29 questions 65 participants (59 English / 6 French)

Sponsorship Survey Results What are you looking for in a Conference Sponsor? 29 questions 65 participants (59 English / 6 French) This is AMAZING and very very well done. Thanks so much for putting such effort in bringing people into your thinking and your balancing the many dimensions of fundraising for this conference. WOW :) i'm really excited to fill this survey! Delegates need to integrate the fact that their fees are reduced by sponsorship, and that if they demand lower fees, they are forcing the fundraising team into more compromise.

Sponsorship Survey Results Numerical Rating System (1 – 5) • Not a consideration of Sponsorship Team • A factor in the decision • Important • Very Important • Make-or-Break

When evaluating potential sponsors to engage, rate the importance of:

When evaluating potential sponsors to engage, rate the importance of: • Most Important factors: • Actual level of CSR performance (xbar=3.75, σ=2) • The sponsor’s willingness and potential to improve on CSR practices (xbar=3.26, σ=3) • The environmental impact of the sponsor within its industry (xbar=3.25, σ=4) • The sponsor’s scope of work impacting people in Developing Countries (xbar=3.2, σ=1.2) We care a lot about the impacts of our sponsors (environmental & social) and their willingness to change. The francophones seem to care even more.

When evaluating potential sponsors to engage, rate the importance of: • Other important considerations; • Release system metrics used to evaluate potential sponsors • Sponsors connecting to Cdn delegates more important than African programs • Organizations with a valuable message to share (3) • Organizations willing to engage and be challenged (3) • Organizations that share values with EWB (5) • Possibility to enrich conference beyond money • Socially responsible / Global minded (5) • Open to enriched dialogue concerning industry (4) • Money (3) • Quality of the speaker they send (2) • Relationship at the Chapter level • Good collaborations with indigenous people • Local companies (2) • Companies not focused on image (3) • Low maintenance Organizations

How would you like to see the interaction between you and sponsors:

How would you like to see the interaction between you and sponsors: • Most important factors: • Work with sponsors to find industry solutions (xbar=4.09, σ=0.8) • Participate in CSR discussions (xbar=4.0, σ=0.8) • Willingness to be a recurring conference sponsor (xbar=4.0, σ=0.6) • Career fair and resume bank (xbar=3.8, σ=0.7) • Distributed CSR discussions based on EWB field work (xbar=3.77, σ=0.8) • Willingness to be constructively grilled (xbar=3.5, σ=0.8)

How would you like to see the interaction between you and sponsors: • Least important factors: • Job interviews (xbar=2.63, σ=0.9) • Corporate case study competition (xbar=3.11, σ=0.8) • Integration of sponsors within conference (xbar=3.23, σ=0.8) • Planned and intentional interactions between specific delegates and sponsors (xbar=3.38, σ=0.9) • Social entrepreneurship competition (xbar=3.43, σ=0.7) We don’t have a strong desire for sponsors to have integral program roles within conference (slightly higher desire by francophones)

How would you like to see the interaction between you and sponsors: • Other important considerations: • Organized activities involving sponsors may compete for delegate time, interest and focus • Finding solution paths is good (6) • Long term partnerships are good (3) • Beware EWBers grilling or bashing on CSR (7) • Self promotion of sponsors is bad (6) • Companies should dwell deeper into what they are doing on a systems level (2) • Concerns about questions on survey (4) • Have sponsors / partners at career fair • Either improve sponsorship engagement or make more value for transparent sponsors

Sponsorship Survey Results Keep in mind that the higher you rate things, the harder it will be for us to seek the right sponsors" - I actually think it's more than that: Delegates need to integrate the fact that their fees are reduced by sponsorship, and that if they demand lower fees, they are forcing the fundraising team into more compromise. Imagine (thought experiment that may be interesting for delegates) that at registration, there is a list of existing sponsors with the amounts they've given to the conference. The grand total leads to a given price per delegate. Then the delegate has the choice to opt out of the sponsors she deems not acceptable to her standards, in CSR, Environment, Africa specific investment, other. Her tuition fees increased commensurate to her opt out divided by total number of participants, and other participants who have accepted sponsorship from the companies she rejected receive a greater sponsorship as a result of her move. If the delegate saw this in a dynamic way, it would help them make their REAL choice and be responsible.

Sponsorship Survey Results What else do you believe to be an important consideration concerning the sponsors we seek? • release the sort of metrics that you're using to evaluate sponsors to the EWB community • sponsors' connection with delegates in Canada is more important than their ability to connect with our african programs work • valuable message to give or lessons to share • Openness to criticism • Companies that aren't prone to "spinning" things • Calgary based companies would be nice to provide a bit of contrast between local vs. global impact • Companies that are willing to be liberal with how their money is spent and not set any constraints • sponsors who want to create relationships at chapter levels as well as national • By "letting" companies sponsor us, we're implicitly endorsing them and their values. That's something to do carefully. • Sponsors ought to be globally-minded organisations. • Actual CSR performance seems very important. Scope of work impacting people in developing countries / Africa is make or break for me. • I hope the the future pelican team will have the resources to focus on desired sponsors and not focusing on those who have perceived sponsorship ability. • Ideally EWB2013 would have socially and environmentally responsible sponsors, but hand picking these types of sponsors may seem exclusive, and we may be "preaching to the choir". Instead we may have more impact if we select sponsors willing to think more critically about how their business influences our world. It's hard to determine which approach is better. • Actions vs Words…I think that companies that have gross violations (allegedly killing locals, giving money to the Ghaddafis, etc.) should be completely avoided.

Sponsorship Survey Results What else do you believe to be an important consideration concerning the sponsors we seek? • It would be good to consider that even potential sponsors with not such a good CSR reputation can come to the EWB conference to open a dialogue with delegates. Maybe aspects of their operation are misunderstood, or maybe they would like to set the record straight. • Keeping in mind that people's knowledge about specific CSR-related issues can vary widely, it not only gives the sponsor a chance to set the record straight, but also to come to the conference and see what is important to EWB and why certain issues matter to delegates. • One of the ways that EWB can have more of an impact on the industry is also if EWB understands the industry more, their goals and aspirations and can work alongside these organizations to achieve goals that satisfy everybody. • Sponsorship is primarily about generating money to hold the conference - as long as a sponsor doesn't strongly detract from the values of EWB I don't think there should be many additional criteria for allowing someone to support EWB. It might be that the lead sponsor should be scrutinized a bit more than a smaller sponsor, since EWB will be giving a higher profile to that company. • That they reflect the type of firms ewb members respect. • Carefully proportion the amount of time spent dealing with community investment (CI) departments that are poor communicators or make abnormal demands in regards to logistics, or sponsorship levels. The conference is a high-value commodity for companies, if CI departments don't realize this, and act in a way that honours EWB volunteer time, then we should question how much we want to accommodate such behavior (how much money are they giving for the grief that EWB volunteers have to burden).

Sponsorship Survey Results What else do you believe to be an important consideration concerning the sponsors we seek? • Their overall vision of leadership and community impact. I think it would also be cool to have companies that people in EWB would be excited to work for. This makes it good for the sponsor and for delegates. • Quality of speaker they send. The conference is meant to inspire and engage - having a grey haired guy drone on about the responsibility to public of engineers really takes away from the energy level. • Besides the scope of a sponsor's work, the scope of their other activities should be considered. For example, if they investing in questionable lobbying of governments etc. or are/have intentionally misinformed the public on their actions. • The local development work that the company does is also important. More specifically, the projects they work on that may or are focused on improving the quality of lives of people they work in. • The companies that have positive reputations for their cooperation and collaboration with First Nations Communities would be an interesting parallel with those that work in Africa. • I think real performance is more important than perceived, but if public perception of the company or industry is negative or ambivalent, try to make a point of highlighting how they are leading in their industry and working towards certain common values. Please, no scandals (eg SNC Lavalin) unless completely justifiable. • Company sponsors like having visibility at our events. Whether it be for positive CSR marketing or to attract potential employees, sponsors want to be seen and recognized. • Other ways they can enrich the conference besides money. • Sponsors that have values and approaches that either reflect a legitimate triple bottom line or indicate a progression in that direction. • Organizations and corporations that are willing to engage and be challenged on issues in their respective sector- creating constructive dialogue spaces • Organizations and corporations that challenge EWB but do not go against our values-as in a strong CSR track record but can challenge our learning as an organization (a tall order I know but it would be really cool to see)

Sponsorship Survey Results What else do you believe to be an important consideration concerning the sponsors we seek? • Je pense que la culture organisationnelle de la compagnie est important car elle recoupe beaucoup des autres points: je pense qu'il est important qu'une compagnie cherche réellement à développer sa RSE et pas seulement montrer une belle image, même chose pour l'environnement et son impact dans les pays en développement/en Afrique. Dans le même sens, la transparence de la compagnie et la démonstration sincère de la volonté d'améliorer ses pratiques devrait être primordial pour établir une relation constructive (I think the organizational culture of the company is important because it cuts a lot of other points: I think it is important that a company actually tries to develop its CSR not only show a good image, same thing for the environment and its impact on developing countries / Africa. In the same sense, the transparency of the company and demonstrating genuine willingness to improve its practices should be important to establish a constructive relationship) • Le budget n'a pas besoin d'être aussi élevé que l'an dernier. On a pas besoin d'un hôtel prestigieux. (The budget does not need to be as high as last year. We do not need a prestigious hotel.) • valeurs au diapason avec celles d'ISF (values in tune with those of EWB)

Sponsorship Survey Results What else do you believe to be an important consideration concerning the sponsors we seek? I think it's a nice idea to only get sponsor's that have a positive CSR or have no negative impact on developing countries/Africa/Canada but honestly...I think there are a lot of companies with a lot of money to throw around at awesome projects, and that money is going to be used either for awesome projects or for more of the company's bottom line. And if within your sponsorship agreement you have something stipulating that they send (higher level) sponsor reps to your conference to actually see what EWB does and network with sweet students that could possibly work for these "evil" companies and change things from the inside...it seems like a really positive partnership. Because all the "good" companies still have shady business and all the "evil" companies are looking to find new partnerships that will help them look better...I just think since we know they all have evil sides, we should use the resources available to create sweet world changing projects and create avenues for companies to support them and maybe find some employees that will change the world from within the current structures..one day. There's money around. Especially from oil companies that want to find brilliant new engineers. Why not use their money and their partnerships to inspire an entire class of engineers while providing opportunities for those sweet engineers to use what they learn with EWB to do sweet stuff in Alberta AND around the world?

Sponsorship Survey Results Are there any specific organizations that you would like to see sponsor EWB2013? • I think it would be great to see a diversity of organizations. Something like IDEO, that focuses more on thinking than a more tangible organization • I went to the Fresh Outlook Foundation conference in Kelowna, last March, it's a sustainability conference and it was amazing. I would suggest looking them up and seeing if any of their sponsors may be interested. The organizer is a great person, and one of their keynote speakers, Peter Comrie, was from a leadership organization called Full Spectrum Leadership, who is all about helping companies improve the leadership of their employees--one of the best speeches ever. • Partnerships with other development organizations / funding agencies? • Professional Engineering Associations • AMEC seem like a pretty legit company. • McKinsey and Co • Please continue to include local associations, example mechanical or construction. I'm sure other associations may also be interested, but at lower sponsorship values then mining/oil/universities. • Every one of the Canadian professional engineering associations, many supported Conference 2012, but it would be great to see them all supporting the event! • Ones that will give us LOTS of money. • Leadership foundations? Universities? University of Calgary, University of Alberta, SAIT, MRU, Schulich School of Engineering, WestJet • Halsall Associates (Trevor Freeman is your best link on this) • It would be cool to see some organizations working with the Cradle to Cradle design philosophy. • None specifically come to mind but speaking as a non-engineer it would be nice to see a diversity of organizations in and out of engineering or engineering based companies that provide opportunities for non-engineers. This however is not a deal breaker it would just be cool to see. • Bullfrog

Sponsorship Survey Results Are there any specific organizations that you would like to see sponsor EWB2013? • Ce serait bien d'avoir une entreprise québécoise ou oeuvrant de façon importante au Québec. • (It would be nice to have a Canadian company working or significantly in Quebec.) • Pas particulièrement, mais je pense que ça pourrait être intéressant de solliciter des petites compagnies dynamiques à l'avant-garde de la RSE pour leur donner de la visibilité auprès des participants. • (Not particularly, but I think it might be interesting to solicit small dynamic companies in the forefront of CSR to give visibility to the participants.) • Pas de sables bitumineux, pas de minières sales • (No oil sands No mining) • des organisations africaines! • (African organizations)

Sponsorship Survey Results Do you have specific connections to an organization (or more than one!) that you feel may be a good sponsor and that you are willing to have a role in securing sponsorship with? • what are you looking for in terms of smaller sponsors? Would a company like EcoFair be a good fit (I have a connection and the Vancouver ewbers have used them frequently) (jnr1@sfu.ca) • Not really, our chapter is connected to the APEGBC, who want to work with us, but you should ask the Calgary chapter I'm sure APEGA is already involved. • I have a connection with WestJet who I feel could be a good sponsor. My father is a pilot and I was awarded a WestJet scholarship two years ago. WestJet recently sent some employees to Haiti to do some volunteer construction work which indicates good intentions, but, perhaps, a lack of serious thought into the impact they were trying to achieve. I would be willing to have a role in securing sponsorship if the sponsorship team thinks that WestJet could be a good sponsor. (james.g.wattam@gmail.com) • Stacey Young – USAID (borismartin@ewb.ca) • Empowered networks - WiFi EWB2012 (amixinlife@gmail.com) • La Siembra - Camino, but there are other probably stronger connectors in the office for that. (amixinlife@gmail.com) • Baker Hughes (brussell19@gmail.com) • All of my connections are being used to create sponsorship within my own organization...but if you want extra facilitators/energizers/whatever at your conference I would be totally down to come play! (Melissa Tierney, melissa.m.tierney@gmail.com) • I will be working for Arcelor Mittal Dofasco this summer at their recreation centre in Hamilton, ON. On a global scale I'm pretty sure they don't have a superb track record but in Hamilton the Dofasco industrial plant has some good environmental practices (for a steel plant). I would want to research them further before considering them for sponsorship but could play a role in securing them as a sponsor if they're a good fit. (meaghanlangille@ewb.ca)

Sponsorship Survey Results Any other points that should be included or that you want to elaborate on? • some of the above (job interviews, corporate case competition, social entrepreneurship competetion) have very high levels of time needed to complete, and could compete for delegate time, interest, and focus at a conference. I don't think that conference should fill these needs. • I really like the idea of delegates finding solutions for companies / participating in case studies, but it might be difficult to ensure that resolutions actually go somewhere. • Don't really understand what the last 2 are about. On the "planned and intentional interactions between specific delegates and sponsors" and "Exploration of solution paths for a specific sponsor in a case-study (constructive grilling to gain better insight)" I would say there is no point in engaging 1/2 way into something like this. If you read experiences from changemakers in the realm of CSR, it takes years and lots of strong networks within a company to drive change, and a common agenda. Any attempt at grilling a company on the spot, or engaging with a few delegates with a specific agenda, if done with little knowledge of the company's trajectory or potential to change, and no long term strategy/responsibility/commitment associated with the initiative, amounts to a move to make the delegates feel better about themselves and make themselves believe they are some sort of moralistic heroes. I think it's important to be pragmatic and realistic about what we do and how we do it. Now, if there is a group that is taking a professional and targeted approach at creating change within a specific company through partnership on CSR, I'd be very excited for us to enable this type of initiative through the conference. This is exactly what we do when we create a space for USAID folks to come meet the AVC team at conference for example. But let's be clear: AVC has 6 years of field experience, 6 APS this year, 1 long term TL (3+ years experience and connections internationally in his domain) and a $60,000 operational budget. That's to create change within 1 institution (albeit a major one). It takes a minimum of commitment to create change. I would want to see that minimum commitment • It would be great if we could use conference to build relationships and partnerships with our corporate partners in the long term. Relationships extending beyond monetary support to engage the members of the corporation would be ideal!

Sponsorship Survey Results Any other points that should be included or that you want to elaborate on? • Long term conference sponsorship is ideal, but it is a reality? I like the idea of having sponsors or partners at the conference during the career fair so that delegates can see who else is out there. ex. during the Ottawa conference career fair, it was all Engineering professionals coming to mingle and talk about themselves. In Toronto, MSF representatives/volunteers were there to talk. If we want to have an open learning environment where people come and challenge our thinking we need mingling sessions with World Vision, Oxfam, Save the Children, MSF, etc.! Sorry this is a branch from sponsorship, the whole partnership thing was on my mind. • EWB is not in a very good position to vet other orgs on their CSR practices. We know VERY LITTLE about CSR, because we don't practice it directly. I dislike the idea of us "grilling" other orgs, particularly if they work in vastly different fields than we do (ie. mining). EWB is sounding way too pompous -- not enough humility so far in the way the conversation has been framed. • The marketing departments of any companies that are likely to sponsor you are probably already well versed in CSR rhetoric, which is all a panel discussion or "constructive grilling" is likely to elicit...Integrating sponsors and allowing them time to network with members to discuss these issues and possibly "finding solutions for sponsors..." through some sort of panel or round-table would be great and might create a reaction outside of just the marketing team. • These things all sound cool and would be awesome to pull together... the willingness of sponsors to participate may influence the sponsors you get. • I think CSR discussions are tough because EWBer believe that while development, education and health are complex, business is not. I don't think that anyone in EWB knows enough about the industries and general economics of countries (developing and developed) to be able to weigh into this in a meaningful way. Let's not kid ourselves or our members into thinking we're smarter than we are. • It would be nice to find a way to encourage discussion/interactions with corporate sponsors to be more honest and less blantantly self promoting.

Sponsorship Survey Results Any other points that should be included or that you want to elaborate on? • Keep in mind that it's difficult for a lot of these to just be summarized in a 5-point-scale survey. Just as with Wikipedia's sponsorship, continued or large sponsorship can colour the reputation of both EWB and its sponsors, so Wikipedia chooses not to have any corporate sponsorship to prove that there is no pressure or bias in their articles. Although this doesn't mean that EWB should eschew corporate sponsorship entirely, it is a factor to consider. This is why a lot of my responses here are "it's complicated“. The sponsorship relationship can definitely be two way: maybe EWB can not just suggest "well sponsors should be more transparent", but show concrete examples and methods of implementing a transparent operation to give the sponsors best practices. (this is related to the Finding solutions for sponsors to lead their industry in CSR part of the survey). • General CSR discussion should be important but it needs to be tempered with facts, and this can be quite difficult. Without hard facts from both sides, a CSR discussion could potentially turn into a marketing platform for the company or an attack on the company, with the polarization of viewpoints preventing productive, intellectual discourse. I'm not sure what corporate case competition and social entrepreneurship competition means, exactly. I think if sponsors and csr are going to be included in the conference, it should be looking at big picture stuff. It's been a while since I've been to an ewb conference, but I would not be too interested in listening to day-to-day nice things that company's do unless it's a one-on-one conversation. If they have a plan for how they can help change current practices, or better yet, perceptions, then that would be worthwhile to hear. For example, last year I met a couple of guys at a voting technology conference from Denmark who work at a company that provides election services for non-federal or state elections. Their company's mandate was to improve democracy in the country. They ran trustworthy, verifiable elections for most of the unions, but also had programs in schools and with parents to increase democracy education and start participation at a young age. While their company was not profit-driven, they were expanding at an incredible rate because people believed in their products and they were always attempting to improve their systems with the latest research. I don't know of any company off the top of my head that is like this in Canada, but that's the kind of thing that would be great to hear from if you find any.

Sponsorship Survey Results Any other points that should be included or that you want to elaborate on? • Integration with sponsors is good, like a few hours for a career fair or making space for them to talk about their company, but i don't think any conference content should be based on those sponsors. The goal of the conference is to explore ideas in global development, so a panel on CSR and its interaction with development with people who will be open and critical about the process is a good idea. i would, however, not include company spokesmen as they are often very superficial and baised and make those panels unsimulating. If companies want to talk about how great they are, make a specific space for it. • I really like the ideas presented especially around engaging sponsors in these innovative ways. May want to consider being strategic and intentional around which sponsors will be engaged in these ways.Ask is it valuable to engage all sponsors this way? Should this only be applied to sponsors of highest partnership potential or be used as an opportunity to generate conversational spaces with sponsors of opposing viewpoints?Or should opposing sponsors be discounted completely? It is all very complicated and finding some sort of balance between those questions that best reflects the input from EWBers and the conference vision will be vitally important. • Some of the points above don't make sense. • 1) Finding solutions for sponsors to lead their industry in Global Development/CSR/governance/transparency/other - By finding "solutions" It implies that EWB is all knowing and has all the answers to development. • 2) Exploration of solution paths for a specific sponsor in a case-study (constructive grilling to gain better insight) - who is EWB "grilling", what kind of case-study does this refer to? • 3) Corporate case competition - Clarification needed. Is the competition for delegates or the companies? • 4) Social entrepreneurship competition - see 3.

Sponsorship Survey Results Any other points that should be included or that you want to elaborate on? • Je ne suis pas certain de comprendre ce que "Intégration des commanditaires dans le programme officiel du Congrès" veut dire mais je suis pour établir des relations constructives. Ce que je crois, c'est que le commanditaires à tout avantage à laisser 600+ personnes d'ISF brainstorm des idées sur la manière de faire de la RSE pour son entreprise (ça peut même être un puissant incitatif pour des partenariats sur plusieurs années) et que de l'autre côté, il peut s'agit d'une belle occasion pour les participants d'appliquer certains principes de l'ingénierie globale à des études de cas réels. Il pourrait y avoir une plage horaires du congrès où les principaux commanditaires anime chacun une session pendant laquelle un défi de RSE réel du commanditaires est présenté et des pistes de solutions sont discutés. • DEUX DANGERS: • 1) Les participants n'ont pas vraiment le temps ni l'espace de bien comprendre ce que fait le commanditaire, et ça vire en bashing de surface. • 2) Le commanditaire prend trop d'attention et devient le sujet central du congrès (si par exemple il y a un concours sur une étude de cas du commanditaire), ce qui à mon avis n'est pas souhaitable d'utiliser l'énergie du congrès pour ça. • (I'm not sure I understand what "Integration of sponsors in the official program of the Congress" but I mean to build constructive relationships. What I believe is that the sponsors advantage to leave 600 + people ISF brainstorm ideas on how to make CSR for the company (it can even be a powerful incentive for partnerships over several years ) and on the other hand, it can is a great opportunity for participants to apply the principles of engineering in global real case studies. There may be a range of conference schedule where major sponsors drives each session during which a real challenge sponsors CSR is presented and possible solutions are discussed.TWO DANGERS:1) Participants do not really have the time or space to understand what the sponsor, and it turns into bashing surface.2) The sponsor takes too much attention and become the central topic of the conference (eg if there is a competition on a case study sponsor), which in my opinion is not desirable to use the energy of Congress for that.)

Sponsorship Survey Results What other elements might be important considering sponsorship? • Just keep it up guys! We know it's difficult to do, so best of lucks! • All the best! Thanks for opening this up for discussion! • Thanks for creating this space. pretty amazing! • mo money, less problems • Having sessions about CSR shouldn't be showy and glazed over. those who want to have those conversations won't be satisfied with a panel of people. Having open space for it? • The more you can create personal relationships between sponsors and key (well informed, well spoken but not tirade-y) members, the more effective and impactful your partnership can be. I've seen lots of forums where very smart and well intentioned groups tried to create dialogue between sponsors and organizations and the sponsors just went into full rhetoric defense mode and it was useless..but creating personal connections between people allows people working within the sponsor company to see innovative solutions without being on the defensive about problems, and that's what sparks real change. In my experience. • Sponsors values are important. It would be cool to have sponsor delegates more integrated into the conference - attending more sessions and hanging out generally... not sure how to be accomplish this. I think that the conference team is given a difficult challenge balancing engaging organizations we want to be associated with and those we want to engage in order to dialogue with them and intact change within their organization. I think this should be transparent what the nature of the relationship we have with a given sponsor is to be, both to EWB membership and the organization. Bottom line, let us know the why and how each sponsor was chosen. (also, thanks for seeking our opinions!) • Based on some of the questions above, I'm concerned that EWB has the perception that it has a solution for companies on how they should act as corporate citizens. I hope that EWB will be able to develop strong, long term relationships based on dialog and respect. From a sponsors side, this is an excellent recruitment opportunity.

Sponsorship Survey Results What other elements might be important considering sponsorship? • Vous faites un boulot excellent, le sondage est une très bonne idée, merci de nous impliquer là-dedans! Keep on rocking! • (You're doing a great job, the survey is a good idea, thank you imply there! I assume Quebec delegates have all their expenses paid for!)

29 questions 65 participants (59 English / 6 French)