Everyone wins with a sound sponsorship agreement. Photo by Shirly Niv Marton / Unsplash
Sponsorship isn’t about giving away money to a good cause: that’s donating. Sponsorship offers two parties the opportunity to be part of a win–win agreement.
In return for their support, sponsors get the same feel-good factor they would get from donating. But on top of that, they also get a return on the investment in their chosen cause. So, true sponsorship offers an organisation something sustainable and tangible in return for its commitment.
Sponsors get clear returns on their investment
Sponsoring the Plain English Awards offers clear returns on your investment, such as:
- alignment with plain English values. You’re seen as customer-focused, transparent, and trustworthy
- brand exposure. Forget about advertising! You’ll be widely promoted in our Awards publicity, reaching large groups of potential new customers
- networking opportunities. Plain English Awards entries come from a huge range of public and private organisations. The networking opportunities you get from Awards forums (in person and online) offer a hugely valuable return, as does the actual presentation ceremony.
Is your organisation a sponsorship ‘best match’?
Looking at the values and aims of the Plain English Awards, and from our past experience, we know the types of organisations that benefit most from sponsorship.
If you can answer ‘Yes’ to any of these questions, sponsoring the Plain English Awards could be just the thing for you:
- Do you want to reinforce to your clients or customers that you always work with their best interests in mind?
- Do you want to reinforce to your clients or customers that you are transparent in your dealings with them and with other organisations?
- Do you want to be part of a movement to improve government and business documents so that all New Zealanders can understand them?
- Do you want to help build a public preference for plain English?
- Do you love celebrating success?
Answered ‘Yes’ to one of more of these questions? It’s time for a conversation!
We’d love to hear from you
Get in touch if you’d like to talk through sponsorship opportunities at this year’s Awards. We’d love to discuss a sponsorship arrangement that would benefit both the Awards and your organisation.
Phone: +64 4 384 6447
Email: enquiries@plainlanguageawards.org.nz
Visit our website for more information about the 2018 Plain English Awards
Melissa Wardell March 13th, 2018
Posted In: 2018 Plain English Awards, Plain English Awards, Social good, Sponsors
Tags: 2018 Plain English Awards, Plain English Awards, Social good, Sponsorship
Information for new migrants needs to be as clear and user-friendly as possible. Image by Dmitri Ratushny. Unsplash licence.
You’ll all be familiar with the idea of the world becoming smaller as fast-paced communications connect even the remotest places on earth to the wider world. With the click of a button we can instantly be in touch with someone as far afield as Siberia in the far north and Antarctica in the far south. But does the amount of communicating we’re doing necessarily mean that we’re understanding each other?
What if I just speak a little louder?
I don’t have to dig too deep into my own experiences of travel outside New Zealand to know how difficult a language difference can make life. I even remember once falling into the dire trap of increasing my volume to try to get my message across. How was that ever going to work? Luckily for me (but not the poor person I was talking to), our topic of attempted conversation wasn’t too important.
So what must life be like for the many migrants who make their way to New Zealand each year and don’t speak English fluently? To put things in perspective, a quarter of New Zealand’s population was born overseas. And for many of these people, English is their second — or even third — language. Imagine what these statistics mean for an organisation like Immigration New Zealand (INZ), which needs to communicate ideas, many of them complex, through a variety of mediums every day.
What plain English means for migrants to New Zealand
At the end of November last year, supporters of the annual Plain English Awards celebrated its 2017 winners at a ceremony in Wellington. INZ was one of the Awards’ valuable sponsors, and representative Anne-Marie Masgoret gave a brief address during the ceremony. While no one in the audience needed any reminding of the importance and value of plain English, Anne-Marie’s words served as terrific reinforcement.
Anne-Marie Masgoret, right, from sponsors Immigration New Zealand, with winners Anthony Frith and Bridget Cheesman.
‘Moving to live and work in a new country involves finding out a great deal of information that locals simply take for granted,’ Anne-Marie explained.
Focusing on user-friendly information
INZ’s goal is to help migrants make New Zealand their home. They aim to support these people to fully participate in and contribute to all aspects of New Zealand life. And they do this by communicating clearly and simply through a variety of mediums.
INZ also relies on other organisations to deliver their message directly to migrants.
‘New Zealand organisations are very good at providing newcomers with information. However, the information provided is not always written in a user-friendly way,’ said Anne-Marie.
‘For those new to New Zealand, the quality of information migrants receive as they settle into their new life here can make all the difference in the way they settle into this country and make it their home. It can also make a difference to whether a newcomer acts on information or just ignores it.’
Keeping it clear for those new to New Zealand
To support organisations to write clear communications, INZ created the Keeping It Clear resource. This aims to help organisations create or rewrite information in a short, simple, and easy-to-understand format.
Check out INZ’s Keeping it Clear resource
Find out about the winners of the 2017 Plain English Awards
Melissa Wardell March 1st, 2018
Posted In: Finalists, Plain English Awards, Sponsors
Tags: Plain English Awards, sponsors, Turnaround Award
