This is lesson twenty-five. This is towards one of our missions. Education. You’ll learn everything about marketing - from the basics to the most advanced strategies - for free, thanks to VellumWorks.

For decades, marketing focused on products: features, outputs, and transactions.
But in 2004, Stephen Vargo and Robert Lusch introduced a new way of thinking that transformed the entire field:

Service-Dominant Logic (SDL): the idea that value is not delivered; it is co-created between the organisation and the audience.

It’s not about what you “give.”
It’s about what people experience and how they benefit, in ways they help shape.

For charities, this model is incredibly powerful because your true value doesn’t come from “services delivered”. It comes from the impact you create with your communities and supporters.

Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) is a modern marketing theory developed by Stephen Vargo and Robert Lusch that shifts the focus from products to service, relationships, and co-created value.

Instead of seeing value as something an organisation “delivers,” SDL argues that value only exists when it is co-created between the organisation and the people it serves — donors, beneficiaries, volunteers, partners, or communities.

SDL is built on several key ideas. Here are the ones that matter most for real-world marketing and charity work:

Even when you offer a product (a report, a toolkit, a workshop), what people value is the service behind it. The help, impact, transformation, or change.

For charities:
You’re not “providing meals”. You’re providing dignity, safety, and hope.

You can’t create value in a vacuum.
Supporters, donors, volunteers, and communities add value through their participation.

Examples:

Value emerges from partnership.

No one is a passive recipient.
In SDL, people shape their own outcomes.

For charities:
Your beneficiaries aren’t just “receiving help”. They’re collaborating, improving, learning, and building their future alongside you.

In SDL, intangible assets (knowledge, skills, relationships, trust) are more valuable than physical resources.

For charities, these are your true strengths:

These are the reasons people choose you over alternatives.

Transactional thinking (“Donate now!”) is replaced by relationship thinking (“We’re in this together.”)

Charity marketing becomes:

People feel part of something. Not targeted by something.

Traditional (Goods-Dominant) Logic:
“Give product → Receive value → Transaction complete.”

Service-Dominant Logic:
“Work together → Create value → Build a relationship → Grow impact.”

This shift leads to clearer messaging, deeper trust, and stronger loyalty.

SDL helps you understand that your job isn’t just to “tell people what you do.”
It’s to help supporters experience the value they help create.

Examples:

“We helped 500 families.”

“Your support helped 500 families move one step closer to safety and stability.”

“Join our fundraiser.”

“Be part of the community creating long-term change for local families.”

Every message turns the audience into a partner — not a spectator.

Take your current “About” sentence or mission line.
Rewrite it through an SDL lens:

Example revision:
“We provide food parcels” → “Together, we help families access stability, dignity, and community support.”

Because the world has shifted.
People don’t want to donate to a black box - they want to participate, shape, and feel part of the impact.

Service-Dominant Logic helps you create marketing that is:

And ultimately, far more effective.

At VellumWorks, we believe knowledge should be free. That’s why this series will guide you, step by step, through everything from the basics to the most advanced strategies in marketing: no jargon, no gatekeeping, just education that empowers.