A message from our President
university experience. I’ve met some amazing new people who have gone on to become my closest friends. Despite being a very young society, we have grown as more and more British Bangladeshi students have applied and have been accepted to the University through sustained Access efforts. Once they arrive, we have always endeavoured to provide a strong community spirit to provide a foundation from which students, old and new, can foster new friendships and experiences. The growth over the last few years would not have been possible without the kind support of our members, alumni, mentors and sponsors. With help from people like yourselves I can’t wait to see where it goes in next few years with opportunities boundless!The story so far
CU BanglaSoc is dedicated to hosting a range of events that are culturally enriching and charity orientated. BRAC has recognised our fundraising efforts across the years and we are proud to be ambassadors for them. In the past academic year alone, we raised over £600 for the charity ‘Maa’, which supports mothers in Bangladesh, by hosting Bollywood movie nights and formals serving traditional Bangladeshi food. We also helped to fundraise just under £2000 as part of a South Asia Covid-19 Relief Fund charity campaign!
Earlier this year, BanglaSoc launched new initiatives to widen access and raise aspirations amongst many Bengali teenagers.
We co-produced a £30k socialmedia campaign in partnership with the University of Cambridge, targeting British Bangladeshi and British Pakistani students. In the first four days, 140k individuals from these underrepresented student populations were reached.
We have strong links with the collegiate University’s Access and Widening Participation team, granting us an influential role to help their outreach efforts; this has included several of our members featuring on YouTube videos with cumulative views crossing 10k in addition to news features on ITV News. Moreover, members of our access team were featured on live TV talk shows on ATN Bangla UK and TV One UK, reaching a viewership of over 500k, to talk about the Cambridge admissions process and to eliminate any misconceptions students or parents may have of moving out for University. Our access efforts have resulted in a 33% greater than expected increase in applications, offers and acceptances at Cambridge for Bangladeshi students.
It was a huge honour for BanglaSoc to host the Bangladesh High Commissioner, H. E. Ms Saida Muna Tasneem, at the Cambridge Union last year. Our members felt inspired after hearing this strong role model speak about her life and work.
We have no intention of slowing down for the upcoming year! From access conferences and “Explore Your Roots” nights to celebrations for the 50th Independence Day of Bangladesh, we are more than excited for our future.
This far from completes the list of activities CU BanglaSoc has held, but we hope the examples chosen displays our enthusiasm!
Why sponsor us?
- Benefits your business can gain: We understand that for many businesses
Cambridge is an untouched market. Through sponsoring us by choosing one of our package deals we will offer consistent, regular publicity of your business. This will take the form of social media, our termly newsletters and verbal publicity at our numerous events. - Exposure: Cambridge is a diverse place with students and staff coming from every corner of the UK and the world. By maintaining an annual sponsorship with us, your business will not only gain exposure to a wide range of audience, Bengali and non-Bengali but you will also be expanding your company. Such a diverse market is endemic to Cambridge University only.
- Making an impact: As mentioned before, at the heart of CU BanglaSoc lies our partnership to charities. Every event we hold, a portion of our funds goes to charity. This is usually through our annual participation in the World Food festival as well as our formals which usually generates over 100 attendees. By sponsoring us, we will not only be able to host more events but also fundraise more for our charities, something which our sponsors can be proud of!
- Future leaders: Cambridge is one of the world’s best University! Our members study a range of subjects and go off into numerous fields and become successful in the sector they work in. By creating a strong relationship early on, our members will be forging a strong bond with your company. Your business can benefit from innovative ideas on marketing and product innovation through our members.
The BanglaSoc Proposal!
- Bronze package: opportunity to be featured on our website with your logo, description about your business and link to your company’s website!
- Silver package: (in addition to bronze package) regular publicity of your company’s logo and website link through our termly newsletter. As well as a subscription to our mailing list giving you exclusive updates of our events!
- Gold package: (in addition to silver package) verbal acknowledgement at events as well as self-promotion, publicity on our social media platform such as promoting yourself to our members via Facebook posts. And most importantly the chance to gain exposure very early on in the academic year by advertising your company through leaflets at our Fresher’s Fair attended by over 15,000 undergraduates alone!
- If none of these packages suit you we can discuss an alternative package.