This research examined the impact of the choice of the corporate cause-related marketing partner the nonprofit's brand personality as well as consumers' perceptions of the nonprofit when participating in cause-related marketing campaigns. A field experiment was conducted with 433 participants using different for-profit partners in a cause-related marketing campaign I developed. Dependent measures included brand personality type and attitude toward the nonprofit. Results showed that consumers' perceptions of the nonprofit brand personality do move in the direction of the brand personality of the corporate partner. However, results also showed that the consumer's perception of the nonprofit was not enhanced when participating in a cause-related marketing campaign.

Keywords: cause-related marketing, nonprofits, brand personality, nonprofit brand personality