Cause-Related Shopping
By: Carolyn Cavicchio, 02/27/04

Most Americans start the new year with credit card debt accumulated during the holiday gift-giving season.  While economists may bemoan the indebtedness of the American consumer, there's one bright note to our spendthrift ways - a majority of Americans are now shopping with an eye to supporting social causes.

Boston-based Cone, Inc. has been tracking industry trends and consumer, employee and corporate attitudes towards cause-related marketing for the past 15 years.  Cone's most recent research, the 2003 Cone Holiday Trend Tracker, has some interesting data regarding current consumer shopping behavior.

For the 2003 holiday season, 71 percent of consumers said they were likely to consider a company's reputation for supporting causes when purchasing gifts. This figure represents an 11 percent increase over last year.

Among the 93 percent of Americans who planned to engage in charitable acts during the 2003 holiday season, cause-related purchasing actions were the second- and third-most popular activities planned, complementing traditional charitable efforts:

1. Donate personal belongings - 77%
2. Purchase a product in which a percentage of the price is donated to a cause - 60%
3. Buy from a retailer that supports a cause - 55%
4. Write a check to support a cause or charity - 53%
5. Volunteer - 42%
6. Go to a fundraising event - 30%

Women were overwhelmingly more supportive than men of cause-related shopping during the holiday season.
- More than three-fourths of women (77%) were likely to consider a company's reputation for supporting causes when purchasing gifts, compared to 64 percent of men.
- Nearly two-thirds of female shoppers (65%) said they planned to purchase a product in which a percentage of the price is donated to a cause, compared to 54 percent of male consumers.
- Women were also more likely to buy holiday gifts from retailers that support social issues (60% vs. 49%).

The 2003 Cone Holiday Trend Tracker was conducted via telephone interviews from November 7-10, 2003 and included a national cross-section of 1,027 adults. It was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation International and has an error margin of +/- three percentage points.  For more information, go to http://www.coneinc.com/.

About The Author:

Carolyn C. Cavicchio is President of the Philanthropy Division of Changing Our World, Inc., a national philanthropic and fundraising consulting firm helping leading nonprofits and corporate philanthropists to achieve their goals.

You may contact the author at: ccavicchio@changingourworld.com