Birdsong calls tune for funds

By SIMON HENDERY marketing writer

Jane Arnott admits it can be hard to get companies excited about saving the planet.

"Conservation is often seen as something someone else does," says the executive director of the National Parks & Conservation Foundation.

"When it comes to sponsorship it's the rugby or it's art - something that you can take clients to."

But Arnott and the foundation have come up with a new sponsorship scheme intended to help change that sentiment.

Last month the foundation unveiled a new brand - Dawn Chorus - which it hopes will be a catalyst for businesses (as well as families and individuals) with a desire to sponsor an environmentally worthy cause but who have until now found the concept too difficult or expensive.

Dawn Chorus is being sold as a "low entry level into conservation sponsorship". The foundation is asking for $3000 to $5000 a year from prospective sponsors, for which they get the right to use the brand's logo, and be part of the publicity generated through its communication strategy.

Arnott says the asking price is about the limit of what many small companies can afford. The money is pooled, and put into bigger projects - perhaps with $12,000 to $15,000 budgets - which can have a significant environmental impact.

She says the intention is to bring conservation sponsorship "closer to the average New Zealander and the typical New Zealand company".

And while conservation-based initiatives have in the past missed out because of the focus on corporate hospitality, "we believe there are many people who actually love this country and are prepared to acknowledge that through aligning their company through it".

"There are other companies that are just clearly wanting to be seen to be part of business for social responsibility, sustainable business and can see this as being a way of communicating to their customers that they are associated with that sort of good corporate governance."

The foundation is a charitable trust established three years ago by former Conservation Minister Denis Marshall. Its trustees include breakfast cereal king Dick Hubbard and actor Sam Neill.

Since its inception it has funded more than 20 conservation projects and has nine more in the pipeline.

The Dawn Chorus logo features stylised images of a kokako, tui and saddleback, and the catchline "Restoring habitats that work".

Foundation chairman Murray McKee says all money raised through the Dawn Chorus brand will be channelled into projects that aim to bring back and sustain native birdlife.

The first two projects - each $3000 to $4000 - have been chosen to represent the North Island/South Island split of the brand's founding sponsors.

Dr Stuart Parsons of Auckland University's School of Biological Sciences will research the vocal development of hand-reared kokako on Tiritiri Matangi Island.

A North Canterbury wrybill support group that works along the Ashley River is also being funded to continue gathering census information on the breed, building walkway protection and creating safe breeding areas.

National Parks and Conservation Foundation