Recently, interest in and the importance of cause-related marketing (CRM) have been steadily increasing. Companies can achieve the dual objectives of social responsibility and cost effectiveness, while consumers can easily practice sharing in their daily lives through the purchase of CRM products, receiving not only the economic benefits of product acquisition but also the additional emotional benefit of feeling that they are doing something good through charitable giving. However, despite the growing interest in and utilization of CRM, comprehensive and systematic research from the perspective of marketing communication remains insufficient. Most companies are conducting undifferentiated and non-strategic CRM activities, failing to achieve the desired effects. Therefore, a more in-depth theoretical examination of how to strategically approach consumers and enhance CRM effectiveness is required. Accordingly, this study determined that, unlike previous studies, it was necessary to elucidate the operating mechanism of CRM before directly considering the design of strategic messages. This study therefore examined the existing individual research streams on CRM message strategy (value-related perspective vs. cost-related perspective) in an integrated manner, and on this basis, sought to more clearly present the concept and characteristics of CRM. Through this approach, the study focused on the ambivalent intentions of consumers toward CRM that do not appear in general donations (donation intention based on altruism vs. cost avoidance intention from the rational consumer standpoint) and proposed a new message frame distinct from the various message types previously suggested. The study verified whether two message frames considering the ambivalence of CRM exhibit differential effects depending on consumers' ambivalent intentions, and reconfirmed the ambivalence of CRM through analysis of the moderating effect of the gender variable. Through these results, the study aimed to reveal the operating mechanism of CRM and explain the somewhat contradictory research findings related to the gender variable found in prior studies. The results showed that CRM message frames had a significant effect on consumer responses to CRM. Specifically, consumer responses to CRM were higher when exposed to value-centered frames than cost-centered frames. Furthermore, the study confirmed that the effect between consumer responses to CRM and message frames differed by gender. Specifically, for males, consumer responses to CRM were markedly higher when exposed to value-centered frames, whereas for females, being comprehensive information processors with situation-based moral standards, they showed similar levels of response to both cost-centered and value-centered frame stimuli, thereby revealing that responses to message frames differ by gender. Based on these results, the study discussed the implications.