15 Inspirational Cause Marketing Examples for Nonprofits

It’s no secret that corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been on the rise in recent years due to consumer expectations. In fact, 45% of customers state that they are more likely to buy from a brand that gives to charity over a competitor. With statistics like this, many corporations have supercharged their support for charitable causes in recent years. 

One of the most effective ways for businesses and nonprofits to collaborate is cause marketing. Cause marketing allows nonprofits to earn revenue and awareness for their missions, brands to publicize their support of a worthy cause, and customers to make ethical shopping decisions with ease. 

To demonstrate the many forms that cause marketing can take, this guide will explore 15 powerful examples of cause marketing in action. But first, let’s explain exactly what cause marketing is.

What Is Cause Marketing?

Cause marketing is a promotional collaboration between a business and a nonprofit that provides support to the nonprofit and improves the business’s reputation. These collaborations usually take one of two forms:

• A collaboration between a for-profit business and a nonprofit organization to promote the nonprofit’s cause or mission. 
• A campaign organized by a for-profit business in support of an issue. 

Regardless of whether the nonprofit and business are formal partners or the business is operating independently, cause marketing usually has a few hallmarks. The practice involves the brand marketing the causes they support in some way, whether it’s lending their brand name to a specific initiative, investing in a nonprofit’s marketing campaign, or promoting a product that supports a nonprofit.

Additionally, many cause marketing campaigns support nonprofits by donating a percentage of sales to specific organizations. 

For example, one of the very first cause marketing campaigns in 1983 was hosted by American Express in support of the restoration of the Statue of Liberty. During the last few months of that year, every time one of its credit cards was used, American Express would donate one penny to restore the Statue. This campaign raised $1.7 million—adjusted for inflation, that’s over $3 million today—for its cause. 

Our Favorite Cause Marketing Examples

Today, cause marketing is still prevalent and highly beneficial to both companies and nonprofits. If your organization is thinking about participating in cause marketing on either side, we’ve compiled a list of the best cause marketing examples to help you get started

Ross Dress for Less

Ross Dress for Less is a discount retail store that supports two nonprofit partners, Boys & Girls Club of America and First Book, through its in-store fundraising program. Ross markets these causes to its customers in several ways, including:

• Annual in-store fundraiser. For three weeks of the year, Ross cashiers are directed to invite customers to donate to Ross’s nonprofit partners at checkout. 
• Ross’s “Help Local Kids Learn” fundraiser. To support local Boys & Girls Clubs, Ross locations around the United States put together creative displays and information tables to host activities and competitions related to childhood education. During this fundraising event in 2022, Ross raised more than $3.4 million for regional Boys & Girls Clubs.
• dd’s DISCOUNTS “Youth Literacy Fundraiser.” dd’s DISCOUNTS is another chain discount retailer under Ross’s umbrella. Every back-to-school season, these locations host fundraisers for First Book, which promotes childhood literacy. Along with encouraging donations, the stores also create book-related displays to help First Book in its mission to instill a childhood love of reading.

Ross also kicks off every new store opening by donating to local chapters of its nonprofit partners to keep these partnerships strong as the brand grows. 

Pringles 

Since 2020, Pringles has partnered with a leading men’s health charity, Movember. Movember raises awareness for men’s health issues, especially mental health, by challenging men every November to go without shaving and grow a mustache. 

To promote this awareness campaign, Pringles’s mascot, Julius Pringle, swapped out his iconic mustache with a QR code linking to Movember’s mental health resources page. By featuring this QR code front and center on every can for a month, Pringles gets Movember in front of a wider audience, spreading awareness and helping Pringles customers build the skills needed to have conversations about mental health. Plus, Pringles has raised £1.3 million across Europe in support of Movember.

Jasco 

Jasco is an industry leader in electronics, owning brands like Energizer, Enbrighten, and Titan. Jasco donates 50% of the net profits from those brands to its nonprofit partners, like Habitat for Humanity. To ensure that Habitat for Humanity receives meaningful support, Jasco has also pledged to donate a minimum of $100,000 every year if contributions from their net profit model fall short. 

To promote Habitat for Humanity and Jasco’s investment in their mission, Jasco has put together several promotional videos showcasing their work, such as this one:

Dove 

Dove provides hygiene products aimed at women and, through the Dove Self-Esteem Project, has been a long-standing partner of World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). Dove says the following about their cause marketing campaign:

Our mission is to empower girls by strengthening their body confidence and self-esteem. It’s an important mission, especially when eight out of ten girls are so concerned about their appearance that they avoid important activities such as putting their hand up in class. By building their body confidence and self-esteem, we can help girls reach their full potential.

To fulfill this mission, Dove has helped fund the development of body-confidence and self-esteem-boosting education activities, such as the Free to Being Me program, which has reached nearly five million people in more than 140 countries. 

Levi’s 

Levi’s has a long history of engaging in cause marketing to support a variety of causes, from promoting music education to building skate parks. 

Despite supporting many causes, Levi’s also focuses on promoting one of their charity partners at a time through the Levi’s Donation program. This initiative prompts online and in-store customers to round their sales total up to the next whole dollar to donate to the featured charity.

Walgreens 

Funded by Comic Relief USA, Red Nose Day raises funds with the support of its corporate partners, like Walgreens, to end childhood poverty. On Red Nose Day, comedians and entertainers host performances to fundraise for the cause, providing relief through comedy. 

Up until 2024, Walgreens supported Red Nose Day by being the exclusive retailer of the nonprofit’s iconic red clown noses. The proceeds of these sales would go to Red Nose Day, and customers were encouraged to post pictures of themselves wearing a red nose to social media, further spreading awareness of the movement to end childhood poverty.

Patagonia 

Patagonia is a clothing retailer that is well known for its activism and support of charitable causes. One of its most popular initiatives is its 1% for the Planet program, where 1% of Patagonia’s sales are donated to environmental protection nonprofits. Since its founding in 1985, Patagonia has donated more than $140 million in monetary and in-kind donations to environmental groups around the world. 

Patagonia also actively engages in cause marketing for various environmental groups through Patagonia Action Works. Promoted at the top of the “Activism” page on Patagonia’s website, Patagonia Action Works allows individuals to search for and connect with environmental groups in their local area. Patagonia also promotes several pressing environmental campaigns on its home website.

Ethique

Ethique, as its name implies, provides itself on offering ethical haircare products. One-upping brands like Patagonia, this New Zealand-based company donates 2% of its sales to environmental groups. 

Specifically, Ethique partners with Certified B-Corporation Ecologi to plant one tree for every online sale. Through this partnership, Ethique and its customers have facilitated the planting of more than 600,000 trees around the world. They’ve also funded a variety of other environmental projects, such as the preservation of forests, restoration of wetlands, and the completion of solar farm projects. 

As part of their partnership, Ethique pledges to increase the total number of trees they’ve had a hand in planting to upwards of 1 million while maintaining their business’s climate-positive status.

Bombas 

Many businesses participate in cause marketing by promoting a nonprofit or pledging to donate a percentage of their sales. Bombas takes a different approach by making in-kind donations of its products based on customer sales.

Bombas is a clothing retailer and manufacturer, so to give back, they partner with homeless shelters to provide in-demand items like t-shirts, socks, and underwear. For every purchase a customer makes, Bombas donates one item to their nonprofit partners. Since this initiative’s founding, Bombas has donated more than 100 million items to those in need.

Paramount 

The fourth annual Mental Health Action Day took place on May 16, 2024. More than 2,000 brands, nonprofits, and influencers participated, including Paramount’s SHOWTIME/MTV Entertainment Studios.

In partnership with the nonprofit Active Minds, Paramount launched a series of choose-your-own-adventure YouTube videos that teach youth how to discuss mental health issues and offer emotional support through the A.S.K. (Acknowledge, Support, Keep-in-Touch) system. 

Alison Malmon,  the Founder & Executive Director of Active Minds, said in a Paramount press release: “Since research shows that most youth and young adults do not know how to help a friend, we are working to prepare this generation to become the champions for mental health advocacy that this nation needs, and we are excited to grow engagement and impact together.”

To promote the videos, Paramount has arranged for 10 student-serving organizations to share the videos with their networks of youth and young adults. Many of these are higher education groups that provide mental health resources to college students. 

Additionally, Paramount provided grants to 22 nonprofits with missions related to youth mental health.

Dawn

Dish soap provider Dawn aims to help keep the world clean through the Dawn Saves Wildlife program. Through this initiative Dawn partners with International Bird Rescue and The Marine Mammal Center to clean birds and marine life impacted by oil spills and other man-made disasters. 

As part of their cause marketing partnership, Dawn has:

• Created a children’s book that inspires children to become wildlife heroes. 
• Donated more than $4.5 million to their nonprofit partners. 
• Invested in educational programs to raise awareness about wildlife protection and clean-up projects.

Hollister 

Clothing brand Hollister supports a variety of nonprofits through cause marketing. Two of their main partner organizations are The Academy Group, which provides youth mentoring services, and GLSEN, which provides support for LGBTQ+ youth. 

To support these nonprofits, Hollister has:

• Created branded clothing lines for relevant events, such as a Pride Month collection to support GLSEN throughout June.
• Developed social media campaigns, including founding World Teen Mental Wellness Day to raise awareness for youth mental health on Instagram and TikTok. 
• Sponsored A&F’s The Challenge music festival, which supports The Academy Group, GLSEN, and other nonprofits. 

Hollister also regularly donates to its partner nonprofits, having contributed more than $1.5 million to The Academy Group since their partnership began in 2020, and more than $5 million to GLSEN since 2017.

Wizards of the Coast

Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) owns and distributes popular game brands like Dungeons and Dragons and Magic the Gathering. WOTC leverages its communities to raise funds for the nonprofit fundraising program Extra Life, which provides year-round support to fund children’s hospitals and healthcare services. 

Extra Life uses video game-related language to connect with hobbyists and earn their support. As part of its fundraising strategy, it leverages leaderboards for individuals and fundraising teams, encouraging them to raise their scores by donating. 

WOTC and its brands top both of these leaderboards by encouraging its community to join together and contribute to Extra Life under the WOTC team name, giving the charity iconic brand name recognition.  

Additionally, WOTC’s brands also host annual live stream events to promote Extra Life. For instance, the Magic the Gathering live stream in 2023 raised more than $1.3 million. Plus, WOTC also sells Extra Life-related merchandise and features an Extra Life booth at conventions for its brands.

SurveyMonkey 

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has multiple corporate partners, including SurveyMonkey. Since 2014, SurveyMonkey has donated to the ADA through its charity and awareness program, SurveyMonkey Contribute. 

This program is a free way for SurveyMonkey users to donate to nonprofits like the ADA. All participants need to do is create an account and fill out surveys. For each survey they complete, SurveyMonkey donates $0.50 to the ADA. 

So far, nearly 300,000 individual contributors have completed surveys to raise nearly $1 million for the ADA alone. Participants can also complete surveys to support other reputable nonprofits like charity: water, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Rescue Committee. In total, SurveyMonkey Contribute has raised more than $15 million for nonprofit causes.

JetBlue 

Airline JetBlue created the JetBlue for Good program, which encompasses several CSR initiatives and follows its mission to support causes that resonate with customers and employees. Their website explains the program as follows:

JetBlue For Good is our platform for social impact and corporate responsibility. Giving back is core to JetBlue’s mission of inspiring humanity. Centered on volunteerism and service, JetBlue For Good focuses on the areas that are most important to the airline’s customers and crewmembers: youth/education, the environment and community. Combining JetBlue’s corporate efforts with its customers’ and crewmembers’ passions, the common theme is Good–JetBlue For Good.

Of the JetBlue for Good initiatives, Soar with Reading stands out in its cause marketing efforts. Founded in 2011, Soar with Reading is a children’s literacy program that helps follow through on JetBlue’s commitment to youth education. 

To draw attention to a lack of literacy resources and books for children, JetBlue commissioned a study in 2014 that found that in underserved communities, there is only one age-appropriate book per 300 children. 

To alleviate these “book deserts,” JetBlue partners with the nonprofit Little Free Library to make children’s books more accessible in underserved communities. The Soar with Reading initiative previously created and installed free book vending machines in neighborhoods across the United States, and through its partnership with Little Free Library, these efforts have expanded to Puerto Rico.

More Corporate Giving Resources

Cause marketing examples like these demonstrate that corporate support of nonprofits is pervasive. Use the above examples to get inspired and scale them to programs that would make sense for your organization’s goals and values. 

To learn more about nonprofit and corporate partnerships, explore these resources: 

• Cause Marketing Examples | 14+ Effective Campaigns. Looking for even more examples of cause marketing? Explore additional inspirational business and nonprofit partnerships.
• How to Secure Corporate Sponsorships: Find Your Perfect Fit. Sponsorships are another way businesses can support nonprofits. Discover how your organization can secure corporate support.
• Corporate Citizenship: A Modern Company’s Guide to Success. Learn what it means to be a good corporate citizen and why businesses strive to do so through cause marketing and other initiatives.