23 Jun 2009
The South Wales Chamber has today officially launched a campaign to raise money for the British Athletes Commission, (BAC) the official support group for the nation’s athletic elite.
The Chamber and BAC have joined forces to launch Team Business South Wales, encouraging businesses to use some of the money they have earmarked for staff bonus and reward schemes to buy each of their staff a fundraising discount directory containing £11,000 worth of money saving vouchers.
Whilst profits from every book sold goes to funding the support given to the athletes by the BAC, the main emphasis of the project is to encourage people to spend money in South Wales, as explained by Patrick Long, the Head of Chamber.
“No other initiative linked to supporting our Olympic and Paralympic Athletes like this has a clear and direct benefit to the local economy. Putting the books full of excellent savings directly into the hands of people will encourage them to spend money in the region.”
With cash-strapped companies less likely to stump up money for sponsorship during a recession, Team Business South Wales will offer interested businesses a more cost-effective method of backing Britain's elite athletes
Businesses can become members of the Affinity Club by buying for each of their employees an "Invitation Book" which contains 480 discount vouchers for a wide range of leisure, retail and tourist outlets in South Wales. They can also flag up their involvement with the nation's elite athletes by using their membership of Team Business on literature and through the regular features they will receive on the athletes they are supporting.
The BAC’s Cowbridge based Chief Executive, Pete Gardner, said that the idea is that companies will not have to find any additional money for the scheme, but simply divert cash they had already earmarked for company bonus and reward schemes in the next 12 months.
He said: "What we are asking companies to do is use some of the money that they already put aside for their own reward schemes to help the BAC and its athletes”.
"The athletes will gain through a scheme that costs a lot less than sponsorship of the athletes themselves because it is money you are already spending, donating a small portion of what you spend on each employee's reward package to supporting British athletes. And it's only £25 per employee – in the current climate that's not much to get involved in helping our elite athletes."
The Team Business South Wales scheme is run by David Cotton, who said: "Simply by directing £25 from their existing budgets, purchasing an Invitation Book for their staff means all in an organisation receive a direct and highly beneficial link from supporting all our competitors."
Businesses which want to find out more about supporting Welsh athletes should contact organiser David Cotton by email on david.cotton@invitationbook.co.uk or visit the South Wales Chamber Website; http://www.ngb2b.org.uk/business-services/Team-Business-South-Wales/team-business-south-wales.asp
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