Bondy Cécifoot Club mandates IÉSEG CONSEIL Paris to help fund the construction of its blind football field
02/24/2023
Born in 2019 following a meeting between two passionate people wishing to work towards changing the way people look at disability, the Bondy Cécifoot Club aims to empower people with visual impairments by practicing blind football, a sport recognized by the French Federation of Handisport, at a high level. Practiced in France since 1987, blind football has continued to grow and now has about 500 players in 10 clubs for the blind and 8 clubs for the visually impaired.
©IÉSEG CONSEIL Paris
Today, the Bondy Cécifoot Club only has a mobile field (which they assemble and dismantle before and after each match) and wants to finally acquire a ” permanent ” field in order to meet the needs of high-level athletes and become an official training center for the 2024 Paralympic Games. For this, the Bondy Cécifoot Club still needs to raise €200,000 out of a total budget of €700,000. To reach this goal, the president of the Club, Jean-François CHEVALIER, has mandated the Junior-Enterprise of IÉSEG in Paris-La Défense, IÉSEG CONSEIL Paris. We spoke with the president of the Bondy Cécifoot Club and the vice-president of the Junior-Enterprise, Léonard JOFFRE, to understand the ins and outs of this partnership.
Jean-François, why did you mandate a Junior-Enterprise on this project and why IÉSEG CONSEIL Paris in particular?
It all started with an event organized at IÉSEG by Bpifrance. I went to the School’s campus to attend the conference and, afterwards, I talked with a Bpifrance representative about my difficulties in raising the €200,000 needed to build our field. He then suggested that I work with IÉSEG CONSEIL Paris because the association is very well structured and can bring a lot, especially in terms of communication. So I met Léonard JOFFRE very quickly, and the association immediately impressed me because of its professionalism and its motivation towards our project.
The goal of this fundraising is not only to build a field, but also to promote diversity and inclusion by making this sometimes unknown sport known to as many people as possible. More broadly, we want to change the way people look at disability and help them to achieve their full potential in their professional and personal lives. More than a sports project, it is a project with a societal impact, symbolic of our global mission and our values. These are values that we share with IÉSEG and IÉSEG CONSEIL Paris: Accomplishment, Responsibility, Integrity, Solidarity, and Commitment. On the other hand, having young people who are trained in a school with a reputation for becoming tomorrow’s “changemakers” work on this project makes what we do all the more meaningful.
Léonard, what motivated IÉSEG CONSEIL Paris to join this project? What will you concretely put in place?
First of all, the Bondy Cécifoot Club’s purpose and the importance of the construction project appealed to us. We all felt aligned and coherent with this beautiful project with a positive impact, which also reflects the values of IÉSEG. This is what led us to commit to this partnership. It is important to know that the activity of a Junior-Enterprise is very regulated and must be limited to services with pedagogical added value. At first, we carried out a pro bono study within the framework of our Junior-Enterprise activity in order to elaborate the crowdfunding and to conceive the omnichannel communication strategy to be set up to communicate on the project. But then, we decided to go all the way with our pro bono commitment. After analyzing the crowdfunding platforms to identify the one that will be the most suitable for this project, we are going to implement a complete action and communication plan to succeed in raising funds as soon as possible.
We have two targets for this fundraising: individuals and companies. We have set a first deadline of one and a half months after the launch of the campaign to make an assessment and analyze the trends, to see what works best and what does not. In concrete terms, we are going to communicate a lot on social networks, via e-mailings and more specific actions with our partner companies and our customers, in order to make them aware of the project. We will mobilize our clients, the Junior-Enterprise network, rely on the Bpifrance network and collaborate with IÉSEG’s partner companies, thanks to the corporate relations department.
Jean-François, what exactly do you expect from the Junior-Enterprise?
I am touched by the commitment of these young students who want to give everything for our project, I have confidence in them. Obviously, we have a financial objective that we hope to reach, but we also want this partnership to last over time. The fundraising represents a considerable stake for the world of blind football and for our club in particular. Four of our players have been selected to participate in the World Cup in Birmingham this year, and they need the best training conditions to perform well. This includes the construction of these sustainable facilities.
Through this impact project for a more inclusive society, Le Bondy Cécifoot Club ultimately addresses all IÉSEG stakeholders: employees, graduates, companies, professors… since it joins the values and mission of the School.
“This project, led by IÉSEG CONSEIL Paris, reflects the values of the School and shows the commitment of students to responsible initiatives. Support this project to make the IÉSEG ecosystem shine!” – Caroline Roussel, Dean of IÉSEG.