If it's for a good cause

Last week, my mom send me a list of the most influential cause marketing campaigns (by U.S. companies).

It was interesting to read as a global health person because the way in which I think about "influence" or "effectiveness", if you will, is obviously very different from how the author did.  For example, I tend to think about the administrative costs of raising money--the "feel good factor"to the donor is not at the forefront of my mind.  Cause marketing obviously relies on engaging consumers, which inherently means that resources that could have been passed along to the intended beneficiaries has to be put into the fundraising activities.  But, the question is: does that lead to greater levels of donations and/or other types of engagement that ultimately result in more resources for delivery on the ground?  A lot of people that run in a marathon as a charity runner wouldn't necessarily have picked up a checkbook to donate money to breast cancer research.  For programs that receive a lot of funding from the government, the broad-based support for the cause is an important part of sustaining political commitment.

I personally try to separate the charitable giving and personal spending, unless it's really simple to combine.  For example, when I have clothes to get rid of, I take them to Boomerang's, which is part of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.  I had full intentions of writing today from Housing Work's coffee house in Soho, but got sidetracked by other good coffee shops on the way.  But, I run for the fun of it (often going bandit in races), and give to the organizations that really I think are doing phenomenal work, such as Partners in Health, BRAC, and Nyaya Health.

I posted a comment on the social cause marketing post, and wanted to share it here as well:

 Thanks for compiling this list and urging readers to post comments.  In reading the list, I wondered how you were defining “most influential”.  Often you provided the amount of money raised by a campaign, but not the perhaps more telling follow up of how much of that money was actually given to the cause, once the administrative/overhead costs were accounted for.Cause marketing seems like a particularly inefficient way to directly donate money to causes, but can have great value in public health by increasing awareness levels, generating (informed) dialog, mobilizing action, and potentially as a result of these various activities, reducing stigma and/or increasing support for affected groups.Two quick notes about a campaign that you mentioned and one that I think should have been included:The Red Campaign—several have criticized the campaign as being mainly hype rather than resulting in meaningful donations to the global fund.   I most likely would not have included this on the list, as I find the products and the overall marketing strategy a bit removed from the problems that they profess to want to address.  For a short and rather tongue and cheek criticism, see this blog post on NYU development economist Bill Easterly’s site.(Not on your list but should be) Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing With Soap (2001)  Diarrheal disease is a huge cause of morbidity and mortality in the developing world.  Lack of awareness about the importance of washing one’s hands contributes significantly to its incidence (for example, at the time, only 4% of Ghanaians washed their hands regularly).  Proctor and Gamble developed a campaign that would change consumers behaviors—not by telling them about the risks of not washing one’s hands, but rather by doing was marketing does best—creating a situational response that could become habitualized (from NYT article: "The toilet cues worries of contamination, and that disgust, in turn, cues soap").  In 2007, almost 50% of adults regularly washed their hands before eating.  A nice example of how marketing can be very effective in helping promote behavioral change in areas where typical public health strategies fail.How do we apply the successful lessons of these campaigns to current issues, such as HIV prevention and obesity?