Community Connections

As a small business owner, giving back to the community is essential. The needs of nonprofits overwhelm our garden center advertising and donation budgets. Cause marketing is fantastic at supporting our community while promoting the garden center — a win-win for everyone. In a cause marketing campaign, we partner with an organization to raise money and awareness of a community need.

The partnership creates goodwill for the company that is priceless. It allows us to compete head-to-head with box store outlets that deploy much larger advertising budgets. Cause marketing increases our brand strength, customer base and employee relationships.

We use several techniques. Here are the ideas that work.

Donate a percentage of sales

Prescott, Arizona, lost 19 firefighters in a horrible wildfire accident, the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire. The town still grieves. We donated the profits from Firefighter Roses sold that year to support our community. It created tremendous goodwill for the garden center, helped our staff process the loss better and showed our community we were with them — a win-win-win for everyone.

Get involved in a celebrity event

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Arizona hosted the seventh annual “Dancing For The Stars” fundraiser in August 2023. Community leaders volunteer to use their influence to raise money for the clubs and dance in the largest auditorium in town. Professional dancers partner with community leaders for a star-studded performance by local talent. The event raised a total of $469,000, with nine couples competing in a series of dances over two nights of dancing. The goodwill created by the event is incalculable; the clubs raised enough money to fund more than 60% of their annual budget. Customers are excited to see “their” garden center represented on stage. It's a win-win-win for everyone.

Host an event

In September, the garden center partners with the Prescott Frontier Rotary Club to host an after-hour garden party, “Grapes 4 Good.” The Rotary Club sells $80 tickets to the event and offers VIP parking for event sponsors and silent auction items for an animated live auction. Three hundred people attended the event and raised $124,000 for local school programs. Rotary members did most of the work, with promotional, advertising and ticket sales help from the garden center. Because we host the event, we receive the goodwill created by all the positivity in the community. It's a win-win-win for the garden center, the Rotary Club and the nonprofits the funds support.

Offer a matching gift

We encourage customers to donate to a nonprofit at the register, and the garden center matches their donations more significantly. We created a donation SKU in our POS system that names the nonprofit on their Watters Garden Center receipt. Our customers feel good about “their” garden center, and the nonprofit receives a sizable gift. It's a win-win-win for the garden center, our customers and the nonprofit.

Benefits of cause marketing

Enhanced reputation is the key benefit. Watters Garden Center is a socially responsible company. Customers trust us and take ownership of “their” garden center. They are proud to talk about us to friends and family.

We also see improved employee morale. When employees feel part of something big in the community, they are more engaged with customers, their community and work.

Of course, there is also increased brand awareness. By partnering with a nonprofit, our brand is associated with a cause customers care about, generating positive feelings about “their” garden center.

All of it leads to increased sales. Customers see our commitment to giving back and shop more often with us.

Finally, and most importantly, our community is better. We give more than money. When Watters Garden Center gets involved in a community project, the company provides energy, talent, advertising acumen, company goodwill and a hefty donation, making our community a better place to live.

Cause marketing elevates our company, encourages customers to get involved in the community and improves a nonprofit's ability to make a difference. There are many different ways to do cause marketing. Find one that matches your company's personality and make a difference. It's truly a win-win-win for everyone.

Ken Lain is president of Watters Garden Center in Prescott, Arizona.