IMC - Corporate Partnerships

Corporate Partnerships

Thank you for your interest in partnering with the International Maritime Center.

When ships come into the many ports of the greater San Francisco Bay Area ports,
the International Maritime Center provides various humanitarian services to the seafarers on board. The services we provide include opportunities for communication with their families back home; taking seafarers on errands to buy personal care products, clothing, and gifts; counseling services when there is trouble at home or on board the ship; rest and relaxation at the center; companionship with people other than their fellow seafarers; newspapers, books, magazines, and other literature in their own languages; and we provide services so that they may ship gifts and other items home to their family. Additionally, for seafarers who are not allowed to disembark -- we take cell phones and calling cards to their ships so that they may make phone calls home to their family and friends.

The International Maritime Center also provides services to truckers, stevedores and other dockside workers.

Partnering with the International Maritime Center connects your company to an organization that vicariously supports the goals of your company by providing services to these hardworking men and women from around the world who bring goods into the many bay area ports that are in turn delivered to warehouse and distribution centers all over California.

In this age of Wal-Mart boycotts and consumers questioning the wisdom in buying foreign made goods, cause marketing is a good community relations tool for your company. Today's consumers are more technology savvy then consumers in the past and they are outspoken about their support of companies that treat employees well and they follow through in their buying behavior.

According to findings in a multi-year study done by Cone Inc. in 2004, there has been a 21% increase in Americans who say corporate support of social issues is important in building trust.

An Overwhelming Majority of Americans Want Companies to Talk More About Their Corporate Citizenship Efforts.

The 2004 Cone Corporate Citizenship Study shows that eight in 10 Americans say that corporate support of causes wins their trust in that company, a 21% increase since 1997.

Americans Will Punish Bad Corporate Behavior

While support of social issues can improve trust in a company, Cone’s research also shows that Americans stand ready to act against companies that behave illegally or unethically. The consequences for business can be devastating and long-term – those surveyed would be likely to respond in a variety of ways if they were to find out about a company’s negative practices:

Consider switching to another company’s products or services (90%)
Speak out against that company among my family and friends (81%)
Consider selling my investment in that company’s stock (80%)
Refuse to invest in that company’s stock (80%)
Refuse to work at that company (75%)
Boycott that company’s products or services (73%)
Be less loyal to my job at that company (67%)

Therefore, partnering with the International Maritime Center gives your company the opportunity to increase its visibility and to stand apart as a exemplary corporate citizen.

Why should you partner with the International Maritime Center (IMC)?

The IMC meets the many needs of one of societies most transitory, marginalized populations -- seafarers. Those hard working men and women that spend over three hundred (300) days per year away from home and family to run the cargo ships that move over ninety (90) percent of the worlds goods around the globe.
The IMC directly serves more than seventy percent of the seafarers entering the Ports of Oakland, Richmond, Crockett and Benicia.

How can you partner with the International Maritime Center:

The International Maritime Center seeks to form mutually beneficial, long-term, strategic partnerships with corporations that can offer revenue, reach, donations of products and services or employee involvement to support the ongoing humanitarian service goals of the International Maritime Center.

For more information on how your company can partner with the IMC, please call Bruce Hoeger, President of the Board, at 510-787-3333 or Bob McKoon, Treasurer, at 510-839-2226.

Sponsorship

The International Maritime Center has various sponsorship opportunities for companies that want to provide their name and a financial donation to specific IMC events such as our Annual "Port View Fun Run." Sponsoring IMC events is a great way for corporations to enhance their local image as good corporate citizens.

Philanthropic Investments

The International Maritime Center looks to philanthropic investments by bay area shipping industry corporations and retailers to provide us with the funding we need to sustain and support all of the services that accomplish our mission.

The following are campaigns that your corporation could support through a philanthropic investment:

IMC Building repair and remodel
The purchase of a new industrial refrigerator
The purchase of new computers to replace our very old refurbished ones to bring our office into the new century
The purchase of two new mini-vans for ship visitation and seafarer errands

Donations of Products or Services

If your company is interested in donating products or services to the IMC, please contact Bob McKoon, Treasurer, at 510-839-2226.

Services we need on an ongoing basis are:

Printing of newsletters, stationary, promotional mailing supplies
Janitorial Services
Technology Tools

Employee Involvement

The International Maritime Center has an ongoing need for volunteers to staff the center, visit ships, drive seafarers on errands, and to participate on our Board of Directors.

By encouraging your employees to volunteer with the IMC, you are communicating your commitment to good corporate citizenship, to the general welfare of all seafarers - regardless of their country of origin, and to the value of volunteerism in your own community.