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I get by with a little help from my friends.
The Beatles
Increase Customer Loyalty and Enhance Brand Image: Increasingly, consumers are factoring companies’ general business practices, including philanthropic activities, into their purchasing decisions. Companies associated with charitable behavior are perceived by consumers to be good corporate citizens and may differentiate themselves from competitors... [the] survey found that 79 percent of Americans take corporate citizenship into account when making purchasing decisions....
The Friends program for corporate sponsorship is based on an innovative cost recovery program where businesses help launch a fund-raising program and they ‘recover’ their investment through the VASE merchandizing programs.
bsr.org
““,.....results showed that US business executives “see corporate citizenship as a fundamental part of business.”

Overwhelmingly (75%), executives polled said their founding traditions and core organizational values are factors in their companies’ decisions to invest in corporate citizenship. And 82% said good corporate citizenship helps the bottom line, and over half of respondents cited expectations from customers and consumers as motivating factors.

“A View from Inside” Center for Corporate Citizenship 2004 Survey
We have a number of marketing and promotional campaigns that will benefit the companies who help us in our work to promote literacy and the creation of culturally sensitive literacy materials and programming. Our unique Social Marketing program combines collaborative technologies, strategic alliances, celebrity branding and target marketing.

This key strategy brings major corporations and local businesses into the social enterprise without necessarily requiring financial input from them. As a sponsor or Friend of VASE you will benefit by the positive image your involvement brings, the local Community Partners benefit from increased exposure for their fundraising, and both VASE and the Partner benefit by increased revenue for their causes. Again, this is a win-win-win situation.

For example, the VASE supplies new ‘Friend’ ABC Motors with an email template they can send to their employees, customers and suppliers, announcing their joining Jordin Tootoo ( he is not signed as yet but is used as an example) to raise money for a literacy program. Cross-links can be arranged between the ABC website and the Partner’s portal within the VASE site, and ABC receives banner advertising on the site as an additional incentive and thank-you. The end result is an enormous advertising reach at almost no cost whatsoever on either side.

In both the Community Partners and Corporate Friends programs, we also offer mail-out advertising templates. These can be included in monthly statements from local businesses, mailing lists, flyer distribution networks, or the daily newspaper.

These strategies all feed each other. The grassroots community programs generate their own press coverage. The POP program will excite and interest corporate involvement. Corporate alliances will generate more media and marketplace exposure. The media coverage generates more community and corporate interest and the final result is a self-fuelling advertising and marketing campaign that no one can afford to buy.

Initially we intend to reach ten of thousands and later, hundreds of thousands, of consumers through our e-mail and media campaigns — in addition to the community initiatives, these initiatives will put us in front of the mass audience at numerous levels through our media and cost recovery advertising campaigns.

The beauty of the VASE approach is that we can build on an installed base of consumers who will look for the next year's product releases. We 'a little help from our 'Friends' we will create an ongoing free advertisingn and promotional vehicle that grows over time.