In mid January, three members of For Our Kids and one (very cute) baby went to visit staff of the Vancouver Children’s Festival in an office packed with theatre props and set pieces. We had arranged to meet to talk about their fundraising, and our concerns around sponsorship from fossil fuel companies. We know that many fossil fuel companies use sponsorship opportunities to make their brand seem safe, and this seems particularly inappropriate at events targeting our kids.
At the start of the meeting, it was explained to us that the reason they were happy to meet was because our initial letter and approach had been empathetic and non-confrontational. This is generally the approach of For Our Kids, but it was useful feedback to receive. We also learnt about the hugely challenging fundraising environment for arts in general, something we could relate to from the climate movement, and a useful framing for the discussion.
We learnt that the Vancouver Children's Festival will not be accepting fossil fuel sponsorship this year (great news!) and that our enquiry and letter had contributed to that decision. We also talked about the tension between corporations using sponsorship opportunities to buy our attention at family events such as this. When companies are able to connect their brand to trusted places and events they are able to buy our ‘social license’ meaning that we become more accepting of their company and operations, and potentially - they gain much more from the relationship.
It is no doubt a very difficult funding situation that arts events and sports programs are in right now, making it hard to set any permanent exclusions. Finding funding to continue to exist, while staying true to your values and not allowing your platform and audience to be manipulated is a tricky act to balance. We suggested that setting up an Ethical Fundraising Policy can help with some of the difficult decision making.
Overall, it was a great discussion, with learning on both sides and genuine empathy for the situation they are in. We hope we can have more open discussions like this with other organizations about fossil fuel sponsorship. It’s a thorny problem that needs to be talked about.
Have you noticed fossil fuel sponsorship at a community event where you live? If you want to support to start a conversation with them about ethical fundraising, reach out to [email protected]
