gifting

Cause Marketing And
The Gratitude Business Model.
What If You, The Merchant,
Took Resonsibility For
Helping A Cause?

CAUSE MARKETING BACKGROUND
The term cause marketing is not new. It is a term which refers to a for-profit company working with or on behalf of a non-profit outfit for the benefit of both. Most popular is the business model where a percentage of the proceeds of a product sale, an event ticket or a fundraiser will be given to a non-profit organization that then gifts a particular group with proceeds, products or services. Then, we have the newer model, the gratitude model: where the for-profit merchant
charges a higher amount per item with the promise and guarantee
to gift one item akin to the purchased item to a child or adult in need.

QUESTION

What if each merchant had a special pair of shoes, t-shirt, dress, camping tent, winter jacket, plate of rice and veggies, fan, sun screen, bug repellant that had the higher than market value price sticker on it; and each of us who "could"
would deliberately purchase an item knowing it would trigger a like gift?

IMPACTFUL ANSWER

We could make an immediate difference on a long-term basis.
We would change our habit from
BEFORE: looking for the least expensive item to
AFTER: choosing the most effective buy value with socio-economic impact.

RESULT

This could be a driver in creating more global responsibility.
The new normal? What do you think?

EXAMPLES OF THE GRATITUDE MODEL

Tom's Shoes has been giving one pair of shoes for every purchase since 2006.
Cafe Gratitude L.A. offers one rice/veggie dish priced at whatever you can pay.

CONCLUSION

Many of us are willing to pay an extra amount of money for an item, as long as the work (researching who to give the money to) and the donation and its administration is done for us. We even welcome it when companies
take over our responsibility to give back.

I, personally, would be more apt to purchase from
A COMPANY THAT GIVES BACK ONE FOR ONE. Wouldn't you?

GRATITUDE MARKETPLACE

Watch for the Grand Opening Of Gratitude Marketplace,
a directory of businesses that use the new gratitude model of giving.
Opening Soon. LISTING YOUR BUSINESS IS FREE! Watch this page for details.