The Ukrainian Youth Hostel Association seeks to deliver its objectives of promoting youth tourism for peace and international understanding and educating people about environmental issues through promoting the network of youth hostels and Hostelling International idea.

The Youth Hostel Association's independence is vital. To assist in maintaining this independence the Association seeks to secure funding from a diverse range of sources, so avoiding dependence on any particular sector or group.

To enable us to pursue our goals, The Youth Hostel Association will accept support (as donations, membership fees or gifts in kind) from any individual or organisation. This is conditional on the funder understanding, accepting and giving commitment to the aims and unbiased outcome of the project (if applicable) for which funds are provided.

In accepting unrestricted donations or those for a particular project the Association is in no way endorsing the funder, or accepting/approving the funder's wider spectrum of activities. The Association requires funders always to accurately describe their involvement and relationship with the Association. We reserve the right to correct publicly any erroneous information published by a funder on the nature of their relationship with us. The Association does not judge the performance or wider activities of any organisation.

The Association will not accept support from any funder who would use their support to influence the Association's policy and/or priorities.

We take a dual approach to sponsorship: it offers organisations the opportunity to be associated with The Ukrainian Youth Hostel Association in the public eye, and also to learn about and engage further with us and our approaches to sustainable development. Our expectation is that our corporate sponsors will use the opportunity to reap benefits beyond those of the particular project they sponsor. A long-term relationship with The Hostel Assocation is sought and encouraged. The Ukrainian Youth Hostel Association benefits from the relationship financially but also, and more importantly, from delivering our mission and strengthening relationships with business and industry to help them find better ways towards development of youth tourism across countries for the purpose of peace an international understanding.

The name and excellent reputation of The International Youth Hostel Federation (of which Ukrainian Association is a part) is one of our greatest assets and could potentially be damaged (by revelations in the media, for example) if an organisation with which it is associated through a joint promotional venture is also engaged in inappropriate dealings, even if this is via a separate company. For these reasons, sponsorship is approached in a different way to other sources of income.

The Ukrainian Youth Hostel Association will neither seek nor accept sponsorship from any organisation which we believe would seek to compromise or jeopardise our independence. To help determine this, in any sponsorship relationship we will seek genuine and demonstrable commitment to the aims of The Association on the part of the sponsor. This might include:

• Attendance at one or more of The Association's events (this may be fulfilled by attending the sponsored event in the case of a conference or training course) †
• Membership of one or more of our membership schemes †

In the case of training courses, attendees should be at an appropriate level in the sponsor's organisation; for example, senior staff responsible for tourism, project management and corporate affairs, or chief executives and directors responsible for overall strategy.

† These will be provided as benefits to high-level sponsors