Cause marketing isn’t new, but it continues to evolve. Today’s consumers—particularly Gen Z and millennial audiences—expect brands to take positions on social issues and demonstrate tangible impact. In exchange, they offer something increasingly rare: loyalty.
At Refuel Agency, we’ve been executing impactful cause marketing campaigns with nonprofits and brands for over 35 years, reaching the niche audiences other agencies struggle to access. According to Refuel’s Teen Explorer™ research, 75% of Gen Z teens are actively engaging in social issues, and 58% say they’re likely to try new brands that support causes like racial equality—with 63% willing to stay loyal to those brands. Cause marketing isn’t a trend; it’s a strategic imperative for brands targeting younger and multicultural audiences.
Here’s what cause marketing is, how it works, and how your brand can implement campaigns that drive measurable brand loyalty.
What is cause marketing?
Cause marketing is the collaboration between a for-profit business and a nonprofit organization to educate consumers, drive awareness for a cause, and create mutual benefit. For brands, it’s a mechanism to connect with audiences through shared values rather than product features alone.
The business case is straightforward: consumers increasingly expect brands to fill gaps where other institutions fall short. According to Refuel’s College Explorer™ research, 58% of college students say they’re likely to buy brands that support causes they care about, and 45% expect brands to support social causes—43% more likely than the general population to hold this expectation. Cause marketing gives brands a credible platform for that connection.
Types of cause marketing campaigns include:
- Charitable sales promotions, where a percentage of sales or a predetermined sum benefits a nonprofit
- Donations in lieu of employee or client gifts
- Challenge or match donation programs for employees and customers
- Donation drives and collection initiatives
- Point-of-sale “round up” promotions
- Employee-driven consumer donation requests
Related reading: The Top 8 Types of Cause Marketing Campaigns
Cause marketing is both big business and good for business
Cause marketing is both big business and good for business
The cause marketing sector has grown substantially over the past decade, with brands and nonprofits investing billions annually to reach consumers through purpose-driven partnerships.
Research consistently shows that cause alignment drives commercial outcomes. Consumers with emotional connections to brands demonstrate significantly higher lifetime value and are more likely to recommend those brands to others. Refuel’s own research supports this: among Gen Z teens, 66% say they’d remain loyal to brands supporting mental health causes, and 65% would stay loyal to brands supporting gender equality.
The switching behavior is equally notable—when another brand demonstrates stronger cause alignment, consumers are willing to move. This makes cause marketing both an acquisition and retention strategy.
Related reading:5 Cause Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in Your Next Campaign
What Are the Key Types and Synonyms of Cause-Based Marketing?
Cause marketing takes several forms depending on campaign objectives. Transactional models tie purchases directly to donations, useful for short-term sales activation. Promotional models focus on awareness and storytelling. Licensing or co-branded programs create ongoing funding streams for longer-term partnerships. You may also see this approach called purpose-driven marketing, cause-related marketing, or social impact marketing—the terminology varies, but the mechanism is consistent.
What Are the Top Benefits of Cause-Related Marketingfor Brands?
Cause-related marketing delivers measurable commercial benefits when structured correctly:
Brand Loyalty Lift: When campaigns align with customer values, repeat purchase rates increase. Refuel’s research shows 63% of Gen Z teens are likely to stay loyal to brands supporting racial equality, and 66% for mental health causes.
Trust and Reputation: Transparent impact reporting reduces consumer skepticism. This matters particularly for younger audiences who are 15 percentage points more likely than previous cohorts to actively engage with social issues.
Audience Expansion: Cause partnerships extend reach into nonprofit supporter networks. For brands targeting youth audiences through [experiential marketing campaigns](LINK TO EXPERIENTIAL PAGE), cause alignment amplifies peer-to-peer recommendations—a critical driver given that 41% of college students mention brands to friends and family after interacting with campus ambassadors.
Employee Engagement: Cause programs can improve recruitment and retention, particularly among younger employees who prioritize purpose-driven work.
The power of cause marketing to young people
Cause marketing to the general public drives awareness and social change. But cause marketing to young audiences is particularly powerful because it shapes the perceptions of the next generation—a generation that moves the needle on social change with their energy, advocacy, and fresh perspectives.
According to Refuel’s Teen Explorer™ research, 75% of Gen Z teens are actively engaging in social issues. They share opinions on social media (50%), volunteer in their communities (29%), and donate to nonprofits (27%). This isn’t passive awareness—it’s active participation.
The brand implications are concrete: 54% of Gen Z teens are likely to try new brands supporting racial equality, 58% for mental health, and 58% for gender equality. Perhaps more importantly, they’re willing to pay more for that alignment—56% would pay more for brands openly supporting gender equality, and 50% for brands supporting racial equality.
Strategically placing cause marketing campaigns where young people already spend time—social media, campus environments, and experiential activations—amplifies impact. At Refuel, we’ve been reaching young audiences with targeted media and marketing solutions for over 35 years, and cause marketing remains one of the most effective ways to build early brand loyalty.
Read next:The Ultimate Guide to Marketing to Gen Z
What do cause marketing campaigns look like?
Cause marketing is so integrated into modern marketing that it often blends into the background. But the most effective campaigns create lasting brand associations.
The first formal cause marketing campaign launched in 1976 through a partnership between Marriott Corporation and March of Dimes. March of Dimes sought to increase fundraising for its Western U.S. chapters; Marriott wanted cost-effective PR for the opening of their family entertainment complex in Santa Clara, California. Both organizations achieved their goals—and established a model that brands have refined for nearly 50 years.
Here are three examples that demonstrate different approaches:
Team World Vision: World Vision
In 2005, World Vision’s National Director Michael Chitwood channeled his love of running marathons towards the fight for clean water by founding Team World Vision. Team World Vision is a national team of distance runners that fundraise for clean water while they train to run in the nation’s largest marathons or half marathons.
Real Beauty: Dove and Unilever
Dove performed a study that found that only 2% of women consider themselves to be beautiful. With these results in hand, they partnered with Unilever to launch the “Campaign for Real Beauty” to address our unattainable definition of modern beauty. Since the brand launched the campaign in 2004, sales have increased over 60%.
And during the pandemic, Dove pivoted this long-running campaign to spotlight healthcare workers with marks from wearing masks all day, with the tagline, “Courage is Beautiful”.
One for One: TOMS Shoes
The “buy one give one” model is a popular one in cause-related marketing, and TOMS leveraged this model in the hugely popular “One for One” campaign. This campaign launched back in 2011, with each TOMS purchase prompting a donation to a child living in poverty.
How Do You Measure the ROI and Impact of Cause Marketing Campaigns?
Measuring cause marketing ROI requires tracking both social impact metrics (units served, funds disbursed, people reached) and business KPIs (customer lifetime value, conversion rates, retention, lead volume).
The recommended approach combines experimental design—such as holdout groups to isolate campaign effects—with partner-channel attribution. Define KPIs before launch and build dashboards that report short-term acquisition metrics alongside longer-term value indicators.
For customer lifetime value specifically, use cohort analysis that isolates customers acquired or reactivated through cause campaigns and compare their behavior against a control group over defined windows. If the campaign cohort shows higher LTV and repeat-purchase rates, you can attribute incremental revenue to the cause investment.
Operational best practices include establishing data-sharing agreements with nonprofit partners, automating impact reporting, and publishing impact summaries in campaign assets. Integration of impact metrics into business dashboards ensures leadership sees social outcomes and commercial KPIs together.
What Metrics Demonstrate Cause Marketing’s Effect on Customer Lifetime Valueand Conversion?
How Can Marketers Track and Report Social Impact Effectively?
How Are Gen Z and Millennials Shaping Cause MarketingExpectations?
Younger consumers prioritize authenticity, transparency, and tangible outcomes. They expect brands to demonstrate measurable impact rather than vague pledges and prefer participation opportunities over passive donations.
Refuel’s research quantifies this expectation: 75% of Gen Z teens are actively engaging in social issues, up 15 percentage points from previous measurements. They’re not waiting for brands to lead—they’re already involved and evaluating whether brands are genuine partners or opportunistic marketers.
Tactics that resonate with these cohorts include user-generated storytelling, micro-donations integrated with social commerce, and interactive experiences that show the direct effect of participation. Channel preferences skew toward short-form social video (49% of teens pay attention to social media ads) and peer networks. For college audiences, campus activations and ambassador programs drive both awareness and peer-to-peer recommendations.
Multicultural segments require additional consideration. Hispanic millennials, for example, are 13% more likely than total Hispanics to try brands supporting causes they care about, and bicultural Hispanics over-index on cause-driven brand trial compared to unacculturated and acculturated segments.
What Future Innovations Will Drive Social Impact Marketing?
- Next steps: Identify your primary businessobjective for a cause campaign(LTV, lead generation, or brand lift).
- Pilot approach: Run a short, measurable pilot with clear KPIs and a vetted partner.
- Scale: Use verified outcomes and audience signals to expand channels and deepen partnerships.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the common challenges brands face when implementing cause-based marketing?
How can small businesseseffectively engage in cause-based marketing?
What role does social mediaplay in cause-based marketing campaigns?
How can brands ensure their cause marketingefforts are sustainable?
What are some effective ways to measure the success of cause-based marketing campaigns?
How can brands communicate their cause marketingefforts to consumers effectively?
Cause marketing delivers measurable brand loyalty and customer trust when structured around authentic alignment and transparent impact reporting. For brands targeting Gen Z, college, and multicultural audiences—segments where cause alignment directly influences purchase behavior and brand loyalty—the strategic case is clear.
The key is execution: selecting the right nonprofit partners, building measurement infrastructure before launch, and placing campaigns where your target audience already engages. For younger audiences, that means social media advertising, experiential campus activations, and peer-driven storytelling.
Looking to refuel your cause marketing campaigns? Explore our cause marketing portfolio and contact us to receive a custom media plan for targeted impact.