Yes! Partnerships can be a great way to expand your group’s reach, diversify event programming, and help members build relationships with industry leading companies. Sponsors can also fund or provide meeting space, cover food and beverage costs. Any sponsorship secured by an ONA Local group should abide by ONA’s Sponsorship, Donor and Gift Policy. If you’re not sure, feel free to reach out to Meghan (meghan@journalists.org) for help.

More advice on best practices for finding and working with partners and sponsors is under the Best Practices section of the toolkit.

What if my group earns money through a partnership?

The easiest way to handle partnerships is to ask the sponsor to cover event costs such as food and beverage or supplies directly. But in some instances, they may prefer to give a monetary sponsorship to your group.

Any funds that your group earns (such as financial sponsorships or registration) will come through ONA. ONA will, in turn, use that money towards the cost of the ONA Local event. If you have a financial sponsorship secured, please notify Meghan ASAP so we can give the right information to the sponsor. Do not set up a bank account for your group.

Most events don’t make enough money to cover the costs of putting them on, but in the rare instance there are leftover funds, we will set it aside for future events.