Cause Marketing Editing and Proofreading Services

Cause marketing asks a customer to feel that buying something is also doing some good, and the arithmetic behind that feeling is almost never disclosed. A pink lid, a wristband, a percentage of profits, a pledge to plant a tree — each is a claim about money moving, and the amount is frequently a fraction of what the customer assumes and a fraction of what was spent promoting the partnership. Regulators in several markets have taken an interest, journalists reliably do, and the charity partner carries reputational risk it did not price.

We edit what brands, agencies and charity partners produce — cause partnership announcements and campaign copy, on-pack and point-of-sale donation claims, commercial participator statements and required disclosures, partnership agreements and their public summaries, donation mechanics and cap explanations, impact reporting on what the partnership delivered, employee fundraising and matched giving communications, corporate social responsibility and sustainability claims, charity partner due diligence documentation, campaign evaluation and reporting to the charity, and internal guidance for teams making cause-related claims. Our editors check that the claim on the pack matches the money in the agreement.

The donation claim is where these campaigns are honest or are not, and vagueness is nearly always deliberate. "A portion of proceeds", "we donate from every sale", "supporting the fight against" — each conveys generosity while committing to nothing checkable. We rewrite these so the amount is stated per unit in money rather than as a percentage of an unspecified base, since a percentage of profit is uncheckable and a percentage of price is not; so any cap or minimum is disclosed where the claim appears rather than in terms elsewhere, because a campaign that has already reached its cap and is still running the message is the version that becomes a story; so the period is stated; and so the charity is named with what the money funds. Where the honest number is small, we say so plainly — 10p from a £4 product is 10p, and stating it alongside what 10p buys is more persuasive than a vague claim a customer will assume is larger and then feel misled about. Brands resist this and the ones that do it are not the ones being written about.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including partnership terms and campaigns before launch. We are editors rather than legal, regulatory or fundraising advisers, and we offer no view on charity law, commercial participator requirements or advertising rules in your jurisdiction. What we can do is make the claim clear and consistent with the agreement behind it.