Associations Vow to Demonstrate Donors' ROI

By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 5/8/2006

The gravy train is about to leave the station.

Several of the country's largest hoteliers, airlines and general service contractors recently delivered that message to the leaders of industry associations that frequently request donations to their educational and research 501(c)(3) foundations. Now, if associations ask these suppliers for funding, there must be an ROI advantage attached.

The associations' joint response — no problem — came during a meeting of major industry associations and suppliers April 25 at the Westin Grand in Washington, D.C.

Dave Scypinski, senior vice president, industry relations, for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and the main catalyst for the gathering, said there were three main outcomes to the meeting:

• Suppliers said they want to only donate to specific foundation projects that have a definite ROI for them, instead of endowment-based capital campaigns where they have less control over where the money is going.
• The Convention Industry Council will create a key projects committee that will keep tabs on various foundation funding projects to assure that efforts aren't being duplicated.
• A "common pot" committee will be formed that will allow the suppliers the opportunity to donate to a single fund that will be appropriately distributed to associations.

Finally, Scypinski said, the meeting offered an opportunity for "great open dialogue, for the first time ever" between the representatives.

Ty Helms, senior vice president of sales for Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, said the summit was essential because, with the increased costs hotel groups face in areas like energy and employees' health insurance, "we've got to take a look at every penny that is there."

And because Hyatt doesn't have a foundation to pull funds from for donations — like Starwood, Hilton Hotels and other hotel groups have — "It has to come from my sales budget," he said.

Mike Fegley, vice president of global sales, the Americas, for InterContinental Hotels Group, echoed Helms' sentiments. "Times are tough. With the fuel costs and labor costs, our cost of doing business is going up."

Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management President Steven Hacker said his association may still launch a capital campaign within the next year, but it will be project-based, as IAEM campaigns have been historically.

"We have never done an endowment campaign. That has never been our philosophy," he said. "The only thing that may change is the nomenclature. The term capital campaign is interpreted by many donors as an endowment campaign."

If and when IAEM rolls out a campaign, Hacker added, the association will call it something like a fundraising campaign. The American Society of Assn. Executives & the Center is also considering a capital campaign launch, Scypinski said.

With firsthand experience as a supplier (as former president of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau), Professional Convention Management Assn. President and CEO Deborah Sexton said the suppliers' lack of interest in endowment-based campaigns "makes perfect sense to me."

Sexton added, "There is still money for good projects. It has to be a project that benefits the giver, as well as the industry."

PCMA is currently working on a strategic partnership program (not a capital campaign, Sexton stressed) to bundle many opportunities within a yearlong period for a partner to benefit from membership exposure.

Overall, meeting attendees told Tradeshow Week they were satisfied with its conclusion.

Carrie Freeman Parsons, vice president, marketing for Freeman, said, "I felt it was a very productive dialogue for all involved. My impression is that there is still a general willingness by companies to give money to support industry educational and foundation efforts."

Hacker agreed. "The outcome of the meeting was a very good open discussion," he said.

"I think everything that came out of it makes tremendous sense," said Sexton.

Helms said attendees learned to "walk a mile in each other's shoes."

Scypinski, who was Meeting Professionals Intl.'s foundation chair in 2003–2004, called the gathering "a really refreshing and enlightening experience."

Associations represented at the meeting were ASAE & the Center, Destination Marketing Assn. Intl., IAEM, MPI, Natl. Business Travel Assn. and PCMA.

Suppliers represented were Freeman, Gaylord Hotels, GES Exposition Services, Hilton, Hyatt, InterContinental, Marriott Intl., Starwood and United Airlines. Each company had spent at least $200,000 on one or more of the associations' past capital campaigns, Scypinski said.

The meeting preceded ASAE's Heart & Soul Gala.