Corporate Partnership
Southwest Human Development has been partnering with many valley companies on year-long engagements and place enormous value on them. These partnerships allow us to impact thousands of young children’s lives in Maricopa County while also delivering tremendous community engagement and visibility to our partners.
Below is a brief overview of partnership opportunities that are scalable based on your interest level and investment.
We hope to go above and beyond your expectations by publicizing the great work your company is doing in the community, following, sharing and “liking” each other on social media, and offering opportunities to volunteer and engage.
To learn more about becoming a partner in supporting Arizona’s children, please email David Reno, Senior Manager of Donor Partnerships at dreno@swhd.org
Walk With Me
Walk With Me is an annual 1-mile family fun walk and expo that raises about $180,000 each year to benefit our Easterseals services for children with disabilities and their families. This is our biggest event of the year that includes peer-to-peer fundraising that leads up to our event day, with full carnival fun for the family. This event also includes many volunteer opportunities.
The event generates many exposures for event sponsors including among participants, on the website, via social media, print media, television and radio, and through signage and collateral materials. Sponsorships for the event range from $1,250 up to $30,000. Each includes logo, signage and website exposures, inclusion on t-shirts, 10’ x 10’ booth area, registrations for your team to get involved and optional peer to peer fundraising support.
Early Literacy
Southwest Human Development is a leader in early literacy programs and activities for children ages birth to five. Here are some ways you could become involved:
Little Free Libraries
Little Free Libraries are “take one, leave one” book stations stocked with children’s books and permanently installed in low-income neighborhoods, making books available where children/families might not otherwise have access. A Little Free Library will reach hundreds of children and families for many years to come. SWHD provides easy-to-assemble kits and the Library could be built and decorated as a group activity with members of your team, or SWHD can arrange for the Library to be crafted by other community groups. Our standard investment request is $500-$1000 per kit.
We offer Little Free Libraries to be built by your team or your corporate clients as a team building benefit. These could be great engagement activities at corporate wellness fairs. They can be placed by us with partners, or with non-profit and community contacts that you connect us with. Click here to watch some short videos about the experience.
Festival of Tales
Festival of Tales, held at Paradise Valley Community College each year in April and December, is a free, fun family event with a variety of activities that all center around storybooks and literacy activities. This event is attended by over 1,200 families. Every child attending leaves with a new book. You are invited to attend as a sponsor. We will include your logo on the t-shirts, signage and provide a tabling space. We would also love to have your team volunteer to give out books! You can learn more by watching this video.
Reading Buddies
Reading Buddies are stuffed animals that help children practice reading in a nonjudgmental environment. Reading Buddies help encourage children to read by simply being present as a listening ear, or by serving as a routine reminder. Reading Buddies each come with their own “house” and a passport in which there will be a first message to the child encouraging them to not only read to their Buddy, but also to use their imagination to draw or write about their adventures and books they’ve read.
We offer Reading Buddies building activities to your team or your corporate clients as a team building benefit.
Annual Holiday Party for Kinship Care & Adoptions Families
The Annual Holiday Party is held in December at Sahuaro Ranch Park in Glendale. Historically, about 30 families (about 130 people in all) participate. They enjoy a day of arts and crafts, great food, games and bounce houses, and maybe even a visit from Santa! You will be invited to attend, and volunteer opportunities will be available.
Give Back Drives are another great way to get employees and clients into the act of giving. We annually host drives to provide support to our programs and families in need. Including:
Grow A Reader: Virtual Book Drive
Grow A reader is a virtual book drive to raise funds to support early literacy. We partner with companies, restaurants and other consumer focused businesses to host our flower pots for the month of May. These flower pots solicit donations via purchased books and provide an opportunity for staff and customers to make online donations that we use to purchase books for kids in need. See more here.
• Back to School Drives in the month of July support our foster care families in preparing to go back to school. The average cost to prepare a child for school is $450.
• Gingerbread Kids Holiday Drive allow your staff and customers to sponsor children in our programs. You would claim any number of children and we would provide a tag
that provides their shoe and clothing sizes as well as their toy and activity interests.
More Partnership Opportunities
Volunteerism is an important part of every relationship we have. Our award winning, Service Enterprise Certified volunteer program provides ongoing opportunities at our headquarters as well as involvement in all of the above mentioned events. Experiences can be scheduled based on your organizations needs. View our Volunteer Website
Early Childhood Experts from Southwest Human Development’s Birth to Five Helpline can be scheduled to do a lunch and learn with staff who have young children or grandchildren. Attendees may specify topics to highlight including: sleep, fussiness/colic, challenging behaviors, feeding/nutrition, developmental milestones, parenting questions and more.
Off-Site Meetings are a great place for your teams to do strategic planning or team building activities. Southwest Human Development has conference rooms available for up to 55. The space has advanced AV and conferencing capabilities for collaboration with other team members. Tours and volunteerism can be incorporated.
Year End Matching Gifts Partner Apply all or part of your investment toward a matching gifts program during our year-end appeal. You would be mentioned as a supporter of Southwest Human Development in numerous appeals to individual donors.
We welcome the opportunity to discuss these and other corporate partnership ideas further. We are excited by your enthusiasm for partnering with community organizations in ways that are meaningful and impactful for all involved, and grateful for your interest in partnering with us!