Tomas Abreu, Brentford FC Community Sports Trust Marketing and Partnerships Manager, is lined up as a guest speaker at a major conference this week. The 16th EFDN Conference is being held in Breda, in the Netherlands, over the next few days. Tomas will provide an insight to the Trust's Partnerships and Fundraising strategy during the event.

The Trust has been part of the European Football for Development Network (EFDN), which consists of professional football clubs, leagues and FAs who are committed to their communities and social responsibilities and have the passion to cooperate and engage on a European level, for the past three years. The collaboration creates a network for knowledge sharing in order to develop a diversity of training methods that will directly benefit local social responsibility and community programmes. The goal of EFDN is to support the efforts of its members to broaden their impact and ability to use the power of football for positive change in collaboration with other European Football clubs.

As Marketing and Partnerships Manager, Tomas Abreu oversees Marketing, Commercial, Fundraising and International Development work at the Trust. He joined in 2015 while completing an MSc in Sports Management at Birkbeck College, University of London. Tomas is passionate about Sports for Development and using the power of sports and football to achieve tangible and creative partnerships and fundraising initiatives that make a difference in the local and wider community.

Both Trust and Club introduced a new commercial and partnerships strategy in 2019 to enhance and maximise current and new corporate partnerships and other collaborations. By joining forces with different departments and aligning resources, better results are able to be obtained. More recently, the Trust launched new and exciting fundraising initiatives in line with Premier League promotion, which Tomas will be explaining during his presentation.

Since 2019, the Trust has secured 24 corporate partnerships across different sectors, contributing to increase significantly the unrestricted funding stream. Additionally, it continues to grow and establish new fundraising initiatives. Both the partnerships and fundraising activities have in mind the UN Sustainable Development Agenda as a framework to establish the partnerships and to contribute to achieving specific goals.