Cause Can Often Outweigh Marketing

To the Editor:

“Cashing In on Charity’s Good Name” (July 30) only partially represents the interests of sponsors involved in “cause marketing.” Over the years, we have found that the bedrock motivation of our corporate sponsors is their sincere desire to positively affect the lives of the 12 million children and their families served by our 170 affiliated children’s hospitals.

We are honored to have corporate partners who feel that if they can make a difference in their communities, they will. How else can one explain the $131-million that Wal-Mart has contributed through Children’s Miracle Network over the past decade, and its continuing commitment to contribute more than $30-million each year to our affiliated children’s hospitals? This is a company with heart, as is the case with all our sponsors.

Moreover, our sponsors have a long-term relationship with the cause. Seventy per cent of our corporate partners have been with us for more than five years, and many longer than 10 years. This is fairly respectable for a charity founded only 16 years ago. Our sponsors feel that they have a trusted role in their communities: to increase their support of children’s hospitals over the years ahead.

We consider it good form to reciprocate the generosity of our corporate partners. In doing so, we work with our sponsors to develop promotion-marketing opportunities, build brand loyalty, enhance image through media campaigns, and create effective programs that foster employee pride, among other things.

To be sure, all of these have a relationship to a sponsor’s bottom line, but they are secondary motivations only. The opportunity to save the life of a child is primary.

Mick Shannon
President Children’s Miracle Network
Salt Lake City