Cause-related marketing (CRM) benefi ts brands, consumers and society. In emerging markets where social upliftment is an imperative, CRM could provide an avenue through which those in need receive more support than can be provided by traditional means. Although considerable research on CRM campaigns and consumer responses to them has been undertaken elsewhere, not much has been done in the South African context. This study examines consumer responses to CRM, and in particular, seeks to investigate whether the consumers ' level of involvement with a cause and the way in which the message is framed infl uence purchase intention. Using factorial ANOVA, the study found that cause involvement signifi cantly infl uenced purchase intention while message framing did not. There was no interaction between cause involvement and message framing.