Joe Waters at Selfish Giving offers an example of dealing with this at a hospital event sponsored by Pepsi. The solution wasn't to completely drop Pepsi, but to find ways to minimize the potentially offensive components (in this case they stopped handing out Pepsi to kids and started handing out flavored water). Waters argues that while it's a tricky balance, there are only so many "perfect" corporate partners out there. Sometimes it's necessary to partner with a less than perfect corporate partner in order to further a nonprofit's good work.

While I bristle at that, it does jive. People will find something wrong with every potential corporate partner. The key is to find the positives, like focusing on Pepsi's healthier products. Though partnering with any company that comes along isn't the best plan either.

This all underlines the importance of forging cause marketing partnerships that make sense. Pairing a manufacturer who solely focuses on unhealthy products with a healthy lifestyle nonprofit isn't the best plan. The link between the for-profit and the nonprofit should not only be positive, ideally it should build synergy: Dr. Seuss and First Book, a youth-oriented cell phone company and concerts, making dreams come true with Disney and Make-A-Wish, sun care products and the American Cancer Society fighting skin cancer, etc.

That's not always possible, but when it is it gives cause marketing a lot more muscle.