves.

I'm sure one could also construct a study showing that exposing a charity's current donors to a CM campaign would increase their propensity to give.   (In fact, an Arthritis Foundation study of supporters some years ago indicated that exposure to corporate programs enhanced their appreciation of the organization.)

Furthermore, it's important to remember that cause marketing is not only about generating donations from existing donors.   The awareness cause-related campaigns create inspires some people to give (or volunteer) who otherwise would not have.

That is why dozens of Cause Marketing Forum speakers have advised nonprofits to think about more than just corporate donations tied to product sales when forming corporate alliances.   There's tremendous value in the paid advertising, public relations, point-of-sale donations and volunteers these relationships generate.

Lets hope the next piece of research published in our field provides practical insights into maximizing the business and societal value generated by company/cause collaboration. 

David Hessekiel