SIA and Corporate Sponsorship Nancy Montvydas, CFRE Senior Director of Development

Building Our Resources Direction Identify Barriers Greater Clarity Conditions Programs Increased Impact Increased Impact I am going to talk to you about one of our newest initiatives – corporate sponsorship. I want you to be aware of where this initiative fits into collective impact and how you as change agents can help the initiative be a success. Resources Recognition Build Numbers Soroptimist International of the Americas  2013

An online community empowering offline action,                             helping women and girls to live their dreams To stay vibrant, SIA must pursue new ways of engaging people, especially younger people who seek community in different ways than club members. LiveYourDream.org is our super strategy to keep our mission relevant well into the future.   Beyond extending our mission to those outside of the organization, Live Your Dream’s goals are to engage current Soroptimist members, attract new members, grow recognition for Soroptimist and increase financial resources to support our programs. Live Your Dream is intended to eventually be self-funding through donations and corporate sponsorships. This last point is particularly important because Soroptimist relies on the generosity of clubs and members to support our global programs. As our membership has declined, it has placed an extra strain on existing members to fund our programs. We are looking for new sources of revenue that are not member-dependent. That’s why we are using Live Your Dream to attract corporate sponsors and new donors. Soroptimist International of the Americas  2013

SIA and Corporate Sponsorships Lessons learned between 2005 and 2011: SIA started the corporate sponsorship program in 2005. In 2011 the initiative was put on hold. SIA did not have the brand awareness to attract corporate sponsors The reach of our membership was limited in scope Soroptimist was not able to clearly tell our story about the impact of our programs SIA did not have the expertise or connection to reach the right companies In November 2012, your Board of Directors made a significant investment in a new and improved corporate sponsorship initiative. Corporate Sponsorships have the potential to raise tens of thousands of dollars for a non-profit organization. But it is not easy, it is not quick, and its success depends on the confluence of the work we all do as Soroptimists.   Soroptimist started with corporate sponsorships in 2005. In 2011 the initiative was put on hold so that we could assess what we did, look at our successes and failures, and restructure how we would move ahead. We learned a lot! A few big important lessons: Our organization did not have the brand awareness necessary to attract corporate sponsors The reach of our membership was limited in scope Soroptimist was not able to clearly tell our story about the impact of our programs SIA had neither the expertise nor the connections to reach the right people at the right companies Soroptimist International of the Americas  2013

SIA and Corporate Sponsorships SIA addressed the issues: In 2012 SIA’s Board of Directors made a significant investment in a new and improved corporate sponsorship initiative. SIA launched Live Your Dream.org Outcomes measurements: Fels Report Engaged marketing group for sales So we addressed those issues as follows: SIA created Live Your Dream.org to engage non-members in the Soroptimist mission. The idea is to increase our reach beyond our membership to carry out our mission and increase our brand recognition – which, in turn would attract corporate sponsors. The program department at headquarters developed outcome measures and a method for collecting and analyzing our impact on the women served through the Women’s Opportunity Award. A third party source independently reviewed and published our Women’s Opportunity Award outcomes in the Fels Report. We can now clearly tell our story about the impact of this program. Marketing is publicizing this report to build greater recognition for the social change SIA is measuring and demonstrating. The Board of Directors made the important decision to invest in developing the fundraising capacity of the organization through a new approach to a corporate sponsorship program. The program was designed to trade on the improvements we have made including working with an outside sales team with corporate connections and IEG - a global authority on sponsorship and the leading provider of sponsorship consulting, analytics, measurement, valuation, and research. We have developed and priced three sponsorship packages and created marketing materials. Our sales team has contacted more than one hundred companies and several companies have indicated interest in working with Soroptimist. Soroptimist International of the Americas  2013

“Meaningful Marketing” “ A brand-centered organization must be committed to communicating the brand meaning and value to everyone who represents the organization – acknowledging that every deed, even seemingly inconsequential actions or decisions, either builds or takes away from the brand and thus the ability to attract corporate sponsors.” IEG states in their publication “Meaningful Marketing” that one of the practices a brand-centered organization must be committed to is communicating the brand meaning and value to everyone who represents the organization – acknowledging that every deed, even seemingly inconsequential actions or decisions, either builds or takes away from the brand and thus the ability to attract corporate sponsors.   You have heard what headquarters and the board have done to improve our corporate sponsorship initiative. “Meaningful Marketing: The New Heart of Corporate/Nonprofit Partnerships” 2012 IEG, LLC. All rights reserved Soroptimist International of the Americas  2013

What you can do… … to further the success of SIA corporate sponsorship initiative: Embrace collective impact Provide leads Articulate, represent and integrate the meaning and value of our brand Here’s what you can do to further our success: Embrace the idea of collective impact – help build the Live Your Dream brand by telling everyone you know to sign on to LiveYourDream.org and spread the message Provide leads for global sponsorships to me. We are looking for companies who want broad exposure beyond their local market, and are interested in improving the lives of women and girls through programs leading to social and economic empowerment. Articulate, represent and integrate the meaning and value of our brand. Look to our vision, mission and core values to guide your messages and actions as a Soroptimist Soroptimist International of the Americas  2013

Continue the wave of change Continue the wave of change. Increase our chances for success with corporate sponsorships by exemplifying the brand and supporting SIA’s corporate sponsorship efforts.   If you have any questions about SIA’s corporate sponsorship initiative, or have contacts for a corporate sponsorship lead, please contact headquarters.