When entering into sponsorships, both commercial considerations and our social orientation play a role. In its sponsorship policy, Rabobank has opted to enter into long-term, permanent partnerships where the sponsored party benefits from the collaboration in particular. We do not sponsor organisations with political motives, individuals, extreme sports or activities that pollute the environment. Apart from branding, training talented people and fostering a dynamic and a humanitarian society are key factors in our sponsorship policy. In 2007 Rabobank Nederland spent a total of 25.5 million euro on sponsoring, while the local Rabobanks earmarked approximately 25.4 million euro for sponsoring. The other group entities jointly spent a total of 4.6 million euro on sponsoring.
Sport and culture are priorities
In our national sponsor projects we focus mainly on sport and culture. Rabobank is a partner of the Royal Dutch Hockey Association, the Royal Dutch Equestrian Federation and the Royal Dutch Cycling Union. In addition, we are an official supplier of the Dutch Olympic Committee/Dutch Sports Federation and a sponsor of Nebas*Nsg, the Netherlands sporting organisation for people with a disability. The sponsoring of culture mainly involves our partnership with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Finally, we are the principal sponsor of the Dutch Agricultural Youth Association. Surveys show that our staff believe that sponsorship projects in the fields of sports and culture are well suited to Rabobank. Almost everyone is positive about sponsoring in general, partly because it demonstrates our social engagement.
Our sponsoring activities sometimes present us with difficult issues that force us to make carefully considered choices. In 2007, for example, the management of the Rabo Cycling team had to dismiss Tour de France leader Rasmussen from the competition because he had violated our internal rules. We opted to continue supporting cycling at all levels, but also to apply a zero-tolerance policy concerning doping and incorrect information concerning the whereabouts of cyclists. By taking the decision to withdraw Rasmussen from the Tour de France, we sent a clear signal about integrity in sport and in our organisation. One of the cases in our Annual Sustainability Report 2007 is about our duty to society and making ethical decisions in sport sponsoring.
Read our case study on ethics in sport sponsoring