Since setting up his agency in 1994, Mark Harrison has seen the charity sector rise to accounting for a fifth of corporate sponsorship spending in Canada – could it become as popular here?

How did Trojan One start out?

It was originally to deal just in sports – that was where my passion was. Then the company became more involved in events and entertainment and then about 2002 we started to get phone calls from charitable organisations saying, ‘we’ve seen the work you do in other sectors, can you come and help us?’

Was that something you were happy to expand into at the time?

To be honest with you, my first reaction was ‘I’m not an expert’ and their feedback was that those that were experts in the charitable sector were just bringing them the same solutions, but they saw what was going on elsewhere as quite innovative. I would like to tell you that it was a big strategic decision on our part but it was circumstance.

What kinds of charities were approaching you about sponsorship at that time?

It was some of the biggest ones that had a lot of fundraisers. You might almost consider them sport related, such as sponsored runs. They were talking to other people in the sector or in the case of one organisation, they were sponsored by one of my corporate clients, who recommended us as having done a good job. Then, to be honest, it spread like wild fire because as soon as I got into the sector, I started being asked to speak at some big conferences. We went from working with blue chip corporates to a small shelter for domestic abusive victims. They asked us to come in and provide them with a little bit of help and consultation and we actually ran a small workshop for them.

Today it’s quite ironic that there’s probably a group of people in Canada that would see us as the top three or four in the non-profit sector and would be surprised to hear that we do a lot of work in sports and entertainment.

How popular is sponsorship among charities in Canada?

We work with a research group to do something called the Canadian Sponsorship Research Survey and they do a poll of the biggest advertisers, organisations seeking money and agencies. They then cross reference all the information to come up with the size of the market. There are many things we track, one is where corporations are spending their money? Arts? Festivals? B2B? The charitable sector accounts for 20 per cent now. It was eight per cent in 2005, so it’s had a dramatic growth.

What is sponsorship in its simplest form?

Imagine that a young child wants to go to a swim meet and they go to their neighbours and say ‘if you would give me £10 then I’ll be able to get the train ticket’. The neighbours would be sponsors and if they don’t give the £10, then the kid doesn’t go – that’s it in its simplest form. When you have that in mind, the next question might be why would a sponsor do that? It could be just for good, because you want to help the kid, but in a marketing sense sponsors are trying to show society that they care. They’ve discovered that by telling people that they are helping, people are then more loyal to their brand and more interested in them.

Should charities look for organisations that offer sponsorship or propose it to companies themselves?

The correct answer is both. Before you send any letters or make any phone calls to ask for support you need to be able to tell them very quickly what your purpose is. Then you start to look at who would be a good fit because your purpose would make sense to their business.

How long would you expect a sponsorship to run for?

Learning how each other work takes time and you want to say to that partner: ‘we have a long-term commitment to this community, we’re always going to have this challenge so work with us on a multi-year basis’. Often small sponsors are hesitant to make those commitments but it can be affective once they understand its part of their business.

About the interviewee: Mark Harrison is president of TrojanOne

This interview first appear in Fundraiser magazine, Issue 13, January 2012