Cabello by AFNOC is an award winning commercial was the result of a partnership between the band My Chemical Romance and the Spanish-Catatlan organization AFNOC – La Associació de Nens amb Càncer (The Kids with Cancer Association)

Art inspires. Music moves. NPOs educate and achieve results through action.

Cause Marketing (CM) between an artist and a NPO, is a strategy that produces a win-win situation for both parties. CM is a partnership between a business and a non-profit organization for the purposes having positive, transformational social change on a specific issue.

CM is a hot trend that businesses are embracing as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

So, who can small NPOs seek out as cause marketing partners?

The answer is:  an emerging artist.

Up and coming artists are eager to grow their identity and gain exposure through collaborative partnerships. They can make appearances at fundraising events, conduct third party fundraisers, provide visuals or soundtracks to marketing communication materials and promote a NPOs cause through their fan base. All of these initiatives can result in substantial fundraising and cost savings for NPOs.

Singers, musicians and bands are best approached through their manager. Visual and performing artists are best approached directly. An approach should be basically be a proposal that an artist can simply say “yes or no” to; generally, it should start with a simple project as larger collaborations will grow with time. The proposal should include information about how your organization can promote them. Examples include: creating a page for them on your website, promoting them amoung your clients or other donors, mentioning them on press releases, inviting them to your events, etc.

As Canadian cities becoming increasingly diverse, seek out artists in various genres is also becoming increasingly important.

Cause Marketing is powerful and fun; it’s a strategy NPOs should include as part of their long term growth plan.

AFNOC homepage is http://www.afanoc.org