Friday, May 24, 2013

Wait! Don’t throw those vendor collateral pieces away just yet!

Linh Preston, Fund Development Associate

linh_webOver the last few months, I hope we’ve started to pique your interest in the 20th Anniversary and Service Engagement Summit 2013 and you’ve already blocked the dates on your calendar.  Conferences, including ours, allow time for thinking deep, sharing best practices, and connecting with peers from campuses across the state. It is a time to be inspired and plan action. It is a time to read through all those pamphlets in your attendee folder. Wait. What?

Swag from conference to conference varies from tote bags to USB drives to foam stress balls in a rainbow of colors. How many of us have random plastic pens, sticky notes, and mint canisters from conferences long past? But informational brochures as conference swag? Am I suggesting it’s not just a pile of pamphlets from companies to call because “that looks interesting; I’ll check them out later,” still sitting with the notes from last year’s conference?

That information represents more than the marketing on their pages. It represents the swag you can’t see. Like the benefits sponsors underwrite not only because they want to get in front of thought leaders and decision makers at our conferences, but also because they believe in what Indiana Campus Compact does and they support our member campuses.

There’s a purpose to those pamphlets, handouts, and “for more information contact” pieces of paper. Those papers are from sponsors who help underwrite the costs of bringing in the best facilitators, presenters, and service learning experts. Sponsors underwrite the more than 60 percent discount for students’ registration fees. Sponsor support helps us provide excellent programming and training to our members.

This year, Indiana Campus Compact is expanding its efforts to invite more sponsors to partner with us at our annual conference. These companies and organizations aren’t just vendors trying to sell us a service, they are corporate citizens supporting service learning and civic engagement. We talk about students and campuses and communities partnering to better our environments, and corporate citizens are definitely part of that equation.

If you know of a company who would be interested in joining our efforts, please forward our sponsorship information to them, or send them my way. Building partnerships between Indiana Campus Compact and sponsors strengthens the work we all do.

And that’s conference swag that will never run out of ink.

Linh Preston, MA, MPA
Fund Development Associate
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Indiana Campus Compact is grateful to Lilly Endowment Inc. for significant funding in support of programs, training,and resources for our member campuses that allow them to deepen their commitment to community engagement and service-learning.