by Delft MaMa Outreach Coordinator Maria Steenhuizen and Chairwoman Meredith Mull Aggarwal
Why sponsor or partner with Delft MaMa?
For the past 12 years, Delft MaMa, a volunteer-led non-profit organisation, has served international mothers and their families. Delft MaMa helps them find their place and new acquaintances in Delft and its surroundings. Over this time, the organisation has become known as a reliable collaborator with those who want to build their community.
The results of Delft MaMa`s activities are a strong network of dedicated volunteers, a calendar of public events with different themes and purposes organised throughout the year and a continuously evolving community. The latter consists of thousands of international families and women who are very active and present online (see Delft MaMa Communications Report) and offline at the events, which everyone is welcome to join. In addition, Delft MaMa has well-established long-term community connections and relationships. These include Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), The Hague International Centre and ACCESS.
Every year, Delft MaMa creates engaging and meaningful opportunities for entrepreneurs and businesses to present their services and products to the community.
Sponsoring Delft MaMa can be through a financial sponsorship, community partnership with exchange of skills, information and space, or as an individual donor. Being a sponsor gives you access to the community, a platform to showcase yourself or your business, an audience to see your product or service. It also provides you with an organisation through which to increase your skill set or advance your experience.
Last, but not least, partnering with Delft MaMa is a creative and fun co-working process. It is facilitated by enthusiastic volunteers who are willing to make it enjoyable and beneficial for all involved parties.
Why are partnerships and sponsorships important for volunteer non-government organisations like Delft MaMa?
As an organisation without set funding, Delft MaMa creates and supports partnerships and sponsorships as a way to secure resources. These include building space, expertise, funding and grants. Partnership also allows Delft MaMa to assess where it can contribute to the community, such as in the case of the Mosaic Project from 2016 or through refugee support.
In 2018, Delft MaMa applied for ANBI designation, which would allow donations to Delft MaMa to be tax-deductible. In this way, such funding sources would likely be easier to obtain. This process is still pending, however, and Delft MaMa currently does not know the status. You can read more about this process and status here.
How to get involved
Many organisations and individuals reach out to Delft MaMa throughout the year. They see value in the Delft MaMa community and desire to support it through their skills, services and products.
Online. Delft MaMa’s Facebook group allows self-promotion by its members on the first day of each month and within a specific post.
Offline. Delft MaMa’s Outreach team determines if an organisation, business or individual is a good partner for the Delft MaMa community. Current and former Delft MaMa volunteers who have expertise to share are easily accepted as a partner. People who have been a part of the Delft MaMa community throughout the years know the community best, after all!
In other cases, the Outreach team examines the intent of the partnership and how it supports the Delft MaMa community. Sometimes, a partner or sponsor has a clear idea of what and how they would like to provide for the community. This may be a workshop on a specific topic and at their own location, for example. Other times, there may simply be an interest for more information. At this point the Outreach team may consider a proposal suited to both the partner/sponsor and Delft MaMa. Partnerships like this may involve bringing other partners on board to support an event by providing a location or a speaker, sometimes resulting in a larger collaborative event, like in the case of the Multilingual Children event in September 2019.
Partnership/sponsorship packages with Delft MaMa
Delft MaMa aims to creatively and flexibly coordinate partnerships within the Delft region. There are also straight sponsorship packages for partners who are ready to provide larger amounts of funding for the organisation. You can review our current packages here: Delft MaMa Sponsorship Opportunities. Please reach out at hello@delftmama.nl if a package speaks to you or your business or organisation. We would love to hear from you!
Latest experiences with sponsorship and partnership and projects which have been possible to realise with sponsors` contribution
Here are a few of our partners and what their partnership means to Delft MaMa:
The Hague International Centre as similar-mission community partner
This partnership aligns two organisations which each serve the international community in the South Holland region. In May 2020, Delft MaMa will present about family affairs at The Hague International Centre’s CONNECT event.
ACCESS as similar-mission community partner
Also aligning two organisations who serve a similar community.
Mint kids conceptstore
To host playgroups and other meetings and events.
TU Delft “Coming to Delft” program to host SLiDe Socials and other workshops
In this partnership, there could be overlap among the communities, as both serve the international communities in Delft. It also allows Delft MaMa to expand its reach to the international community connected to TU Delft. The “Coming to Delft” program informs its audience about partnered events between the two organisations. It also sometimes provides space for Delft MaMa to host an event.
Chameleon Reader as sponsor and Ute’s International Lounge as speaker for Multilingual Children event
Chameleon Reader reached out to Delft MaMa to connect their product for multilingual children. To increase the value of the event, Delft MaMa reached out to Dr. Ute Limacher-Riebold to share her expertise on raising multilingual children, for which she is known throughout the Delft region. In addition, for a location, Delft MaMa reached out to its partner, Mint kids conceptstore, which gladly provided a venue.
Ezzy Family as host and speaker for Pelvic Floor Health Workshop
This is a partnership that came from a specific request. Physiotherapist Yasmae Omar reached out to teach a pelvic floor health workshop to mothers, which was hosted in her studio.
Happy Mamas Den Haag via Johanne Bade at Fit Fabulous Moms as speaker for More Me -Time workshop hosted by Mint kids conceptstore
Johanne reached out to Delft MaMa to speak on various topics which Delft MaMa coordinated with Mint kids conceptstore. Johanne is also starting a foundation, Happy Mamas Den Haag, with a similar mission of supporting women in early motherhood.
Karolina Thakker Design
A freelance multidisciplinary designer who has worked for the past few months on redesigning delftmama.nl to optimize user friendliness of Delft MaMa’s site. Karolina reached out to Delft MaMa with a skill set she could share with a community organisation she respected. We look forward to going live with the new site later this month!
Coming up soon
The next collaborative event on Delft MaMa’s calendar is also later this month. “Review Your CV” will be on 19 February 2020 at TU Delft, hosted by Delft MaMa Volunteer Coordinator Elena Mellara. In this case, a current volunteer offered her expertise to the community. We hope to see many eager learners at the workshop. Read more here.
Conclusion
So, you can see there are many ways a person, business or organisation can partner with Delft MaMa. In each case, we aim for a mutually beneficial relationship!
If you are interested in cooperating with Delft MaMa as a sponsor or a partner, or considering becoming one of its volunteers, please write to us. Join the upcoming General Meeting to meet Delft MaMa volunteers and be a part of the planning process.
Read more about Delft MaMa or follow us on Facebook, group or page, or on Instagram. A lot more information about the organisation, its projects and current partners is available on the website.
