An increasing number of companies are becoming interested in corporate social responsibility. The government is withdrawing further and further from the social system and the economic tide is low. As a result, charities must ambitiously search for new ways to obtain funds and the business sector is an important target group.

With corporate social responsibility, a company links itself to, for example, a good cause in order to market itself, a brand, a product or a service. Corporate social responsibility distinguishes itself from sponsoring or pure charity, because the company’s intention is to gain an explicit marketing advantage from the cooperation.

Research has shown that consumers place high value on the relationship between a company, brand, product or service and a good cause. Almost half of the Dutch population think that a company which sponsors a good cause is a company with which you can be seen to associate yourself. 40% of the Dutch population have a more positive opinion of such companies.

The cooperation between a company and a good cause can consist of donating a percentage of the turnover to the good cause, but can also take the form of the transfer of goods, services or knowledge.