UICC Tobacco Control Fact Sheet No. 15

Finding Funds for Tobacco Control and Health Promotion

I. Applying for grants from trusts and foundations

Tobacco is the largest threat to healthy lifestyles in the industrialized world and increasingly also in developing countries.

There are many sources of funds to pay for tobacco control projects and other health promotion activities. Part I of this fact sheet outlines steps to develop successful applications for those funds. Part II describes how you might find sponsors to fund your projects.

1. Preliminary inquiries

Always write a letter first. It is important to find out whether trusts or foundations in your region-or in other regions of the world-have an interest in funding projects in your country, and if they make grants in the tobacco control and health promotion area. Writing a short letter first saves you from wasting time in developing projects for trusts that are not interested. Sometimes, even if the trust has not previously been interested in tobacco control, your letter may stimulate their interest.

Your letter should state the subject of the project you want to set up-tobacco control, research, advocacy, quit smoking programmes, etc.-and ask the trust or foundation if they are interested in this area. If you receive a positive reply, you will now need to start writing your project up in a format suitable for the foundation.

2. The funding submission

The trust may have guidelines that set out the information required about your project. However, many trusts do not have any guidelines, and in those cases it is entirely up to you to develop your funding submission. The following steps may be of help to you:

The first step is to describe the organization or the group of organizations applying for the grant. If you have an annual report, it is always wise to include a copy of that with your application. What are the general goals of the organization? Describe the board and administrative leadership, including those people responsible for carrying out the project.

If more than one organization is applying, (including community-based groups, advisory boards, etc.), describe the role of each organization in carrying out the project and say clearly which organization or which joint body will be ultimately accountable for the project.

Highlight the people who will do the work, and the background and qualifications that makes you think they are able to do the work. Project workers may need to have academic qualifications unless the project is an action or advocacy project, when what is needed would be experience in undertaking action or advocacy in either the tobacco control area or an area similar in its work. For instance, many "Quit" campaigners and tobacco control advocates do not come from the health sector, but rather from such areas as housing action, environmental action, education or teaching, or the women's movement.

Many trusts and foundations these days require that the people who are the target or the focus of the project be part of its management structure, in other words, part of your decision-making group. Trusts want this because it is believed that if these people are part of the group, then they will accept the project and absorb it as part of their culture much more readily than if you decide what is good for them and act without involving them. You may wish to show in your submission how the target groups are part of the management structure of the project.

The goal of the project has to be very clearly stated. Here are some examples:

  1. to establish an advocacy organization to coordinate and run tobacco control campaigns;
  2. to organize a campaign to press for a dedicated tobacco tax to fund tobacco control programmes and other health promotion programmes;
  3. to run a campaign aimed at persuading governments to introduce legislation and regulations that will prevent tobacco companies advertising their product, either directly through buying
  4. media space, or indirectly through sponsorship of sports, arts and cultural events;
  5. to develop smoking control programmes targeting workplaces, older people, young people in schools, etc.

Each of these goals could be suitable for a separate funding submission to trusts or foundations. Different projects can go to different trusts or foundations.

Describe the need or problem that you are addressing. In order to do this you should provide data on smoking rates in your state, area, or region and descriptions of the activities of tobacco companies. If these data are not available, then collecting such data could be a suitable project in itself, for which you could make a submission to trusts or foundations for funds. You will need to:

  1. Tell the trust or foundation what will happen to the health of people if nothing is done.
  2. Describe the ways in which your particular project will fill the need for health protection.
  3. Highlight the focus of your project on particular population groups. For instance, is your project going to focus on young women? Young men? Both? Will it deal with indigenous people, disabled people, poorer people, older people, rural people, etc? In other words, which is the targeted
    population?
  4. Identify the community to be served (is it a geographic community, or is it a community of people linked by common interests).
  5. Say who will benefit from the project activities.
  6. Say how they will benefit: what will be different for them after the programme?
  7. Explain how their ability to make health-related decisions will be improved by the programme.

Project planning. You need to describe:

  1. the process of selection of this project as a priority over other possible projects;
  2. how the target population has been involved in project planning and the selection of the topic;
  3. how the proposed project will fit into your organization's long-range plans.
  4. Project outcome: Set out the particular outcomes you think you can achieve with the project. Outcomes are more specific than goals. An outcome might be:
  5. The permanent organizational changes to be achieved (smoke-free sport, for example, smoke-free cultural events, smoke-free schools, smoke-free hospitals, or smoke-free workplaces).

Be as specific as possible about the activities which will be undertaken throughout the project, describing the particular steps that will be taken to get to the project outcome. These may include:

  1. research-the establishment of baselines regarding smoking rates or tobacco activity;
  2. information/materials to be developed;
  3. media sponsorships to be included in the strategy;
  4. education programmes to be developed;
  5. Work in settings:
  1. Legislative change to be lobbied for: Who will carry out these tasks? Remember to give their qualifications to do the task; what are the staffing and management structures that will run the project?
  2. When will the activities occur? Develop a detailed timetable as part of the project design.

You should give details of your media strategy for letting the community know about the project. You may plan to hold press conferences, for example, or issue newsletters, to spread the news about your results. You may plan to publish and circulate reports on the lessons of the project to other people and organizations who are working in the same or similar areas.

Give details of staff costs, material costs, operational costs, media costs, evaluation costs. What is the project's budget for each year of the project, including evaluation activities? What other resources are being used to cover project expenses, including in-kind donations?

How will you evaluate the project? That is, how will you know that the project has succeeded or failed? You have to decide this before beginning the project, and the trust or foundation will want to know how you plan to do this.

Evaluation involves measuring your achievements against your desired outcomes, and could measure such things as changes in smoking rates, organizational smoke-free achievements, legislative changes, regulatory changes, increase in taxation, and/or increase in price.

Do not think that the longer the submission the better. Foundations are impressed by quality, not quantity. If your submission is too long, it may not all be read. It should be as short as possible, while still including all the necessary information.

II. Finding Sponsorships

One way of gathering funds to fight tobacco use is to ask a company to sponsor your work.

It is important to draw the distinction between grants and sponsorships. A grant, unlike a sponsorship, is not intended to achieve any other outcome than the support of an event or programme. Grants do not provide marketing opportunities in the same way as sponsorships do.

Sponsorships have become an important component of the marketing mix of commercial and, in some instances, "not for profit" organizations. Sponsorships are the basis of a relationship between a corporation and a sponsored organization in which there is an exchange of benefits.

In return for financial investment in the activities of an organization, the sponsor receives benefits, including enhanced profile within the market, access to target groups, product awareness, branding, image building and commercial credibility.

1. Questions

Potential sponsors to an event are likely to ask the following questions:

  1. Is the sponsorship consistent with the corporate mission/business objectives/strategies of the corporation?
  2. Does the organization enjoy a good reputation that in turn will reflect positively upon the corporation?
  3. Is the sponsorship seen as a worthy cause by the community?
  1. Is the sponsorship relevant to the communications message being promoted?
  2. Does it reach the right target audience in a cost effective way?
  3. Will it be consistent with other sponsorships promoting this message?
  1. Are final costs available?
  2. Are there any hidden extras?
  3. Will costs be justified by the projected results.
  1. Does the sponsorship have potential for carrying the communications message on such items as merchandise/uniforms?
  1. Does the sponsorship broaden awareness of the message and stimulate a behavioural response?
  2. Does it reach and influence opinion leaders and community leaders?
  3. To what extent does the sponsorship involve members of the target audience?
  1. Does the sponsorship provide the basis for
    relevant publicity?
  2. Will the media see it as newsworthy?
  1. Does the organization have procedures in place to measure the effectiveness of the sponsorship?

In developing a sponsorship proposal, it is vital that these questions are answered explicitly as questions such as these will form the basis of the assessment of the proposal.

It is always a good idea to develop a "prospect" list of overseas companies that are likely to be interested in the sponsorship. The list can be derived from Trade Commissioners whose job it is to facilitate communication with organizations domiciled in the country they represent. This meeting should be face to face and the sending of form letters should be avoided.

Once a suitable list of prospective sponsors has been established, a formal proposal document can be developed which should explore the benefits available to the sponsoring corporation.

2. Proposal framework

A suitable framework for a sponsorship proposal is:

Detailed outline of the project and activity plans

Objectives of the event/programme.

A defined target group and the expected number of participants who will benefit from the sponsorship activities.

Details of the opportunities available for the marketing of promotional messages by the sponsoring organization.

Start and finish dates, implementation timetables and a list of locations and venues involved to show geographical impact.

Any methods to be established to evaluate the success of the sponsorship in terms of outcomes.

Relevant experience and credentials of the applicant.

Staff and management structures, reporting arrangements, etc.

Detail the expected media interest and strategies to launch, publicize, and promote the project.

Amount sought for the sponsorship.

3. Timing

Generally allow three to five months for sponsorship applications to be assessed.

Acknowledgement

This fact sheet is based on material prepared by Ms. Rhonda Galbally for the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), Australia.

A document listing "Funding Sources and Information Centres", also prepared by Ms. Galbally, is available on request from the UICC Education Department.

Tobacco and Cancer Programme, International Union Against Cancer
3, Rue du Conseil-Général, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: (4122) 809 1830, Fax: (4122) 809 1810
E-mail: tobacco-control@globalink.org, Web Site http://www.globalink.org/

2/1996