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Sunday, June 16, 2013

BASA’S ARTIST SPONSORSHIP TOOLKIT



Strategic integration of the arts and business partnership is at the heart of the recently launched Business and Arts South Africa’s Artist Sponsorship Toolkit which is set to significantly strengthen role of arts in business.

The Artist Sponsorship Toolkit provides a way for the management team of an arts organisation to review, refresh and enhance their sponsorship practice – and acts as a complement to the Business Sponsorship Toolkit that was launched by BASA in 2012.

Conceived as a step-by-step way for arts organisations to engage in the sponsorship environment, the Artist Sponsorship Toolkit was created by Michael Goldman, Senior Lecturer at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, in partnership with the BASA team.

“South African arts organisations and projects continue to have a significant impact on our society, although many of the leaders of these organisations are less familiar with the marketing and sponsorship management practices required to access the financial and other resources needed to sustain and grow their organisations,” explains Goldman. “The Artist Sponsorship Toolkit provides arts organisation managers with a set of practical templates, exercises and techniques that can be used to develop more successful sponsorship-raising strategies.”

Goldman points to the fact that the sponsorship environment is becoming more competitive, requiring arts organisations to be more clear and strongly define their value to audiences, participants, sponsors and society: “Arts organisation managers therefore need to demonstrate how their proposed partnership with a corporate sponsor will provide specific and relevant value to the company's business,” he adds.

The Artist Sponsorship Toolkit provides a way for arts organisations – particularly those with less of an established track record - to build a long-term relationship with corporate sponsors.

Arts organisations are now able to use the toolkit to guide a more strategic integration between the partners involved in a sponsorship relationship. This includes a fusion between the core values of the arts organisation and the sponsoring business, and an exploration of the areas and functions of the sponsoring business in which the involvement in the arts can have an impact.

The Artist Sponsorship Toolkit now acts as a superb complement to the Business Sponsorship Toolkit.

Launched in 2012, this toolkit is already being used by many South African businesses as a way of navigating through a sponsorship cycle and, ultimately, the ability to measure the effectiveness of an arts sponsorship as a strategic part of any business. 

Both toolkits are available for free download off the BASA website as part of Business and Arts South Africa’s commitment to stimulating excellence, innovation and value in the business and arts partnership.

For more information on BASA visit www.basa.co.za