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Seeking counsel on how to start a sponsorship program at my company

Hi elpha! I am hoping to connect with a couple of members who have experience starting or managing sponsorship programs at their companies. I work at a medium sized tech company (~800 people) and our goal is to increase the amount of women in leadership positions through internal promotion. As I think tends to be the case at many companies, there are more equitable male:female ratios in more junior/IC positions but has you look at the more senior levels, the ratio looks worse and worse. Ideally, the sponsorship program would identify top performers and align them with leaders within the org not only to provide guidance, but also actively promote them within the org. I'd love to connect with anyone who has experience with this type of program! Thanks!
I have not done it formally myself but here are two articles I saw which may shed some light: https://projectinclude.org/investing_in_sponsorships#prioritize-sponsors-especially-for-underrepresented-groupshttps://www.inc.com/charu-sharma/how-to-build-a-mentorship-program-that-actually-works.html - don't be taken aback by the type as some of those items can be applied to sponsorship too!