Sponsorship: a tool to promote equality and sustainability in sport

It all starts with a survey check: where does the club currently stand in terms of sustainability? How much energy and plastic are used? Are there charging stations for electric cars? Is the club easily accessible by public transport? Every new club that joins the ABN AMRO sponsorship programme is then issued a report showing how it can become even more sustainable.

It’s safe to say that sports sponsorship no longer boils down to a chunk of change with no strings attached, says Sander Bestevaar, Head of Sponsoring & Events at ABN AMRO. The bank sponsors seven professional senior field hockey teams and forty-seven local clubs under the banner “De club van morgen” (The Club of the Future). ABN AMRO is also the head sponsor of the Amsterdam-based women’s football club Ajax Vrouwen and the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.

Expecting more

“Ten years ago, you took along a bag of cash, and your company name would be printed on signs or jerseys,” Sander says. “Then you’d invite your business associates to the event and network, and that was it, basically. Now, though, we expect more – not just from the club, but from ourselves as well. It’s really all about finding ways to make the world fairer and more sustainable together.”

This new approach hasn’t come out of nowhere. After all, the bank’s purpose is ‘Banking for better, for generations to come’. Sustainability plays a key role here, including social impact and equal opportunities, recurrent themes in the bank’s sponsorship initiatives.

Sustainability committee

A cynic might say sports clubs aren’t exactly sitting around waiting for the bank’s advice. Don’t they just want financial support to professionalise the club or organise a great event?

Sander says these two things aren’t mutually exclusive. “It’s not like the bank has to tell these clubs how important sustainability is,” he explains. “In most cases, they’re already active in this area and have even formed their own sustainability committee. But it makes a difference if you have a sponsor that helps you reach your goal and shares its network with you. Clubs are only too happy to take advantage of those benefits. Moreover, sustainability can also lead to savings in the long term.”

The bank’s survey check is used to help identify objectives the club can meet. The fifty-four field hockey clubs the bank sponsors have agreed to halve their energy consumption and reduce waste, for example.

Equal opportunities

As part of an initiative dubbed “De inhaalslag” (Time to catch up), the bank is also helping clubs ensure equal opportunities – not just for people with disabilities, but also for women. “Professional female hockey players earn five times less than their male counterparts,” Sander points out. “And it’s still mainly men who sit on most boards. Not to mention that male and female athletes are not given equal attention by the media.”

That’s why ABN AMRO sponsorship carries with it one strict condition: all clubs must have split their sponsorship money fifty-fifty between their male and female athletes by 2025. If they fail, the bank will terminate the sponsorship contract. Sander is optimistic, though: “Our aim is to help create a level playing field for men and women. And when I see how committed the clubs are to achieving this goal, too, I doubt we’ll be saying goodbye to them any time soon.” In addition to the conditions attached to sponsorship money, the bank is in talks with the clubs to ensure that this fifty-fifty split also applies to their overall budgets and management positions.

But the bank occasionally draws criticism, too – over its decision to stop supporting women’s field hockey ten years ago, for instance. Sander believes such questions are justified. He says, “We have to be honest in our answers. We’re certainly not infallible. But times change, and so do we.”

Wheelchair tennis

Thanks in part to the bank’s support, the European Hockey League for women was recently organised for the first time. And wheelchair tennis has been put front and centre at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament since 2009, an event that ABN AMRO has also capitalised on to introduce thousands of children with a disability or social disadvantage to the sport.

After all, that’s what it’s about: using sponsorship as a tool to ensure that anyone – regardless of gender, disability or origin – can enjoy all the benefits sport has to offer.