Sponsorship School: Financing Sponsorship

Are you considering sponsoring a refugee? It’s important to consider the financial, emotional and material supports that refugees need before, during and after their arrival.

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Transcript: Sponsorship School: Financing Sponsorship

Video length: 4 minutes, 12 seconds

The scene opens on a blue sky on a sunny day. Birds are flying around.

Text displays: “Sponsorship School: Financing Sponsorship”

Camera zooms out to see buildings and a “Community Centre” in the middle.

Zahour (our sponsored individual) is surrounded by his new community members in a park with homes, apartment buildings and the community centre, etc. in the background. Zahour stands directly under a “welcome” sign strung between two trees.

Narrator: Sponsoring refugees is an incredibly rewarding experience for any community…

Thought bubbles appear over the sponsorship group, which includes Maya (from the previous video), with illustrations of a beanie, mittens, a coffee table, a chair, and a house.

Narrator: … as you provide emotional, financial, and material support such as furnishings and clothing, to people settling in to a new country.

Transition to a sponsorship group made of six people, including Maya, sitting together in a home’s living room strategizing. Included in the scene are a whiteboard and a laptop.

Narrator: How you’ll finance a refugee sponsorship is one of the first, big questions any sponsor group must answer.

We flip into the next scene of an airplane flying across the globe.

As the plane crosses the globe, families from different continents pop up: first Europe, Central America, South America, Oceania, Middle East, Africa, South East Asia, then Far East Asia.

Narrator: How much and what kind of support is expected varies from country to country and program to program.

Transition back to the sponsorship group, including Maya, in the living room. One of the group members stands by the whiteboard addressing the other members.

Narrator: Being aware of all your responsibilities regarding funding and reporting…

Transition to the whiteboard with a stylized green background.. Square boxes are being checked off listed items that appear as squiggly lines of text.

A new scene of a laptop on a coffee table in front of a yellow patterned background.

Narrator: …is key to creating a solid financial plan.

Transition to the living room’s laptop’s screen.  Three finance members’ faces appear in a zoom meeting grid.

Narrator: It’s also a good idea to have a finance team who focuses solely on budgeting and fundraising for your sponsored refugee.

Transition to Maya on their cell phone in the foreground. The group meeting is in the background.

Illustrations of a house, a water tap, and bottles of milk pop up in circles around Maya.

The illustrations are switched out one by one: the house turns into a building, the water tap turns into cell towers, and the milk turns into a bus.

Narrator: When creating your community sponsorship budget, reach out to as many sources as you can to determine the true cost of living in your area such as rent, utilities and transportation costs.

A new circle with a serviceperson wearing a headset appears full-frame, as the other circles and the sponsorship character on their cell phone slides out. A budget template appears beside the serviceperson.

Narrator: There will likely be budget templates and guidelines for reporting on finances to follow as part of your community sponsorship program responsibilities.

The serviceperson character circle slides out of frame and is replaced with four circles with illustrations of a wheelchair, glasses, foods, and a teacher with three kids appear. Checkmarks are shown next to all four circles.

Narrator: In some cases, the refugees you sponsor may be eligible for supports tailored specifically for their needs. These supports can help with financial planning and reducing costs.

The camera slides down to a scene with a blue sky, shining sun, trees, a large building and a billboard showing a handshake between people of different ethnic backgrounds.

Zoom into the building and into a meeting room with five people sitting around a table with some papers, a book, a clipboard, and a laptop in the middle.

A close up of the laptop; displayed on the screen are illustrations of nine refugees.

Narrator: Getting advice and direction from other groups and organizations who have sponsored refugees, as well as newcomers who arrived through sponsorship, will provide you with greater insights into all the items and services that you need to budget for.

Transition to an over the shoulder shot of the laptop’s screen. On the screen Zahour appears.

Popups of a low-rise apartment building, bus station and educational books appear with Zahour’s image.

Narrator: If you have the opportunity to connect with the refugees you’ll be sponsoring before they arrive, ask them about their preferences on items that might affect the sponsorship budget like furnishings, transportation and education.

Transition to one community member holding a mixer and mixing bowl. Pull out to show 2 community members holding a sofa.

New visual of a community member showing Zahour how to board a city bus.

Narrator: Your community can also support the sponsorship journey by donating goods, time, or services.

Pull out to a larger line of community members holding various goods: a sofa, a painting, a toaster, and a plant.

Narrator: The more your community participates, the stronger your community group will become.

Transition into a concert with people lined up at a ticketing booth. It’s a sunny day. A stage, spotlights, and large speakers are in the background.

Narrator: A key part of financing sponsorship is fundraising activities such as selling tickets to community events like concerts, creating online crowd funding campaigns, and collecting donations for charity runs and auctions.

A black laptop displaying financial charts with a yellow backdrop.

Transition back to the living room. Maya shakes hands with a community member as others smile.

Narrator: Fundraising is an excellent way to promote community sponsorship, increase your community’s involvement and get more people excited about the newcomers you’ll soon be welcoming.

Transition to a close-up of Zahour high-fiving. The background is a stylized blue.

Narrator: A strong and successful sponsor-newcomer relationship is built on mutual respect and communication.

Back in the living room at the group meeting, one of the sponsorship members refers to the checklist on the whiteboard. Everyone is smiling.

A stylized yellow backdrop. A small coffee table with a piece of paper with checkmarks on it.

Narrator: If possible, regularly reviewing your budget and other available financial support with newcomers will ensure you’re meeting their needs and providing support during the sponsor commitment period.

Back to the living room at the group meeting.

Narrator: It will also help newcomers better understand their surroundings and cost of living there.

A new scene of a lightly used kitchen where the tap is broken and water is spewing out on the floor.

A close up of Zahour panicing, then pull-out to see him standing in his basement apartment with water up to his ankles.

Narrator: No matter how carefully you plan though, there are always unplanned expenses. Like in any household budget, you should earmark some money in your budget to deal with life’s unexpected demands and emergencies.

The scene flips into a close up of Zahour in front of a stylized blue backdrop, now smiling.

Bubbles pop up around him featuring illustrations of a building and a lease agreement, a teacher standing by a blackboard, a teacher watching two kids playing soccer and one holding a teddy bear, a bus and lastly, a bank.

Narrator: Financial support is just one of the many pillars of community sponsorship. Creating an effective community sponsorship budget involves focus, and clearly addressing each newcomer’s specific needs. Being open to various types of support also brings your community together and allows for many members to share and participate.

Transition back to the first scene with clear blue skies, a yellow sun, and three buildings in the town. A large community centre is in the middle, the sign reads: “Community Centre”.

We slowly zoom backwards to see Zahour and the sponsorship group meeting in the park. Zahour stands directly under a “welcome” sign strung between two trees.

Narrator: Fundraising together strengthens a sponsor group’s cohesion and paves the way for a welcoming environment for newcomers.

Text displays: “refugeesponsorship.org”

Text displays:
“Video developed in partnership with:

• Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative
• Open Society Foundations
• uOttawa
• Giustra Foundation
• The Shapiro Foundation
• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada  Immigration, Réfugiés et Citoyenneté Canada
• UNHCR”

The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada corporate signature is shown.

Canada word mark appears.