The City of North Bay, in cooperation with local community groups, has experienced considerable success in hosting a wide range of cultural events, conferences, meetings, sporting activities, and special events at various levels. The City continues to support events on an ongoing basis through the existence and availability of facilities and infrastructure. These events individually, and more noticeably collectively, provide a significant impact on the community and offer the opportunity to showcase and promote the many positive attributes of our City.
These events and tournaments are organized and run by dedicated volunteer groups with the assistance of city resources and facilities as required.
The primary purpose of establishing the Event Hosting Program for Private Sector Events is to assist local businesses in their ongoing efforts to outreach into the community, by providing financial assistance to them in hosting special events, which, in turn, will generally:
- Resulting in a significant community impact.
- Present the opportunity to showcase and promote the City of North Bay.
- Support and grow the valuable work of local community groups.
Eligibility
- Individuals, community organizations, or businesses may submit an application for funding for private sector events.
- Financial contributions can be used to:
- Offset some of the City of North Bay rental fees, permit fees, licensing fees, road closure fees, and by-law exemption fees.
- Offset some of the operating costs incurred for hosting events.
- Assist special events or individual events that substantially impact the community.
- Other relevant expenses incurred during the planning of the event.
- Preference is given to new events that generate significant community impact.
- Preference is given to events that demonstrate community partnerships.
- Funding assistance will be in the form of a sponsorship grant (non-repayable).
- Although having received previous funding assistance from the Event Hosting Program does not exclude your organization/event to re-apply, preference will be given to events that demonstrate new community development and growth.
- The funding is not intended to support annual events on an ongoing basis. Where an event has undertaken a change of scope and/or extensive growth, an application may be submitted for consideration.
- Not all projects meeting the program criteria outlined above will receive funding.
- Events must be held within the City of North Bay
- Successful applicants must ensure they're up to date on any monies owed to the City prior to payment being issued.
- Applicants who received funding for their event through the 2025 Centennial Celebration Event Hosting Fund are ineligible.
Application Process
Individuals, organizations, or businesses may submit the completed Event Hosting Program for Private Sector Application in person to the City of North Bay’s Arts, Culture & Recreation Department, 2nd Floor, City Hall or by email to Erin.Vaughan@northbay.ca
Deadline: Friday December 13, 2024 by 4:30pm (any applications received after this date will only be processed if there are remaining program funds).
Evaluation Process
With numerous competing priorities and limited resources, the Event Hosting Program for Profit Events provides a transparent process to evaluate applications with the focus of maximizing community impact, by providing local businesses with outreach into the community.
A Review Committee, consisting of representatives from Tourism North Bay, Community Development & Growth Department, and the North Bay & District Chamber of Commerce will evaluate each application and make a decision as to approve or decline based on the scoring outcome.
The application will be evaluated using a rate card which will determine the impact of the event on the community. This rate card will also guide the Committee in determining the level of financial support that can be provided.
If approved, the Host applicant will receive a confirmation letter outlining the next steps to obtain payment and clearly outlining that funding is contingent on the following:
- Acknowledging the City of North Bay as a sponsor and displaying the city logo (relative to the sponsorship amount provided) at the event (e.g. in the program or event agenda, etc.)
- Provide the Review Committee with a brief post-event report outlining the following no later than 60 days after the event:
- Description of success of community outreach
- Number of attendees
- Media coverage
- Listing of all other event sponsors and recognition received.
Related Information
Contact
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Event Hosting Program
Event Hosting Program Private Sector
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