UNISON is often called upon to sponsor events, projects or organisations.
UNISON Scotland has agreed a set of policy guidelines it uses to assess requests and commends them to branches to help them with any sponsorship requests. These guidelines may also assist organisations looking for sponsorship, although it must be noted that sponsorship budgets are limited.
1. Sponsorship means the provision of financial support to an organisation, project or event from which benefit to UNISON will be derived through linked publicity.
2. The linked publicity must give UNISON significant opportunities to explain the union’s policies or to promote a good image of the union or of trade unions as a whole.
3. Applications should be channelled through the Regional Communicatlons Officer and dealt with by the Communications and Campaigns Committee.
4. The Committee, advised by the Regional Communications Officer, will select projects for sponsorship so as to vary the types of sponsorship between the arts, sport and other activities, and, by monitoring them, build up experience and a clearer picture of the most suitable forms of sponsorship for UNISON.
5. In principle, UNISON will seek to be sole or principal sponsor of any project.
8. Priority will be given to the following two categories in selecting projects:
(a) those that extend access to disadvantaged or generally neglected minority groups
(b) those that might not happen without the sponsorship, but which are worth encouraging for social or general political reasons.
7. UNISON will not sponsor any service or activity that should by definition be paid for from public funds alone.
8. UNISON will not sponsor any organisation or project whose policies or contents are inconsistent with UNISON’s policies.
9. When sponsorship is agreed, the benefits to be derived from it must be clearly stated in the agreement with the organisation being sponsored.
10. A sum will be provided for sponsorship in the Scottish Communications Estimates.
11. Branches will be encouraged to make some provision for sponsorships, as far as that is practical, in their communications planning and budgetting and to observe these policy guidelines in making sponsorship contracts.