Community Event Sponsorships
Each year, we devote a small portion of our operating budget to support area nonprofit organizations’ events. We know these events are vital to your organization’s fiscal health, that they help you more deeply connect with community partners, and that they offer opportunities to celebrate and elevate your organization’s impact, milestones, and mission. Event sponsorships also offer our staff and volunteers the opportunity to engage and partner with your team, and to learn more about your organization.
The Community Foundation is proud to support community events that align with the following strategic priority areas:
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion—events that celebrate, uplift, or advance equitable opportunities and representation for all communities.
- Post-secondary education and economic mobility—events that promote access to, success in, or awareness of high education and training pathways.
- A strong start for all children—events that support early childhood development, education, and the well-being of young children.
- Arts and creativity—events that foster creativity, support artists, and contribute to a vibrant local arts culture.
We are committed to being equitable in our sponsorship decisions. To ensure we maximize our impact across the community:
- Events must take place withing our 3-county region—Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden
- We prioritize events that are free and open to the public.
- We aim to avoid sponsoring fundraising events. While we deeply value the important work of our entire nonprofit community, our limited resources prevent us from supporting fundraising-specific events for a handful of organizations.
- One sponsorship per year, per organization. To ensure broad and diverse community support, each organization is eligible for one sponsorship annually.
- Recurring sponsorships may be reduced or declined after 3 years. To ensure new organizations have access and opportunities, any event that receives sponsorships for three consecutive years could see future sponsorship amounts reduced or opportunities to sponsor declined. This approach helps us extend support to organizations and events that may not have received sponsorships in the past due to our limited sponsorship resources.
If your event aligns with the criteria above, we encourage you to submit a sponsorship request for consideration. Together, we can help create a more vibrant and equitable community.
How can my organization apply for an Event Sponsorship?
We review and decline / award sponsorship requests on a first come, first serve basis beginning each fiscal year start of April 1, so the earlier you apply, the better! Our easy-to-use form captures all of information needed for us to make a funding decision. Once a request has been submitted, you’ll receive a confirmation email, and we will notify you of our funding decision within 5-7 business days after submission.
How much money can my organization receive?
You can apply for any amount, but our awards are typically between $500 and $1,500.
How do you decide which requests to fund?
We strive to fund Community Event Sponsorships in a fair and equitable way. We carefully consider each request to ensure that we are funding a wide variety of events who represent some or all of the following criteria:
- Donor audiences
- A variety of nonprofit sectors
- Our broad geographic region
- Underserved / underrepresented groups and populations
