South African Sponsorship Association has been launched

25 Feb 2019

It's been announced that the South African Sponsorship Association (SASA) has been launched. The organisation has been launched with the intention of creating a new regulated body that will seek to inspire, educate and raise standards within the sponsorship industry.

South African Sponsorship Association has been launched

The press release sent to Bizcommunity states that SASA will strive to lead the industry through activities relating to; policy, governance, corporate responsibility the provision of information and networking.

It has been created to protect sponsors against unregulated sponsorship agencies and other non-sponsorship agencies doing ‘sponsorship work’ who may bring the industry into disrepute.

Membership

Membership to join SASA is now open with a number of benefits included once an agency or sponsor joins. Becoming a member means you are automatically part of an active sponsorship community with the objective of shared goals of raising the standard and building professionalism within the sponsorship industry.

Membership will be limited to sponsors, agencies and their members. Agencies will need to derive 51% of their income from sponsorship work to qualify as members.

The membership will provide business with an opportunity to improve, will assist in the nurturing and development of talent, regular communication with the latest industry news, providing regular network opportunities through events and shared contact details as well as providing specialist sponsorship information, case studies, research and evaluation.

New members will benefit from active engagements of the sponsorship community and will have the opportunity to share goals while raising standards of professionalism in the industry. SASA will provide regular industry news, education and training courses and the promotion of the industry.

Annual sponsorship awards

In addition, SASA is proposing to host an annual sponsorship awards that will be presided over the industry by the industry. It will be positioned as the only official sponsorship awards recognized by the industry body.

The awards will be judged through a panel of industry personnel with each agency that is part of SASA able to nominate a judge. A chairman of judges, who will be unable to vote, will be appointed to oversee the process and all voting will be done either electronically or online.

SASA chairman Sandile Ndzekeli said, “The association is important for the industry to grow and develop higher standards in daily practice.”