This was the era of the dancer of the President

A few years yet, the concept of sports sponsorship meant funding for clubs or events generous passionate bosses. This was the era of "the dancer of the President." Today, the term refers to a practice recognized by companies and public authorities, to horse between sponsoring and philanthropy. Now, a practice long reserved for many associations, such as "Do we dream" or "Sport and citizenship", but also framed by dedicated foundations. Foundations that must today be more strongly structured to accompany the phenomenon.

"In 2004, in the creation of the foundation of the sport, the sport did not appear in the areas of patronage, heard in the noble sense as the designs Admical the hub of the corporate philanthropy, long chaired by Jacques Rigaud, Editor's note", explains Gilles Bertoni, Delegate General of the institution founded on the initiative of Jacques Chirac and Jean-François Lamour, at the time respectively President of the Republic and Minister of Sports. In four years, things have changed. Gilles Bertoni sits on the Board of Directors of Admical, which shows in its latest survey that 26 of the companies which have invested EUR 2.5 billion in sponsorship in 2008 are involved in the field of sport. "The trend is towards cross sponsorship and sport, vector of social cohesion, is also a commitment to the community," says the General Marianne Eshet delegate. It is the foundation of the sport resulted in the recognition of the concept of sports sponsorship. Through 6 programs (social cohesion, the fight against violence, access to employment, assistance to persons with disabilities, health and conversion of high level athletes), it has distributed about 6 million, affected 633.000 persons (as of late 2007). It has even created some 414 jobs. "Our philosophy, explains Gilles Bertoni, is to accompany projects for three years and to build models that can then live alone." "Our other feature, he says, is to run only on private funds, with major partners such as Coca-Cola, Kraft, Total, Nike, Française des Jeux and Veolia Environnement, and businesses coming to expand us operations on their initiative, because we have specific expertise."

If sports sponsorship is also the fact of conventional business foundations such as the Fondation René Lacoste, it is now also invested by sports federations themselves. The French football Federation was created in early 2007 the foundation of the football (which was still only an association of "forerunner"). Chaired by Philippe Séguin, supported by La Poste, purpose, and GDF Suez (three companies already sponsors of the Federation), object of "good practices" around the general idea of respect: of course, of the other, the environment. There again, it is question of social action, civility and values. With an annual budget of 2.5 million euros, "it builds its own projects", explained his General delegate, Nathalie Boy Tower, and is 2.3 millions of licensees and 18,000 French amateur clubs.

Tax benefit

For enterprises, the development of these foundations presents two assets: a real expertise but also the benefit of the tax exemption attached to the patronage (deduction of 60 of the donation in the amount of income tax). A tax benefit that can transform part of their sponsorship of local investments in sponsorship...

Is that to extend the dynamics of sports sponsorship, the foundation of sport as his "sister" of the football must still grow. Both seek the recognition of public utility that allows you to collect funds from individuals. To do this, they develop a capital of 1 million euros approximately. In this context, the foundation of the sport has the project closer to the national Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) French. The ultimate goal (at this time 4 million of capital) would become a foundation known as "abritante." In any event, the foundation of the sport to evolve because he suffers from cash flow problems.

Generally, the two entities should strengthen their identity in a world, sport, where associations are better known than the foundations.