Emma Vik | Senior Strategist
A few weeks ago, I had the chance to attend St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s annual Partner Summit. It’s a gathering of all their corporate partners, brands big and small, who come together to share ideas, celebrate their impact, and brainstorm new ways to support the collective mission of saving children’s lives from catastrophic cancers and diseases.
As a brand strategist and a sociologist in a time of social upheaval and system shifts, it got me thinking: St. Jude does cause marketing differently, and there is a lot that brands and consumers alike can learn from their approach beyond fundraising strategy. For them, it’s not just about raising money. It’s about building deep, emotional, human connections that last, on a brand level and on a human level. If you’re a brand or nonprofit wondering how to better connect with audiences through purpose-driven work, St. Jude is one of the best models out there to learn from right now.
Here are a few reasons why.
- They start small, then scale.
Many of St. Jude’s most successful partnerships — HomeGoods, Carnival Cruises, and Five Below — started small. Think: employee fundraisers, pin-up campaigns at retail locations, or local Walk events to raise money as a company and as a community. Over time, as trust and belief in the mission grows, so does the partnership and the opportunities for raising money and awareness. - They create emotional turning points.
It’s one thing to read about a cause. It’s another thing to walk the halls of St. Jude, meet families, and see the impact up close. For many corporate partners, a visit to campus in Memphis is the moment everything “clicks.” Those emotional experiences turn corporate partnerships into personal ones. - They align St. Jude’s mission with the brand’s mission.
St. Jude doesn’t just ask for donations. They work hard to understand a partner’s brand pillars and find a shared space where both missions can shine. It’s not about slapping a logo on a checkout screen — it’s about co-creating stories that feel true for everyone involved, from frontline employees all the way up to the C-Suite.
Ultimately, I think Ben Finzel, president of RENEWPR, explains St. Jude’s corporate fundraising strategy best, “[Social action and participation] is not about being popular or being performative, it’s about being focused on what is core to the business and its key stakeholders” (Axios).
Sociology Snapshot: Why People and Groups Connect to Causes
If you zoom out, what St. Jude is doing taps into some basic human truths:
- We want to feel like we belong.
- We are wired for empathy.
- We build loyalty through shared stories and values.
When cause marketing taps into these basic instincts, it stops feeling like marketing and starts feeling like community building and belonging. That’s why storytelling matters. That’s why emotional moments matter. And that’s why stories are remembered up to 22 times more often than facts alone (Stanford).
The St. Jude Playbook: 5 Big Lessons for Brands and Nonprofits
- Make it easy to say yes. Turnkey programs with simple on-ramps help partners get started.
- Create emotional connections. Whether it’s a campus visit or a virtual event to talk about your organization’s “why”, emotional storytelling and personal experiences change everything.
- Align missions from day one. Find the true overlap between your brand’s values and the cause you’re supporting.
- Stay flexible and customize. Not every partner needs the same activation. Tailored ideas work better and oftentimes feel more authentic.
- Build for the long term. Year-round storytelling will develop a deeper, more lasting connection than “one and done” efforts.
How broadhead Can Help Build Your Cause Marketing Strategy
At broadhead, we believe that cause marketing isn’t just good for the world — it’s smart business, too. Especially at a time when 60% of consumers buy, choose, or avoid brands based on their politics, gathering around unified causes can be a breath of fresh air (Edelman).
Our team knows how to help brands and nonprofits:
- Understand audience motivations.
- Identify authentic cause alignments.
- Build storytelling frameworks that drive both emotional impact and business results.
My Final Thought
Yes, fundraising is the end goal of many cause marketing efforts, but St. Jude proves why it’s so much more than monetary currency that matters. Marketing for a cause means storytelling, community building, and creating a currency of hope for those who need it most.