How to Integrate Nonprofit Partnerships into Brand Experiences

On National Nonprofit Day, we highlight and celebrate the organizations that are giving back to the community and making the world a better place.

Nonprofit organizations are only able to give back and make a difference through donations and volunteer efforts from both individuals and businesses. Nonprofit missions require others to be on board and actively supporting the cause to be realized.

Where Purpose and Experience Meet

For brands, supporting nonprofits isn’t just a nice thing to do—it can also help boost customer sentiment, strengthen customer loyalty and favor, and improve overall brand image. Integrating a nonprofit partnership or support within brand experiences can be a simple, yet powerful way to accomplish this aim. 

For example, the Spiro team launched a challenge at Exhibitor Live—the #EXLSPIROCHALLENGE. Any visitors that spun the hula hoop for 30 seconds or more got bragging rights and a donation to OneTreePlanted in their honor: 

Ways to Make a Difference at Your Brand Experience

Supporting a nonprofit organization can be simple and straightforward. Here are a few ideas for integrating these impactful efforts at your next brand activation or event, and how to invite people into the process to make your support more dynamic:

1. Offer a challenge. Take a nod from the Spiro team and offer your attendees and customers a challenge in which winners are promised a donation in their honor.

2. Build an activity. Offer visitors the opportunity to create or organize a needed resource for a nonprofit, such as a bag of toiletry essentials for a homeless shelter or pet care kits for an animal rescue.

3. Embrace storytelling. Create a display or integrate into an event program or other collateral the nonprofit partner is aligned with—and how that partnership is making a difference. Highlight an emotional story or integrate an element of your experience’s theme into the narrative.

4. Be the connector. If you’re giving donations, let your customers choose from a few options on which nonprofit to support. You can also provide a narrative and information, which could drum up additional support.

5. Integrate impact. Ask a sustainability-focused nonprofit to audit your brand experience’s footprint and offer ways you can reduce it— then integrate those changes into your story and immersive offering for all to see.

Go forth and partner.

Get started on your journey to make a difference by considering this list of nonprofit organizations across missions and solutions.

United States-based Organizations

• American Humane: An organization founded in 1877 that ensures the safety, welfare, and well-being of animals.
• Cancer Research Institute: An organization leading immunotherapy research and clinical trials to find revolutionary breakthroughs to cure all types of cancer.
• Color of Change: The largest online racial justice organization within the U.S.
• Scholarship America: An organization working directly with students, parents, colleges, businesses, and communities to help people fulfill their college dreams and equalize access to learning and growth opportunities.
• The Alzheimer’s Association: An organization accelerating global research and driving early detection and risk reduction as ways to end Alzheimer’s and other dementia.
• To Write Love on Her Arms: An organization and movement dedicated to helping find hope and help for those struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicidal thoughts.
• Mental Health America: The leading U.S. community-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing needs of individuals living with mental illness—and promoting overall mental well-being.

Global Nonprofit Organizations

• World Resources Institute: An organization focused on education and resources that move communities to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment.
• Global Fund for Women: An organization supporting gender justice movements and creating meaningful change through grants, advocacy, and grassroots movements.
• charity: water: An organization dedicated to securing clean drinking water for communities around the world.
• Rainforest Trust: An organization saving endangered wildlife and protecting the planet through creating rainforest reserves.
• The Trevor Project: The world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people.
• OneTreePlanted: An organization focused on global reforestation.

What nonprofits would you add to the lists above?