School sponsorship, what it is and the rules to follow

In recent years, more and more schools have decided to use sponsorship contracts with organisations or companies to co-finance particular projects and activities. This is a strategy that many school leaders have implemented to improve the quality of the educational offer, reducing the costs of certain activities in the Ptof (three-year educational offer plan) that burden the school's budget, which is mainly made up of funds allocated by the State for teaching and administrative operations.

The sponsorship contract is a contract for consideration through which the school offers a third party (sponsor) the opportunity to advertise its name, logo, brand name in specific and specified spaces or media in return for the obligation to pay a specified fee.

Who can sponsor? Any legal entity with or without a profit-making or commercial purpose, such as partnerships, corporations, cooperatives, insurance mutuals and business consortia, etc.

But what are the rules and limits to be kept in mind when a school wants to conclude sponsorship contracts with 'third parties'? Well, not everything is possible. First of all, it is up to the school board to decide on the criteria for the manager to carry out negotiation activities related to sponsorship contracts. Moreover, the initiatives covered by the sponsorship must be aimed at pursuing the interests of the school service. In fact, it is absolutely forbidden to conclude sponsorship agreements with entities whose aims and activities are in conflict with the educational and cultural function of the school. Moreover, any sponsorship agreement must not provide for any constraints or charges deriving from the purchase of goods and/or services by the school's pupils. Lastly, preference should be given to subjects who, by virtue of their statutory aims or the activities they carry out, have in practice demonstrated particular attention and sensitivity to the problems of children and adolescents.

Sponsorship may involve the making of a monetary contribution or, for example, the setting up of a workshop with the supply of specific material. But nothing can be achieved without a regulatory instrument. Many schools have adopted one, but the recent publication by the Ministry of Education and Merit of Notebook No. 4 on 'Instructions for the awarding of sponsorship contracts in School Institutions' will certainly be a tool to simplify and standardise the way sponsorship contracts are awarded. All this in order to increase the use of differentiated forms of funding in schools, which is one of the twenty strategic objectives of the three-year plan for simplification in the school sector, presented by the Minister on 20 April 2023.