Leading sponsorship conference offers free admission to select charities
CAMPBELLFORD, ON, May 25 /CNW/ - Canadian charities that seek corporate support must demonstrate a strong business case for investment. Charities compete with sophisticated sponsorship marketers from sports, arts and culture, but often find themselves overmatched when corporate sponsors weigh competing appeals.
Thanks to the Pay it Forward Bursary Program, a unique initiative launched today by The Sponsorship Report and Canadian Fundraising & Philanthropy, the playing field is about to be levelled.
The Pay it Forward Bursary Program will offer five deserving charities an opportunity to attend Canada's premier sponsorship conference, Strategic Sponsorship Marketing: The Canadian Summit(R) (the Sponsorship Summit), free of charge. This year's Sponsorship Summit will be held October 19-20 in Toronto.
"Over the past year, charities have seen their professional development budgets slashed, while sponsorship spending nationally has actually gone up," says Mark Sabourin, Publisher of The Sponsorship Report and host of the annual Sponsorship Summit. "Charities have to keep pace with current trends and best practices, or they'll lose in the race for corporate sponsorship dollars."
"Results, no matter how great, just aren't enough for a charity to attract corporate sponsors," says Canadian Fundraising & Philanthropy Group Publisher Janet Gadeski. "What you think you should offer, or what you've offered in the past, likely isn't what the company needs at all."
"We pride ourselves on positioning the Sponsorship Summit as not only the best conference in the industry, but also the most affordable," says Sabourin. "But we also recognize that budgets are limited. Pay it Forward is something we can do to help those budgets stretch a bit further."
To apply for the Pay it Forward Bursary, visit the website at www.sponsorship.ca/payitforward.html.
For further information: For further information: Mark Sabourin, Publisher, The Sponsorship Report: (705) 653-1112, [email protected]; Janet Gadeski, Group Publisher, Canadian Fundraising & Philanthropy, (416) 345-9403, [email protected]
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