The effective embrace of a successful corporate sponsorship program demands a cultural revolution firmly anchored in fundraising. Success is not simply a matter of replacing the word “donation” with “investment.” Charitable causes that successfully solicit sponsorship look at themselves differently. They are entrepreneurs. They are business partners. They view their sponsors as equals.
To often, the journey that a charity undertakes when it begins its courtship of corporate sponsors is usually meandering, often wastes a great deal of time and consumes a lot of valuable internal resources. It doesn’t have to be that way.
The shortest distance between fundraising and sponsorship is a straight line, and that line runs through Sponsorship Week, coming up November 2 to 6, 2015 in downtown Toronto.
Since 2010, The Sponsorship Report, Hilborn Charity eNEWS and WestJet have offered five complimentary passes to Sponsorship Week conferences and workshops to deserving charities through our Pay it Forward program. Out-of-town guests travelled to and from Toronto courtesy of WestJet.
Pay it Forward is a bursary program that offers employees of registered Canadian charities an opportunity to attend Sponsorship Week – an $1800 value – free of charge! Through the program, five bursaries are being offered to Sponsorship Toronto, Canada’s national sponsorship conference, and two unique workshops: The Sponsorship Gut Check and The Sponsorship Boot Camp.
Here is an outline of what bursary winners can expect:
November 2nd - The Sponsorship Gut Check delivered by William Pitcher, Founder of the Pitcher Group will prepare fundraising organizations for the sea change that sponsorship marketing will require.
November 3rd and 4th - Enjoy Sponsorship Toronto, an exhilarating two days of powerful sessions and intimate interaction with sponsorship leaders from across the continent.
November 5th - The Sponsorship Boot Camp is an intensive program on sponsorship sales led by Bernie Colterman, one of the country’s finest sponsorship educators and managing partner of the Centre of Excellence for Public Sector Marketing. Bernie’s approach is pragmatic and no-nonsense; for organizations relatively new to sponsorship, the Boot Camp will shave a year off of your learning curve.
Together, the four days represent an unprecedented learning opportunity for charitable organizations eager to enhance their sponsorship expertise.
We are pleased to announce the return of the bursary program and encourage you to apply as soon as possible. Don’t delay – applications close on June 19, 2015. To learn more: Pay it Forward bursary program
Mark Sabourin is Publisher and Editor of The Sponsorship Report and host of the annual Sponsorship Week series of conferences and workshops in Toronto. He is a respected business and feature writer, having produced well over a thousand articles for print and online publications around the world.
