Sponsorship School Online for NFPs

The complicated world of sponsorships is being unravelled for Not for Profits with a new online learning experience.

The program called Sponsorship School is a new free educational on-line service that allows fundraisers to share the ups and downs with six very different organisations as they change their entire approach to sponsorship marketing.

Online participants can be a fly on the wall as the organisations tackle some of their biggest challenges and make the most of new opportunities in an intensive six month training program.

Monthly updates include what was covered in each month’s workshop, homework assignments (downloadable in full), participants’ homework results and feedback, and participant commentary on how their new skills and homework assignments are changing and improving their sponsorship programs, as well as the challenges they face.

Sponsorship School has been created and developed by Kim Skildum-Reid, a sponsorship expert and author of global industry best-sellers, The Sponsorship Seeker’s Toolkit and The Sponsor’s Toolkit.

This is a pro bono project and makes up part of what Skildum-Reid says is her ongoing commitment to providing up-to-date resources and skills to the Not for Profit community.

Although it is a new service, Skildum-Reid says several thousand NFP’s from around the world have already logged on.

The organisations making up the core of this program and sharing their progress with the NFP world are Habitat for Humanity Australia, The Cancer Council, Historic Houses Trust, Wildlife Information and Rescue Service, Kids First Foundation, and the Australian Youth Orchestra.

Skildum-Reid says Not for Profits have enormous commercial value for corporate sponsors, but they are not getting the information or skills they need to harness that potential. They need a modern, pro-active approach.

She says the organisations are only three months into the program, but already the results for our six ‘guinea pigs’ have been remarkable.

Before developing Sponsorship School, Skildum-Reid says she offered to work with government and industry associations, at no cost, to upgrade their offerings, but was summarily knocked back.

She says it was unfortunate that these groups would rather cling to the past than update their approach and provide relevant sponsorship skills to Australian Not for Profits.

Although there are plenty of organisations and programs in Australia that are supposed to be supporting NFP’s in their quest to create corporate partnerships, the information provided is overwhelmingly out-of-date and out-of-touch with sponsor expectations.

To participate in this program online, Not for Profits should go to
www.powersponsorship.com/School.asp.

Participation is free.