By Marion Grobb

I recently heard that Sponsor XYZ was wondering why Company ABC had received so much media exposure from their donation to Ops Santa Claus. The answer? Because the latter had issued a news release on their own and worked their media contacts. Duh.

Sometimes sponsors and donors think it’s all up to us to get them coverage. Occasionally even representatives from large, sophisticated firms don’t understand that media relations is a “no guarantees” business. More often than not, sponsors do nothing to promote their association with the sponsorship property.

We can help both sponsors and donors leverage their relationship with our organization by suggesting that they do the following:

• Issue a news release on their own, or a joint release with us (Make sure they coordinate with you, to ensure accuracy and keep you in the loop).
• In the case of sponsors, exercise all their benefits.
• Advise their employees of their company’s sponsorship or donation through:
• Articles in employee newsletters
• Employee pay cheque stuffers
• Emails announcing their firm’s involvement and the property they are helping with their support.

Donors and sponsors stand to position themselves as active community members and build employee pride by increasing awareness of their involvement with our properties. In turn, our non-public funded (NPF) programs, services and activities get more exposure and support and, ultimately, isn’t that what sponsorship and donation programs are really about?