Sponsorship

Corporate & Community Partnership Program

Corporate and Community partners have been essential to building Groundwork's legacy of innovative solutions that protect the environment, strengthen the economy and build livable, thriving communities. Learn why dozens of businesses and organizations support Groundwork's mission through this important program.

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Corporate & Community Partnerships

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Groundwork’s Corporate and Community Sponsorship Program?

This is an opportunity for local business and community partners whose missions align with Groundwork to offer financial support to further great work and advocacy across a multitude of communities. As a sponsor partner, you are creating an impact in this work while distinguishing your business or organization as a supporter and change-maker with like-minded audiences. Additionally, this program is a way to share more about your business’s values with your customers, clients, and partners, including expressing your commitment to philanthropy.

What’s different about being a member of this program over just making a donation?

All donations help Groundwork tremendously and are appreciated, however, Groundwork’s Corporate and Community Sponsorship Program was developed to support Groundwork programming while offering specific benefits to this group of community heroes at various levels to co-support brand recognition and build awareness. Groundwork has a dedicated group of supporters who are passionate about protecting the environment, strengthening the economy, and building community. This program connects a match of mission, publicly.

What are partners saying they like about Groundwork’s sponsorship program?

  • Directly support programming and communities
  • Feel closer to the organization, the work, and staff
  • Brand recognition and acknowledgment
  • Public connection to causes to expand audiences
  • Co-support shared missions
  • Networking opportunities with like-minded businesses

How will my donation to Groundwork be used?

Sponsorships go right to work into Groundwork solution-focused programming. When you join our list of community heroes, you select your program of choice that directly impacts that work. Partners choose from the following program areas:

  • Climate & Environment
  • Food & Farming
  • Transportation & Design, or
  • Groundwork’s General Fund, which can support a nimble need, like growing a new program, or serve a timely need, such as the Local Food Relief Fund, which at the onset of the pandemic linked farmers, pantries, and so many in need.

What are the sponsor levels?

  • $10,000 Resilience Partner
  • $5,000 Community Partner
  • $2,500 Neighborhood Partner
  • $1,000 Block Partner

What special benefits are included in my sponsorship?

  • Recognition in Groundwork’s annual report
  • Invitations to a private Corporate and Community Sponsor event
  • Recognition in an email newsletter series highlighting Groundwork programs in conjunction with the annual report
  • Quarterly updates from Groundwork program directors about how your gift has impacted the community
  • Resilience and Community level partners receive a special showcase Q&A interview about their company or organization that will be shared via email to all Groundwork donors and followers and across social media.

What are some ways that my sponsorship can make a big impact?

Our partners are part of the following great work and now that work is part of their story.

For 27 years, supporters have empowered Groundwork to push forward with solutions based on the principle that a clean environment, strong economy, and healthy communities can all rise together—and a more resilient, thriving Michigan will come of it.

Along the way supporters have teamed with us and ...

  • Helped pass improved rules for oil and gas exploration in Michigan
  • Stopped sprawl-generating road projects that would have cut through beautiful countryside
  • Created one of the nation’s leading programs to get locally grown food to schools for children meals—available to every school in Michigan
  • Helped launch the call for shutting down Line 5 oil pipeline in the precious waters of the Mackinac Straits
  • Played a pillar role in advocating for a Net Zero Carbon pledge established by Gov. Whitmer
  • Led the drive for north-south passenger rail
  • Used private funding enabled us to give small grants to 26 sites, including farms, schools and food pantries, to expand local food access and the local food economy in northwest Lower Michigan. AND the impact is just beginning.
  • Assisted 18 Petoskey families in purchasing home solar arrays through the Grow Solar initiative. AND we're expanding it to the Traverse City area next spring.
  • Inspired 500 people to attend the Michigan Climate and Clean Energy Summit—sharing hope, successes, and strategies for the essential work ahead. AND planning is underway for the 2023 Summit.
  • Made dramatic progress and are close to launching a teaching kitchen in Traverse City, where we’ll focus initially on culinary medicine instruction for health care professionals. AND community access will be available.
  • We’ve joined with partners in the accessible housing movement, to help families and individuals live decent lives in northern Michigan. AND we're just getting started!

How can I learn more about becoming a Corporate and Community Sponsor of Groundwork?

Contact Stephanie Prall: stephanie.prall@groundworkcenter.org or call 231.941.6584 x 716.

Or join today using this simple form.

GET INVOLVED!

Resources

Cover Corporate & Community Partnership Program

Program Overview

Annual Report 2021 cover

2021 Annual Report

2020 annual report cover

2020 Annual Report

WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?

Groundwork News

Northern Michigan Climate Activists Headed to NY for Historic Rally

Fifty-six northern Michigan climate activists will hop on a bus this weekend for a whirlwind trip to New York City to take part in a historic climate change rally. The Sierra Club, national climate advocacy group 350.org, and several national environmental organizations are organizing this weekend’s march in New York City to coincide with United Nations summit on the climate crisis. UN Secretary­ General Ban Ki-moon is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce global warming pollution.

Staying on Track

Staying on Track

Since MLUI released a report that described what it would take to get some kind of train running on the 11-mile stretch of railroad tracks between Traverse City and Williamsburg, I’ve presented the idea to local community groups, state transportation agencies, and to an eager audience at the Michigan Rail Conference in Metro Detroit. The more I investigate this idea, the more realistic it becomes.

Ag Forum: In a digital world, is agriculture still relevant?

Ag Forum: In a digital world, is agriculture still relevant?

Yet despite technology’s advancements, the last time I checked food isn’t grown by the judicious application of ones and zeros. Websites don’t plant seeds, and microchips don’t worry about organic certification audits. I’ve never known a software company to bring a handful of loam to its nose and smile at its richness, or let slip a tear of joy at the birth of a calf. With technology taking over our lives, is agriculture still relevant in a world racing to leave old ways behind? Solidly I say the answer is yes.

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