NPO-Business Collaboration: Creating legitimacy through Cause-Related-Marketing (CRM)

Debra Z. Basil, PhD, is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Lethbridge. Her research focuses generally on issues that benefit society, with a particular focus on cause-related marketing. She co-founded the Centre for Socially Responsible Marketing at the University of Lethbridge, and has published numerous research articles in outlets such as the Journal of Business Ethics, the Journal of Business Research, and the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Mary S. Runté, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Policy and Strategy at the University of Lethbridge. Her research focuses on non-profit organizations and issues of equity. Prior to earning her doctorate, Mary worked with non-profit organizations for 13 years, serving a variety of managerial roles. She is the Director of Social Responsibility at the University of Lethbridge. She has published numerous articles in outlets such as the Journal of Business Ethics, the Human Relations, and Journal of Qualitative Methods.  


Consumers are increasingly expecting companies to practice social responsibility; companies are seeking to satisfy this consumer expectation, and not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) are seeking funds. Forming a partnership whereby the company gains positive public exposure and the nonprofit gains much needed funding would seem to be a natural solution for all parties. Such partnerships, called cause-related marketing partnerships (CRM), are becoming increasingly common. These partnerships have primarily been examined from the consumer perspective, and to a lesser extent from the business perspective. Our research approaches the issue from the less understood perspective of the NPO.

We use a mixed-methods approach to examine the implications of CRM from the NFPs perspective. First, semi-structured interviews of ten key informants from NPOs in the United States were conducted. There were obvious financial benefits gained from these partnerships, however many of the benefits NPOs receive from these partnerships are less tangible. These were examined using the framework of legitimacy.

Next, an on-line survey was conducted with nearly 900 NPO executives from randomly selected not-for-profit organizations in the USA and Canada. For those who had previously participated in CRM, key components of alliance success were examined. For those who had not previously participated in CRM, their perceptions of and future plans for CRM were queried. Our results provide a variety of insights into these increasingly popular partnerships.