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CAMBRIDGE RAG & OXFORD RAG

Sponsorship Proposal 2015 - 2016

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At Oxford RAG and Cambridge RAG, we aim to

raise as much money as possible for charity by organising a series of fun and

innovative events and campaigns. Many of these events have grown to become key features of balls

and student social calendar’s, and so Cambridge RAG and Oxford RAG have the combined ability to reach out to an extremely

wide audience of students at both universities. The two RAGs are therefore putting any friendly Oxbridge rivalries aside and coming together for this joint sponsorship proposal, created exclusively for BNY Mellon. Our proposal sets out what we would be able to offer in return for our suggested

sponsorship fee of £5,000 for each society. Having previously worked with your organisation during the Boat Race, we are extremely excited about the prospect of undertaking more joint ventures and we hope that our proposal is of interest to you.

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INTRODUCTION

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Why work with RAG?

A partnership between RAG at Oxford and Cambridge and BNY Mellon would be beneficial to both parties, bringing BNY Mellon unrivalled brand exposure across the two university student bodies, while providing the base cash injection necessary for us to grow and raise more for our charities. We believe that partnering with the Oxford and Cambridge RAGs would bring BNY Mellon three key benefits:

1. Exposure

As one of the largest student societies at both universities, Oxford and Cambridge RAG can offer the opportunity for BNY Mellon to have virtually unrivalled levels of brand promotion.

2. Committee

Both RAGs have committees made up of teams of highly driven students who, as a result of their involvement with RAG, have proven skills in teamwork, communication and organisation. As a sponsor, BNY Mellon would be in an excellent position to establish valuable relationships with RAG Committee members.

3. Social Responsibility

Association with RAG would reinforce BNY Mellon’s existing achievements in this area and reflect its commitment to communities. Building from our previous work together

on the Boat Race, BNY Mellon would enter into a mutually-beneficial relationship with the two RAGs.

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1. Exposure – Getting your brand out there

OXFORD

By partnering with RAG, BNY Mellon can gain unbridled insight and access to the student population of Oxford University. We occupy provide a unique opportunity to spread your message across college and subject boundaries, and can promote your organisation in the following ways:

• RAG’s own mailing list contains more than 4,000 Oxford students

• As the official fundraising arm of the Oxford University Students’ Union RAG has the unique opportunity to promote its event through the student union’s weekly mailout which reaches the inbox of every student at Oxford University, totalling more than 20,000 undergraduates and postgraduates

• RAG has a strong presence on social media with the Facebook page for this year’s ball already on 3,000 likes, and our system of reps in every college (including postgraduate colleges) provides us with the ability to promote our events in all online college pages and groups

• As part of the student union, RAG enjoys a place of pride at the OUSU Freshers’ Fair which will be attended by all 3,200 new undergraduate and 4,500 new postgraduate students, with a minimum of four stalls dedicated to our activities. This event is new students’ first introduction to the many extracurricular opportunities available at Oxford, and is therefore a prime opportunity to increase your organisation’s exposure

• Our famous RAG Ball is one of the best attended balls in Oxford with over 1,200 attendees in 2014

In exchange for your contribution Oxford RAG would offer BNY Mellon

sponsorship of our RAG Casino.

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Staffed by thirty trained croupiers, our RAG Casino is present at over 20 college and society balls a year, in addition to 15 smaller events. These events range from poker nights, to boat parties, to commemoration balls costing over £200 a ticket. By choosing to sponsor us BNY Mellon would have a presence at all of these events. Sponsorship of the Casino provides a number of opportunities and could take the form of:

• Branded tablecloths for all our table games

• Branded poker chips

• Branded visors worn by our croupiers at all events

• Promotional material handed out at all non-ball events

• Advertising space on the Casino website

We would also provide the benefits of general sponsorship, including:

• Inclusion of your logo on all marketing materials, including our website

• Inclusion in the sponsors’ section on our website and referencing on social media

• Inclusion of your logo on jumpers and polo shirts worn by volunteers at all events

• Promotion of BNY Mellon recruitment materials through our social media accounts

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CAMBRIDGE

At Cambridge RAG, we benefit enormously from having the ability to promote our events to an almost unparalleled audience throughout both the university and the wider city. The following is a list of some of the ways in which we are able to reach students:

• Our Facebook page has 2,440 likes and our Twitter account 800 followers.

• The Cambridge RAG mailing list currently has 3,000 subscribers

• Each year Cambridge RAG recruits a team of 30 College Representatives for each college, whose job it is to organise RAG events within their own college and to advertise events and campaigns organised by the society. They provide RAG with a valuable reach of exposure and developing the role of the College Reps is a key focus of RAG for the coming academic year.

• As of 2014 – 2015 RAG has begun to collaborate increasingly with the student union of Anglia Ruskin University, meaning that RAG now advertises city-wide throughout Cambridge.

• We also in recent years developed an excellent relationship with the student media, and in particular with ‘The Tab’, who in the past have published articles advertising RAG events. The Tab is an online student newspaper which is the most popular at the university in terms of the number of hits it receives and which currently has almost 8,000 likes on its Facebook page.

In return for your sponsorship fee, we would like to offer BNY Mellon sponsorship of two of our flagship events: our ‘hitch’ events, ‘Jailbreak’ and ‘LOST’.

LOST, taking part in the Michaelmas term, is one of the newer events which RAG organises, but it has quickly become a high

point of the RAG calendar. In 2014 – 2015 around 200 students took part, and the event

made £2,000 more than it ever had before.

The basic

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idea is that students take part in teams of two and are dropped off in a mystery location around 100 miles from Cambridge. The teams then have 24 hours to make it back to Cambridge without spending any money, completing a series of fun challenges along the way.

Jailbreak, a similar event which happens over a weekend during the Lent term, has in recent years become firmly established as one of the key events in the RAG calendar. The premise is that teams of two students have 36 hours to get as far from Cambridge as they possibly can using none of their own money. In 2014/15 84 students took part, with the winning team managing to travel an impressive 5,956 miles to finish in Thailand! Teams in recent years have also made it to locations such as Miami, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro and Turkey.

Both are extremely fun and popular events which are heavily publicised and advertised throughout the university.

Sponsorship of both events will provide the following advantages:

• BNY Mellon’s logo included on all advertising materials for the event (including both printed publicity and social media).

• BNY Mellon’s logo displayed on the relevant section of the RAG website for the event.

• Inclusion of BNY Mellon’s logo in the design for the t-shirts worn by participants during both events.

• The possibility of creating a ‘BNY Mellon Challenge’ tied in with both events for participants to complete.

• Subsection of the ‘Sponsors and Contributors’ area of the RAG website dedicated to BNY Mellon.

• An approved piece of text about BNY Mellon to be included

in the email

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signature of the committee members responsible for the event and all publicity emails for the event sent to the RAG mailing list, which currently has over 3,000 members.

• BNY Mellon’s website link on RAG Facebook and Twitter feeds when publicising the event.

• During the events ‘The Tab’ has in the last few years run a very popular ‘live-blog’, keeping students updated on the teams’ progress, and there would be scope to mention BNY Mellon as being the sponsor of the event within this article.

• Promotion of BNY Mellon recruitment materials and messages through our social media outlets and through the distribution of printed materials.

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2. The Committee – GETTING TO MEET STUDENTS

At both RAGs, we realise that with graduate schemes becoming increasingly oversubscribed, companies such as yours are looking for more than simply promotion for your brand when attracting applicants. Therefore in addition to promoting the BNY Mellon brand to a wide audience at the two universities, we also want to offer opportunities for you to meet and engage with our talented and hardworking committees and society members. Our members at both universities have a wide range of career aspirations, but whether they aim for the City or the third sector, they all take with them the skills and knowledge gained from their time working with RAG. Arranging blind dates for 3,000 people or a hitchhiking event with students travelling as far as Thailand requires a great deal of teamwork, organisation and hard work, and so these experiences means they are well equipped to enter the world of work.

We are therefore eager to arrange opportunities for interaction between our members and BNY Mellon as part of the proposed sponsorship partnership. The following are examples of how we see this working in practice:

• The Boat Race – We would really like to see a large scale RAG-organised event taking place in conjunction with the boat race. This could take the form of a ‘raid’ (bucket collection) at the race itself or something different entirely.

• Events based in Oxford/Cambridge – We would also like to have one or two events each term based within the universities themselves. Ideas that we have had in the past for such events include creating a ‘penny mile’ at a lecture site, and we are open to whatever suggestions you might have as well.

• Weekly meetings – Both RAG committees meet once a week during term time to discuss future plans and events. We currently often host speakers at these

meetings from the charities we support, and we would be more than happy to host representatives from BNY Mellon to come

and meet and talk to committee members.

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How is the sponsorship money used?

It is preferred by both RAGs that funds raised from the student body and members of the public are donated directly to our charities. We therefore intend to channel most sponsorship income towards covering our administrative costs. Both Cambridge and Oxford RAG operate with our overheads maintained at an absolute minimum. The funds you provide will facilitate our future fundraising, and allow both organisations to develop further and raise even larger sums for charity. Both Oxford and Cambridge would keep in constant contact with your representatives, ensuring you are kept informed of how the funds are spent and how our activities will benefit your organisation.

Summary

Oxford and Cambridge RAG would very much like to have the opportunity to collaborate with BNY Mellon over the coming academic years and to provide you with a personalised plan for publicity at our respective universities and the greatest possible value in return for your sponsorship fee.

In this document we have outlined the sponsorship opportunities we are proposing and suggested sponsorship fees. Any of these options would provide BNY Mellon with high levels of publicity across both Universities, something that we are keen to help you to achieve.

We are very much open to additional suggestions and would welcome any level of support possible.

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Contact details

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us:

OXFORD

Chris William, RAG President 2015 – 2016: rag-president@ousu.ox.ac.uk

Gabriel Lawson, RAG Treasurer 2015 – 2016: rag-treasurer@ousu.ox.ac.uk

Oxford RAG website: www.ousu.org/get-involved/raise-and-give/

Oxford Raise & Give, 2 Worcester Street, Oxford OX1 2BX

www.facebook.com/OxfordRAG

https://twitter.com/oxfordrag

CAMBRIDGE

Olivia Sinclair, RAG President 2015 – 2016: president@cambridgerag.org.uk, 01223 330 286

Eliza Jones, RAG Sponsorship Officer 2015 – 2016: ragsponsorship@gmail.com

Cambridge RAG website: www.cambridgerag.org.uk

Cambridge RAG 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX

www.facebook.com/cambridge.rag

https://twitter.com/cambridgerag

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