We’ve seen, time and time again, how a well-developed sponsorship program can vastly enhance the resources available to organizations in the charitable sector. We’ve also seen how, done poorly, it can fall flat on its face.
Pay it Forward is a bursary program that offers employees of registered Canadian charities an opportunity to attend Canada's premier professional development conference for sponsorship marketers—free of charge! Through the program, five bursaries are being offered to Sponsorship Toronto, Canada’s national sponsorship conference, and the Sponsorship Boot Camp, a unique pre-conference workshop. The Boot Camp will be held November 3, followed by Sponsorship Toronto on November 4 and 5, at the Grand Hotel & Suites in downtown Toronto. The bursary covers the full cost of admission to the workshop and the conference (a $1,300 value). Bursary recipients requiring air travel to Toronto will be whisked there courtesy of WestJet.
The Sponsorship Boot Camp is 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.
You’ll follow that up with Sponsorship Toronto, an exhilarating two days of powerful sessions and intimate interaction with sponsorship leaders from across the continent.
Sessions from last year’s conference
Last November’s Sponsorship Toronto conference closed with two powerful sessions. King Nation, a basketball program that focusses equally on athletic and academic excellence, demonstrated how it is using sport to open doors to post-secondary education that would otherwise remain shut—changing the lives of inner city youth in Toronto. Then, Imagine Canada’s Stephen Faul spoke of the new narrative that the cause sector must open up with society at large.
Earlier, Penelope Rowe of the Community Sector Council of Newfoundland and Labrador had introduced attendees to the concept of Social Return on Investment, demonstrating how SROI principles can buttress a sponsorship sales program.
In the audience were representatives from five charitable organizations, some flown in from across the country and all of whom benefited from this remarkable opportunity free of charge. Hilborn Charity eNEWS is part of that program, and we’re pleased to announce its return this year.
It’s an opportunity that can alter the trajectory of your organization. Application is simple. Visit the program website to learn more, but do it quickly. Applications close on July 18.
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.
The Sponsorship Report reports on corporate sponsorship activity in Canada. It is regularly read by sponsorship marketing leaders representing sponsors, sponsored properties, and agencies. The centrepiece of Sponsorship Week is Sponsorship Toronto, Canada's national sponsorship conference, which will be held this year November 4 and 5. Sponsorship Week opens on November 3 with the Sponsorship Boot Camp, a one-day workshop for the not-for-profit sector. It closes on November 6 with the Municipal Forum on Sponsorship, a workshop focussed narrowly on the needs of the municipal sector.
