Women’s Para Hockey of Canada (WPHC) has launched an effort to get Canada’s corporate sector to support its programs – specifically, helping to fund a national team.

The Edmonton-based organization – which enables disabled Canadian girls and women to achieve long term participation and excellence with a sustainable program in para hockey – has been operating on a shoestring budget since its formation 15 years ago.

But the WPHC is hoping to change that with the “#SticksIn” campaign, inviting corporate sponsorship for its national team, enlisting Toronto-based strategy consulting firm The Greater to embark on an awareness campaign and raise $1 million to properly fund the team.

Matthew Logue-Lee, co-founder of The Greater, says the campaign includes an open letter that doubled as a full-page ad in the Toronto Star last week and integrated media programming through online sports publication The Gist, and it’s main goal is to let would-be sponsors that the organization exists.

Potential sponsorship assets WPHC could offer companies include branding, programming and hospitality opportunities at events, level-dependent jersey branding opportunities and a presence at training camps hosted in different markets across the country.

“Creating content with us as a partner can help a lot of organizations that want to story tell in the space,” Logue-Lee adds.

For the past 15 years, the WPHC has been almost entirely self- funded, save for Hockey Canada donating used jerseys for an international competition in 2014 and also paying that contest’s €650 entry fee. Tara Chisholm, head coach of the national women’s para hockey team and WPHC board member, says that while the organization’s grass-roots programs have received grant funding, the national team has gone without.

“We want to ensure that women who love playing the sport can keep playing the sport,” says Chisholm, who adds that the high performance program includes nearly 30 athletes and a volunteer staff of coaching, medical and managerial individuals.

Although “#SticksIn” was launched on Dec. 7, the WPHC has already landed Canadian Tire as its first sponsor, signing a multi-year commitment.

“They’re committed to women’s sports, they’re committed to para sports and we offer a compelling opportunity,” Logue-Lee says. “When we
spoke and showed them what we could do, they were really lit to get behind this and wanted to show their support for an organization that’s helping to achieve inclusive hockey.”

Chisholm adds that Canadian Tire fit the bill as a sponsor because the corporation respects and reflects the value of equality, inclusion and diversity – and hopes to find similar values in its other sponsors.

“We want to make sure that all Canadians have an opportunity to play the sport, so we want to be an example for this country to show what it can look like when you include people with intersectionality and their identity so they can play hockey too in a welcoming environment,” she says.

Logue-Lee says many corporate sponsors have been discussing a need for more diverse and inclusive hockey environments, and investment in the WPHC checks off those boxes.

“The idea is systems change in hockey, and that’s what you’re investing in when you invest in the women’s national team,” he explains. “We’re really looking for organizations who make multi-year commitments and want to invest in the primary mandate of fully funding the woman’s national team program so that it has the support it needs to achieve on the ice…because when they achieve on the ice, they help create change
in sport and change off the ice.”