CRM worth £30m per year to charity sector

This is the first time that the corporate social responsibility body has attempted to assess the financial impact of CRM on charities.

BITC cause-related marketing director Sue Adkins says that even though this figure is impressive, it could be just 'the tip of the iceberg.'

She said this figure only relates to cash and equipment gained from around 50 partnerships. If the unmeasurable value of brand exposure is taken into account, this figure shoots up.

The research also gives a top ten run down of the best CRM partnerships, showing that the retail and certain areas of the FMCG market are the most involved.

Comic Relief's deal with Persil tops the list. Exposure on boxes of the washing powder was estimated to have been worth around £3.3m for the charity.

Others in the top ten include Breakthrough Breast Cancer's partnership with Avon, through which tens of thousands of Avon representatives distributed around 1.6 million 'kiss goodbye to breast cancer' cards.

Also listed were Help the Aged's partnership with British Gas and Breast Cancer Care's deal with Asda.

Adkins says that sectors she expects to become more involved in CRM are utilities, the motor industry and the financial sector.

These latest figures come ahead of a Charities Commission set of guidelines to be released next week on how best to handle commercial partnerships.

This is expected to mirror earlier guidelines unveiled by BITC four years ago. These urge both parties to clearly plan a partnership and be aware of its legal requirements.