Guidelines and Eligibility

You are on: Sponsorships

Sponsorships are an integral part of RBC’s marketing and promotional activities. Looking to submit a proposal for sponsorship? Find out more about our program:

Criteria

RBC is always looking to help bring great events and ideas to life. Our preferred - but not exclusive - areas of sponsorship are:

• Arts & Culture - with a focus on visual arts and film
• Amateur sports
• Olympics

Proposals in other categories are evaluated on how well they support the strategies of our various business units.

Here’s where to send your proposal.

Your Proposal

Here are some tips and suggestions on how to prepare your proposal for consideration.

Maximize marketing potential

The more marketing opportunities you identify, the more attractive your proposal becomes. Get creative. Look for maximum marketing potential, media extensions, community relations activities and client development opportunities.

Identify opportunities

Your proposal should show clear opportunities to promote RBC, as well as the products and services of our member companies, to your targeted audience(s).

Identify opportunities that target employees, clients, prospects, communities, and other audiences.

Think beyond your own organization

Outside your organization, there may be some marketing opportunities that we could mutually explore. Demonstrate your imagination and flexibility by enhancing your programs through cooperative local events or package offerings.

Involve others

Your proposal should broaden the promotional playing field. Involve co-sponsors, suppliers and affiliates in active and inventive cross-promotions.

In a nutshell, we're looking for breakthrough ideas that create new opportunities for us and for you.

We receive hundreds of sponsorship proposals every week, and most of these offer us a standard package including:

• Complimentary tickets
• Sponsor mention on promotional materials
• Program advertising and signage.

We'd prefer to explore some brand new territory. To get our attention, break out of that box!

Find out where to send your proposal.

You are on: Donations

General Application Guidelines

These guidelines apply to all RBC donation requests. Some of our projects have additional guidelines which are accessible by clicking on the appropriate link at the bottom of this page.

Donations Strategy

We are dedicated to working with charitable organizations that share our goal to help make a difference in local communities and regions where we do business. We receive about 30,000 requests for funding each year - more than ten for every hour of the business day. We encourage synergies between organizations. Our goal is to ensure that our charitable partners have sustainable sources of funding and use their donors' funds responsibly.

Our donations professionals follow a rigorous process when evaluating proposals to ensure our funds are invested with the utmost care and responsibility. The process includes a complete assessment of your charity's financial statements as well as its fiscal management and governance practices. We require our charitable partners to clearly demonstrate the social impact of our contribution.

Read below to find out how applications are evaluated so that you can judge your strategic fit with our corporate donations program.

Eligibility

We Fund:

• Organizations that are registered charities in their jurisdictions
• Projects or programs that take place in communities where RBC has a business presence
• Charitable organizations that provide direct community service
• Websites and other communication vehicles that deliver a specific service-related program
• Programs with measurable social outcomes

We Do Not Fund:

• Organizations that we already support, directly or indirectly, through federated appeals such as United Way/Centraide
• Political or fraternal organizations, Service Clubs, or third-party organizations that raise funds for charity
• Individual pursuits
• Private (fee based) elementary or secondary schools
• Religious organizations, unless they are engaged in a significant project benefiting the entire community
• Endowment or memorial campaigns
• Conferences, events or golf tournaments
• Advertising or promotional campaigns
• Travel-related events, including student trips or tours
• The creation or repair of statues, monuments, art work or beautification projects
• The publication of books or movie productions
• Private foundations
• Sports teams (unless they are a qualified donee)

Evaluation Criteria

RBC evaluates funding applications based on:

• The organization’s ability to provide direct-impact programming to the end-user
• Whether the organization’s programs/projects align with our donations strategy (described above)
• Whether the organization provides unique services to underserved communities
• Whether the organization has a clear evaluation process with planned outcomes that support its mission
• Whether the organization delivers programs/projects that facilitate the transfer of skills or knowledge
• Whether the organizations can demonstrate willingness to work with other charities to achieve greater sustainability and shared knowledge

Financial Position

RBC will not consider funding an organization unless it can demonstrate that:

• less than 30% of its budget is directed to administrative or fundraising expenses
• It has strong financial management
• It has a budget/recovery plan to strengthen its financial position if it is currently in a deficit position,
• It has multiple donors
• It has audited financial statements. For all requests over $5,000, an organization must submit its most recent audited financial statements with the application

How Much is a Reasonable Request

Please consider the following information when considering how much to request in your application:

• 80% of RBC's donations are under $20,000
• RBC normally funds no more than 0.5% of an organization’s operating budget
• For capital campaign requests, RBC normally funds 0.5% of an organization’s private sector campaign target, not including government support
• For requests that pertain to one of your specific projects or programs, we determine funding based on strategic alignment. RBC will consider funding up to 20% of a specific project or program budget
• RBC prefers to fund programs and projects rather than bricks and mortar
• If an organization has both a national office and regional chapters, we consider the funding we provide to both levels

Your Application/Proposal

Your application or proposal should include a cover sheet that you can access on this web site, as well as your actual proposal. The proposal may be in your own preferred format but it does have to contain each of the items listed below:

• A brief statement of your organization’s history, goals and accomplishments to date
• An outline of the project for which you are requesting funding (no more than 2 pages)
• A project budget showing anticipated expenses and incomes
• List of other committed or approached donors, including government sources
• Most recent audited financial statements (must be less than a year old)
• List of the Board of Directors and Campaign Cabinet members if applicable
• Cultural organizations should submit their most recent 12-month audience statistics