Proposta per un Partecipation Fund

Pubblichiamo l'appello in inglese della Global Alliance:

Proposal to create a "Participation Fund" and sponsorship OpportunitiesBackgroundI am writing to ask for your personal support in a global venture designed to promote and unify our profession.As you may know the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA) is a not-for-profit umbrella organisation of national public relations associations. Currently the GA has over 50 partners representing more than 150,000 public relations professionals. See www.globalpr.org for full details.Our early achievements include the adoption of a first international standard in the area of public relations ethics. A universal code was adopted as a minimum standard and is being ratified by member organisations through a protocol.Other ongoing projects include the Publication of PR landscapes - a collection of country profiles describing how PR is practiced in different countries; research on how the profession is regulated in different jurisdictions - with a view to adopt a common position on the matter; guidance in the area of corporate social responsibility; and provision of a clearing house site for best practices.For the first time in the profession's history a global body thus exists with the potential to unify the profession, set standards, share resources and help each partner grow its influence and respective membership in its country.The ultimate vision of the GA is expressed as ‘one profession - one voice'.Issues facing the GA Clearly, the GA has an ambitious agenda.  A three-year strategic plan has been adopted to give shape to the many activities. Like most organisations run by volunteer leaders and with only a limited amount of professional support provided by the major associations, the GA relies on the good-will resources of its partners and its volunteer base to achieve its goals. Only a modest budget of 20,000 USD is currently available to the GA to conduct its business. Annual dues are deliberately set low (500 USD per partner) in order to avoid creating an impediment to broad membership by smaller and developing associations from Africa, Asia, Latin America and former Eastern European countries. Even at this low threshold many associations cannot afford to participate. Over time this may create a ‘have' and ‘have not' situation which roughly follows the divide of developed nations versus developing and smaller-economy nations. To be fully representative of the global dimension of our profession we need to have active participation by all partners regardless of size.We are therefore seeking support to create a ‘Participation Fund'.What would a Participation Fund accomplish?One promising way to address the participation issue is to create a fund to help finance the membership dues and travel to the major annual meetings for "hardship cases" – partners from less developed countries. We are asking larger public relations consultancies, companies and other organisations with international reach to provide seed funding for the creation of a fund for this purpose. The fund will be administered by the executive board of the GA. This seed funding would be augmented by a GA effort to solicit funds from senior practitioners and other donors from around the world who are individually committed to the cause of elevating professionalism, sharing knowledge and advocating on behalf of the profession.By asking large firms to contribute, say, £5000 or the dollar equivalent, we would reach a critical mass that would allow developing nations to take their proper place at the GA table and hence have the opportunity to influence the outcome of our work.How would support be acknowledged?In return we would be happy to discuss the use of the money and where it is targeted. We would also discuss with donors appropriate arrangements for the acknowledgement of sponsorship, including on the GA web site, and dissemination through e-mail newsletters, etc, to all the individual members of the partner associations.Other sponsorship opportunitiesIn addition or in combination with a participation fund contribution, the GA can offer title sponsorship to some of its activities:The PR Landscape The web site knowledge centreThe quarterly e-newsletter
Why should you contribute?The GA activities can best be described as ‘whole of profession' and would serve the greater needs of the profession and ultimately all public relations professionals.The profession has been recognised as such for just over 100 years; professional societies have existed for the last 50 years and have done their best to promote life long learning and fundamental values such as ethics and transparency. The GA is the first attempt at co-ordinating and unifying the profession while learning to deal with the diversity of views, practices and cultures. We have enjoyed early successes but need your help to continue our work.Timing and next stepsI would be very happy to discuss this further with you personally. Internationally, the Alliance has mandated John Paluszek ( john.paluszek@ketchum.com ) from the Public Relations Society of America, the Alliance's Ambassador, to lead this fundraising project and you may also wish to be put in contact with him or with the chair of the Alliance, Jean Valin ( jean.valin@justice.gc.ca) of Canada.If there is sufficient positive response by March 1 2005, the Alliance would announce the creation of the fund in April 2005.This would allow partners to attend a critical AGM of the Alliance in June 2005 in Trieste, focused on a conference on ‘diversity' (information on which is available through the website) where the overall GA strategic plan will be proposed and adopted.Sejamothopo (Sej) Motau FPRISAChair-elect Global Alliance