Community programs, finding funding tougher than ever to obtain, are turning more to cause-related marketing to raise money and awareness to support their objectives. The Death Valley Natural History Association found an innovative way, using packaging, to support its Death Valley ROCKS program and its mission of bringing city kids to the park to experience the natural world.

The association partners with Salem, OR-based Kettle Foods Inc., a producer of all-natural snack foods, to bring national awareness to its mission on packages of Kettle's Death Valley Chipotle Potato Chips. An on-pack message says Kettle Foods will donate one dollar for every Facebook Internet user who downloads a Death Valley temperature gauge that monitors the desert heat. Printpack Inc. supplies the polyethylene bag film, reverse-flexo-printed in five colors. Michael Osborne Design created the bag graphics.

Association Executive Director David Blacker says, "What we love about Kettle Foods' support is that it helps us raise awareness and support for our national park and does it in a fun, tasty way."

Kettle Foods' Vice President of Marketing, Michelle Peterman, concurs, adding that she believes the chip bags' lively, bright-orange flame graphics will help ignite sales.