Cincinnati Children’s Sponsorship Guidelines FY25

FY25 (July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025) 

Sponsorship Overview

Cincinnati Children’s sponsorship guidelines provide a framework for developing external partnerships and support for activities and initiatives aligned to our mission and strategic priorities. Organizations working to meaningfully improve child health will be given preference for sponsorship. Sponsorship funding is limited and based on annual budgetary allocations, alignment with strategic priorities, and adherence to sponsorship guidelines. It is our goal that sponsorships benefit Cincinnati Children’s, the community partner, and the shared vision of improving child health in the community.

Sponsorship Eligibility – Guiding Principles

Funds are limited. We cannot approve all requests. To be considered, an application must meet all sponsorship criteria. All requests for FY24 sponsorship funding should be made by Friday, June 14, 2024 at 5 PM EST. Sponsorship requests will continue to be accepted on a rolling, case-by-case basis after the deadline until funds run out.

Requests Eligible for Sponsorship

To be eligible for sponsorship, organizations must:

Preference will be given to organizations with a non-profit/501c3 status AND that demonstrate:

  • Direct impact on children and families in the community through activities and initiatives

  • Direct programming impacting children and families will be given preference over fundraising events and activities

  • Active community engagement in Cincinnati Children’s primary service area of the Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area; which includes the following counties:

    o   Ohio: Adams, Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, Montgomery, and Warren

    o   Kentucky: Boone, Campbell and Kenton

    o   Indiana: Dearborn

  • Meaningful improvement to ensure excellent and equitable child health with measurable outcomes

  • An opportunity to create long-term partnerships and leverage volunteer opportunities

  • Evidence-based activities or initiatives

  • Positive Cincinnati Children’s brand exposure 

Sponsorship Ineligibility

The following requests are ineligible for Sponsorship and will not be considered:

  • Mission Misalignment

    • Activities and initiatives that are duplicative or in conflict with Cincinnati Children’s mission and vision

    • Causes/missions not tied to child health or social determinants of health

    • National or international organizations/events that do not benefit the local community

  • Fundraisers

    • Agency- or school-sponsored runs, walkathons, athletic events, golf-outings, or athletic group sponsorships

    • Capital improvements/physical improvements to land or structures

    • Individual or team fundraisers for organizations

    • School-affiliated orchestras, bands, choirs, drama groups, yearbooks, class parties, or class or team projects

  • Other Ineligible Criteria

    • General operating expenses, debt reduction, endowment campaigns, or undesigned fund requests

    • Hospitals or medical research studies

    • Political candidates, organizations, or events

    • Religious activities, in whole or in part, for the purpose of furthering religious doctrine

    • Requests that benefit an individual person or family

    • Travel expenses

Application Instructions:

The sponsorship application is for activities and initiatives occurring July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025 (Fiscal Year 2025 – FY25) and will open on Wednesday, May 1, 2024.

  • The Application can be found using the below FY25 Sponsorship Request Form link below.

  • All requests for FY25 sponsorship funding should be made by Friday, June 14, 2024 at 5 PM.

  • Organizations that are seeking funding for multiple activities or initiatives should complete a separate application for each request. Please only include information for one sponsorship request on each application submitted.

    • Applications containing multiple events will need to be resubmitted individually before being considered for sponsorship.

  • Sponsorship requests made after the deadline will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Decision Timeline, Payment, and Logo Usage/Ad Development

  • Decisions regarding sponsorship requests will be communicated to the email provided in the application. All applicants will receive an email notification after our review period.

  • Payment to the organization will occur once an invoice, W-9, and other requested documents are received and processed.

  • Logo Usage and Ad Development: If a sponsorship includes logo usage or an ad, please contact communityrelations@cchmc.org 90 days before the print deadline and indicate this on the application. Please note, the Community Relations Department cannot provide a copy of the logo - all logo requests must complete the formal Brand Usage Agreement process to receive and use Cincinnati Children’s logo.

The Community Relations team is available to assist in this process. Please contact Community Relations at communityrelations@cchmc.org or 513-636-9327 for questions or comments.

Cincinnati Children’s Youth/Family Sports Sponsorships: Guidelines and Request Process

Cincinnati Children’s actively seeks opportunities to promote the goods and services it provides to the community. Through partnerships with sports organizations, Cincinnati Children’s commits to a small number of local youth- and family-oriented sports sponsorships each year (fewer than 20), based on certain criteria and a very limited budget.

As you can imagine, many local sports organizations think of Cincinnati Children’s when seeking sponsors, therefore, we consider a wide variety of opportunities and must be very selective when choosing which opportunities are appropriate for the hospital’s participation and dollars.

All sports-related sponsorship (or advertising) opportunities should be presented to our local marketing team. Please review the criteria below before contacting us with a sports sponsorship opportunity.

Criteria for sponsorships that we consider for the organization:

  • Geographically targeted within the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area, with emphasis on communities where Cincinnati Children’s has a location (i.e., Liberty Township/West Chester, Green Township/Westside, etc.)

  • Children’s sports but family sports are also considered

  • Venues that include a variety of sports are more desirable

  • Events that include multiple teams or schools over a day or two

  • Reach the parent/family target on a large scale — 10,000+ for 1-, 2- or 3-day events, more than 100,000 annually for venues

  • Involve multiple teams, clubs, etc., rather than just one — for two reasons:

    • (1) We don’t want to be a team’s only or primary source of financial support because if we should have to stop supporting it in the future, we wouldn’t want that team to suffer

    • (2) One team usually cannot meet our ‘large scale’ criteria

  • Include a website presence

  • Offer advertising opportunities in the form of banner ads, program ads, and website logo with link back to our site

  • Require no more than an annual contract with first right of refusal for following year If you believe your organization meets these criteria, call 513-636-4420 or email us at sports_sponsorship@cchmc.org .

  • Include a website presence

  • Offer advertising opportunities in the form of banner ads, program ads, and website logo with link back to our site

  • Require no more than an annual contract with first right of refusal for following year

If you believe your organization meets these criteria, call 513-636-4420 or email sports_sponsorship@cchmc.org