Things to Consider When Teaming Up With Charities


By Katie Marcus

An old and effective method of marketing has to do with teaming up with a charity of some kind. Businesses do this because it can easily help improve their image, and help them improve their community.

People like to feel that a company is doing their part to make the world a little better, and finding the right charity can do wonders to help boost up your image in this area. One of the most important parts of marketing is creating positive attitudes towards your company.

However, what kind of charity do you pick? The decision is going to have an impact on how people view you, and while helping out any charity is nice, you might not get the marketing results you were hoping for.

If you are a local business, you automatically have the playing field narrowed a little more. You will certainly want to look at some kind of local charity that does good things in the community, but once again, you still have to know just whom you should go for.

If you can find a charity that is associated with your particular business than that is the best way to go. Maybe you are a clothing store and you start up a relationship with a charity aimed at giving clothing to poor families. Maybe a grocery store will help out a canned food drive.

Do not allow this to make you think that the charity has to be connected to your business. You might just work in an industry that does not really lend itself well to one charity or another. Helping out any organization will be good for marketing, so find whomever you want to support, and whom you can provide the most help to.

How you market your connection with the charity is also going to be different depending on the situation. You might get some brochure printing done specifically for the charity with your name and logo on each of them. The primary purpose of the brochures will be to advertise the charity itself with your name only in smaller print in the corner.

Another way is to get brochures printed, but focus instead on how you are helping them. Maybe you will match every can of food donated, and you mention this in flyers you hand out yourself.

I cannot give any right or wrong way to go about this, only to say that you have to be sure that you draw a strong connection between your company and the charity as quickly as you can. You will not see any improvement to your image if no one is aware of the fact that you are even helping the charity out.

Big or small, at least look into the possibilities of teaming up with a charitable organization for your company. You do not have to directly promote your store to have some very effective marketing. You just have to become in alliance with charity works. Furthermore, do not gloat about the fact but use the information as a means to communicate about the charitable activities your business will be doing to the people. I am sure you can find a charity that will work well for you.


More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More PR Information:

Related Articles


Sure-Fire Recipe for a Successful Public Relations Career
Without a solid, well-designed foundation, few buildingssuccessfully withstand the ravages of time and weather. And so it is with public relations, ever-dependent upon how well its practitioners understand the discipline.
What to Do When the Reporter Calls: Five Tips for New (and not-so-new) Business Owners
New business owners often miss out on publicity opportunities because they think it's a nuisance to talk to reporters. In fact, publicity can be far more valuable than advertising.
Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Join Your Professional Organization to Get Free Publicity
Unlike some professionals like lawyers and doctors, financial planners aren't required to be members of a professional association.However, if you want to take advantage of a great way to get free publicity, you marketing-minding financial professionals will join an association like the Financial Planning Association or the Society of Financial Service Professionals.
The Press Pack Is Chasing You - Give Them Room
There's good news for public relations execs, marketingprofessionals and even one-man-band entrepreneurs: journalistsare surfing your sites looking for news.It's true - while some PR people spend months trying to win overcynical reporters in order to wrangle a company profile or CEOinterview (and get nowhere), an army of journalists areproactively hunting for facts, figures and interview candidates.
Get PR Off the Bench
Something that results in your most important outside audiences doing what you need them to do should not be warming the bench.But that's exactly what's happening at organizations that allow their public relations people to play games with tactics like newsletters, press releases and brochures instead of aggressively pursuing the major benefits PR can provide.
3 Reasons to Tap into the Power of Publicity
Publicity is obtaining editorial coverage or features for your business. Publicity is getting your business reported as news.
Competition in the News Creates Spin
In larger cities with many outlets they are competing for more news that other outlets cannot get as fast. "THE SCOOP" and also the spin, this spin thing is so that articles can cater to the readership or so they say.
Publicity: Show a Reporter You Care by Inviting Them to Fact-Check
Just like a financial planning client fears not having enough money for retirement, reporters fear getting their facts wrong in print.Inaccuracy isn't tolerated in newspapers or magazines.
5 Critical Tests Every Press Release Must Pass
You've heard "them" say it, haven't you?By "them" I mean the experts. The teachers.
Publicity: A Financial Planners Best Marketing Friend
There's an old African proverb:"If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito."There's a message here for financial planners who want to get free publicity exposure, and use it as a smart marketing tool to grow their practice.
Rise of the Creative Class
The fast changing dynamics of the world economy is forcing organizations to fundamentally rethink the manner in which they have been communicating with their constituent communities and decision-makers. It is constantly being proven that conventional communication approaches that are designed to raise public awareness may often have the opposite effects of those intended.
How To Use PR To Build Your Business
Everyone knows the value of free publicity. And given the opportunity, most businesses would jump at the chance to have a news article written about them, or to be covered by TV and radio stations.
How To Get Zero Cost Publicity For Your Business Part 2
This is the ending to my previous article, How to get no cost publicity for your business. Some other options include signature files, joint ventures, free for all links, informational articles, webrings, and giveaways.
Dont Pay for Radio Interviews
It used to be that all you had to do was pitch a great idea with a clever hook, and you'd be booked as a guest on a half-hour radio show.These days, however, hang onto your wallet.
The Story The Media Really Wants
If you're like most of my clients, you're probably interested in getting the media to cover the success of your business. These "business success stories" can be used for future marketing efforts -- including reprints of the story in your marketing materials or on your Web site, or framing the article and hanging it in your office.
Public Relations Strategies: Focus PR Campaigns with Media Coverage Analysis
Prior to launching a new public relations campaign, evaluate the media coverage you've gained and dig deep into the coverage your competition has received.One of the first steps in defining a public relations strategy is to understand how you and your competition stack up in terms of media coverage.
Achieve Media Attention for Your Business
Do you want to be quoted by the national press on a daily basis? (How much would that be worth to your business?)In the past six months, I've been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, Entrepreneur, The Associated Press, PBS, Voice of America, Family Circle, Glamour, Redbook, Self, Health, Prevention, Parents, Parenting, Women's World, First for Women, Newsday, Newsweek, Salon, In Touch Weekly--and even The National Enquirer.In fact, I've been quoted in over 100 prestigious U.
All You Need to Know About Press Release Writing and Distribution
Before you even think about writing a press release, there are a few things you need to know about the media. Here's the first - and most important - of them:1.
Mastering the Media
What do Monica Lewinsky, Shoshanna Lowenstein, and even Richard Hatch have in common? Media exposure. They were ordinary people who became household names.
Possibilities Of The Blogosphere For The PR Industry In Spanish-Speaking Countries
Only two media in Spanish speaking countries offer RSS: the Spanish newspaper El Mundo and the Argentine Clarín. Although the blogs are becoming more visible in the media and are becoming a research topic, still they are something of small "evangelist groups", who promote its use? but this can change in little time.