Integrated Marketing for Charitable Partnerships Across 260+ Stores
Summary
As Cause Marketing Specialist at Build-A-Bear Foundation, I was the day-to-day contact for every nonprofit and international charity partner running donation campaigns across 260+ store locations in the US, Canada, and the UK. That meant weekly partner calls, creative directing in-store signage and social assets through approval processes, coordinating with Store Ops to keep campaigns running at the store level, and separately, coordinating weekly in-store Make-A-Wish visits with local teams throughout the year. By finding and testing new in-store activation approaches, I helped drive a 25% annual increase in fundraising totals across our charitable partners.
The Challenge
Build-A-Bear was running multiple seasonal charitable campaigns at the same time across hundreds of stores, with different partners, different creative needs, different approval timelines, and hundreds of store teams executing on the ground. The campaigns needed a consistent point of contact who could keep partners happy, keep stores informed, and actually move the fundraising numbers. Not just keep the machine running.
Objectives
Primary objective: Keep seven major charitable partners well-supported and running productive campaigns across 260+ locations while finding ways to improve what we were actually raising.
Key goals:
Be the reliable day-to-day contact every partner could count on
Creative direct in-store and social assets through partner approval processes
Keep Store Ops equipped and informed at the store level
Test and implement new activation ideas that drove better fundraising results
Strategy
The job had two sides. The relationship side, keeping seven partners feeling supported, communicated with, and like someone was actually paying attention. And the activation side, making sure what we were running in stores was engaging customers and driving donations rather than just sitting near the register.
The 25% fundraising increase didn't come from one big idea. It came from paying close attention to what wasn't working, trying new things in-store, and rolling out what performed. You can't do that without having good relationships with both the partners and the store teams at the same time. That was the whole job.
Role & Execution
I was the primary point of contact for seven partners: Toys for Tots, Save the Children, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Petfinder Foundation, Barnardo's UK, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada. Weekly calls with each one to manage timelines, work through creative approvals, and stay on top of anything coming up.
On the creative side I directed in-store signage and social assets for each campaign, managing the back and forth between our internal teams and the partner organizations to make sure everything was on brand and approved on time.
For Store Ops, I made sure every location had what it needed to actually execute. The right assets, the right direction, enough context to not have to guess. 260+ stores across three countries means a lot of variables and a lot of people who need clear, consistent communication.
The Make-A-Wish piece was separate from the seasonal campaigns. I coordinated weekly in-store visits with local store teams throughout the year, helping facilitate wish experiences for kids directly in Build-A-Bear locations on an ongoing basis.
The new activation programs I developed and tested were what moved the fundraising numbers. I looked at where customer participation was falling flat, tried different approaches, and implemented what worked. That's where the 25% increase came from.
Results
25% Annual increase in fundraising totals for charitable partners
260+ Store locations running coordinated campaigns across US, Canada, and UK
7 Major nonprofit and international charity partners managed simultaneously
Weekly Make-A-Wish in-store visits coordinated year-round
Key Learnings
Nonprofit partners need the same thing every good client relationship needs. Someone who shows up consistently, not just when there's a problem. Running weekly calls, staying on top of timelines, and making the creative approval process feel easy rather than painful builds the kind of trust where partners will actually tell you when something isn't working. That's what made the activation improvements possible. You can't fix what people aren't willing to tell you about.
