For more years than I can remember, WIC has partnered with some great organizations and companies in order to offer our members additional benefits. Every year since we formed our partnership team, those involved always did a fantastic job. This past year was extraordinary both in terms of the number of new partnerships and overall program — and the fact that we had an itty bitty team of people doing all that work.
The Scoop
The first half of 2010 was a transition time in partnerships, as we sought to fill the director position Sherry Prescott filled for several years and determine what direction we wanted our partnership program to go. Thankfully, Sherry stayed on through the transition and managed a couple of new partnerships in the process, including one with MarketWire for PR and The Standard/Coronado Financial for disability insurance.
In the summer, our new director, Sue Hay, hit the ground running. Both she and Melissa Stacey, WIC’s finance director, put their heads together and developed an amazing new partnership program that also incorporates the sponsorship opportunities that we offered separately in 2010. Watch the WIC site for news about this program, which we plan to announce in February.
In addition to putting her energies into this new program, Sue has also been signing up an amazing number of partnerships with great benefits for our members — so many, in fact, that we’re still working on posting the information to our site. Here are a few of the partnerships we have thanks to her efforts:
- Act-On Software (marketing automation tool): 15-percent discount to WIC members of each pricing level per month
- Apple Computer: special pricing on business-related purchases
- Armstrong & Associates: one of the largest insurance brokers in California, giving WIC members access to groups/insurance that may have been hard to access before with the best possible rates
- Manticore Technology (marketing automation tool): 15-percent discount to WIC members on each pricing level per month
- Office Depot: discounted pricing on a variety of different products in their business solutions big book catalogue
- Silicon Valley Marketing Association (SVAMA): discounted pricing on their events which focus on all marketing practices
- TriNet (HR, benefits, payroll, and workers’ compensation outsourcing): 25-percent discount on setup fees, 10-percent discount on ongoing administrative fees
- Visual Media Association (VMA): discounted pricing on their events, which focus on personal and professional development
With Much Gratitude
The following are the people to thank the next time you see or talk to them:
- Sue Hay, WIC partnership director (as of June 2010) and CEO of BeWhys Marketing, Inc.
- Melissa Stacey, WIC finance director and owner and founder of Feeling Organized
- Sherry Prescott-Willis, WIC’s partnership director (prior to June 2010 for several years) and author of Market This!
More Things to Come
As I mentioned in my previous Program Highlights post, we have 60 plus people on WIC’s pro bono team. Deciding who to highlight each month is the only difficult part about writing these posts. That won’t be a problem for my next post. Make sure to tune in to see why.
In the meantime, if there’s a particular WIC program you’d like to know more about, let me know.
