Not for Profit / Private Sector Partnerships in Sport and Physical Activity: ParticipACTION as Champion

In 2009, ParticipACTION was a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization that had a storied history of inspiring and supporting active and healthy living for Canadians. Led by CEO Kelly Murumets, ParticipACTION was to lead a steering committee of representatives of the not-for-profit sector and the private sector, as well as academics, towards developing a set of 'how-to' guidelines for not-for-profit sport and physical activity organizations on forming effective partnerships with the private sector. Due to decreasing government support, the need to secure alternate resources and funding, and the proliferation of competition, sports and health organizations were extremely interested in such partnerships. Recent successes made ParticipACTION realize that it and other sports advocate organizations around the globe, needed to become more strategic and innovative in engaging private companies. Coming off of a successful internal restructuring and partnership with Coca Cola, ParticipACTION received an opportunity to be involved with the upcoming 3rd International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health Conference (ICPAPH ). ICPAPH would attract over 1000 leaders from dozens of countries and would be an ideal forum for sharing guidelines for responsible partnerships. This case surveys sports and healthy living advocacy and explores how ParticipACTION went about leading the process to develop guidelines for private sector partnerships.

• Health and behavioral science
• Partnerships
• Nonprofit organizations
• Nongovernmental organizations
• Marketing