Category: Corporate Sponsorship

Corporate Sponsorship for Nonprofits: A Step-by-Step Guide

9/27/2019

By now you’ve read the first three installments in this series on corporate sponsorship for nonprofit events. Maybe your nonprofit has decided this is something you want to pursue with vigor or you’re still interested in learning more.

This week we’re breaking down the steps required to land a corporate sponsor for an upcoming nonprofit fundraising event. These are the same steps I take my clients through when planning events.

Put together a list of your dream corporate sponsors. Think big. This is a dream list. Your dream sponsors do not have to be based in your community, but remember that they should be connected in some way to your nonprofit’s mission. Think about the corporations in the networks of your donors. Do your board members have connections to specific corporations?
Put together a corporate sponsorship package. This is a packet or presentation that should be customized and themed appropriately to your event(s) and the potential corporation. Here’s the page order I use with my clients:
- Begin with the company name and logo and the name of your nonprofit.
- Next, include a one-page letter introducing your nonprofit and your special event.
- Include one page with the logos and names of past corporate sponsors (over the last five years), if applicable.
- Include one page of quick facts and statistics about your organization and the impressions that the corporation will get from this partnership. How many Facebook/Twitter/Instagram followers do you have? How many guests will be in attendance?
- Include no more than two pages explaining your organization’s mission and work in the community. Include photos of your nonprofit in action.
- Provide a one-page menu of sponsorship opportunities and everything the corporation receives from the partnership.
- Finally, include a form at the end for the potential corporate sponsor to fill out and return to you.
Mail the packet to the corporate representative you have been cultivating a relationship with or have it delivered to their office.
One week after you deliver the packet, follow up with an email asking if they received the packet and providing a copy of it through email in case they did not.
Follow up again two weeks after the email and politely remind them of the deadline to respond. At this time you may also ask if there is someone else at the company you can send the packet to. You may also invite them to come take a tour of your facilities.
Once you have one sponsor secured, leverage that sponsorship to bring in other sponsors.
Keep your sponsor(s) up to date on all event developments and don’t forget to thank them regularly.

These are the basic steps I encourage all my clients to use when soliciting corporate sponsors. Of course, every situation is different and you may find that not all the steps are necessary or that more work is required to secure the sponsorship of your dreams.

I wish securing a sponsor was as easy as this list makes it look, but it’s never this simple. Don’t be discouraged if your initial attempts fall flat. Like all things, soliciting sponsors takes practice. You’ll only get better by doing it. Take your time, put together a solid sponsorship package, and get out there and start soliciting.

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Corporate Sponsorship for Nonprofits: Things to Consider

9/23/2019

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Now that you’re familiar with the two approaches to corporate sponsorship, it’s time to talk about the potential downsides that come with this relationship.

Poor communication can tank any relationship, especially corporate sponsorship, before it even gets going. Open and clear communication between the nonprofit and the corporation is absolutely necessary for the partnership to be a success. Both parties should be upfront about what they want from the partnership and how they see things moving forward. Any issues that arise should be dealt with swiftly and maturely. Open communication builds trust and ensures that the partnership remains strong for the duration of the sponsorship.

It is time-consuming to put together sponsorship packages and solicit corporations. It takes a small team of people to do the research, put together a compelling sponsorship package, and cultivate relationships with corporations that may be interested in a partnership. If your nonprofit has a small staff, you may find that it’s not worth it to take the time away from your standard fundraising efforts and community outreach.

Expect it to take two or three weeks to put together a package and make sure everything looks good. You want enough material to solicit a response out of every type of person. Everyone absorbs information differently, so be sure to include images, data and metrics, and quality text.

When putting your package together, make all your asks at one time. If you are looking for sponsorship for three events throughout the year, send all that information in the same package. Yes, this means it will take you a bit longer to put your sponsorship package together, but it’s worth doing. It saves your nonprofit from putting together three brand new packages each year and it saves the corporation from feeling like you ask too often.

Don’t be surprised if it takes two or three months to receive a response. Like soliciting major donors, you should expect this process to take time.

A failed partnership can wreak havoc on the public image of both the corporation and the nonprofit. Corporations, of course, are more likely to survive any fallout from a failed sponsorship, but smaller nonprofits may struggle to reestablish their reputation in the community after a negative event.

This is why it is imperative to do your due diligence and ensure that any corporation you decide to approach would be a good fit for your nonprofit. Do what you can, from the beginning, to minimize the chances of a negative outcome. Not only will this save you the headache of rebuilding your reputation in the community should it come to that, it also puts you in a better position to secure additional sponsorships in the future.

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Corporate Sponsorship for Nonprofits: Two Approaches

9/20/2019

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Last time, I talked about the basics of corporate sponsorship: How it works and why you want to do it. Now I’m going to dive into the two main strategies for approaching potential corporate sponsors. Which method you use depends on what your nonprofit is after.

The two main strategies for approaching potential corporate sponsors are:

Asking for straight donations to offset the cost of your event. Also known as the gold, silver, and bronze method.
Asking for sponsorship of specific things at your event: the dinner, the valet, the auctioneer, etc. Also known as piecemeal or category sponsorship.

These two approaches are both similar and very different.

Gold, silver, and bronze levels work well if you have a limited development department. Approaching different companies to sponsor different aspects of your event takes time, a lot of time. If you are working with a very small staff, it may make more sense to take this broader approach to sponsorship. It also works well if you don’t have strong relationships with the individuals you are approaching, or if it is your first time approaching a specific company.

Category sponsorship allows for more creativity and more marketing opportunities for the sponsor(s) at the event. For example, a company sponsoring the bar at the event could have napkins, coasters, straws, etc. made up with their logo and colors on them. Another company sponsoring your valet station could have their name worn by the valet drivers and emblazoned on the valet station. Category sponsorship is more relationship based, so it works well if you have good relationships with the individuals you are approaching. You have to really know a person to make these sorts of specific asks.

If I am sponsored at an event, I often wear the name of the company on my back when doing the auction.

The category approach to corporate sponsorship is growing in popularity. People are always looking for the most unique and creative methods for soliciting corporate sponsorship and right now this is it.

Social Media and Corporate Sponsorship
A major trend in corporate sponsorship is offering social media posts to companies as part of the sponsorship package. Not everyone is doing this yet, so it’s advantageous to get your nonprofit onboard with it now. Social media agreements typically entail making a certain number of social media posts across agreed upon platforms promoting the corporation sponsoring the event.

This practice is one reason I encourage all nonprofits to grow their social media presence; the further your social media reach, the more attractive you are to sponsors. Simply put, your social media reach gives you something to offer corporations in return for their sponsorship.

Remember, your nonprofit has to do more than convince potential sponsors why they should care about your mission, you must make it an attractive business proposal. This means showing them the potential value the partnership will contribute to their company in terms of brand exposure and potential new customers for their business. A strong social media following is one of the best ways to accomplish this.

Now that you have some familiarity with the two basic approaches to corporate sponsorship, next time we’ll take a look at the potential downsides.

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Corporate Sponsorship for Nonprofits: The Basics

9/16/2019

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Corporate sponsorships are a huge money maker. Often, they are the most profitable revenue stream for an entire event.

If you’re wondering how to get your nonprofit started soliciting corporate sponsors, or why you’d even want a sponsor to begin with, I’ve got you covered with a look at the strategies I use with my clients.

Sponsorship is a fantastic way to secure funding for major events, fundraisers, and programs. This funding helps offset the cost of expensive items like the venue and catering or it’s used to underwrite the hard costs of one of your organization’s programs.

Consumers are increasingly interested in corporations that show an interest in social responsibility. Corporations that are seen publicly aligning themselves with worthy causes and nonprofits can garner increased support, especially from the online community. For corporations, sponsorship is often the best PR money can buy.

Before we go any further, let’s get one thing straight:

Corporate sponsorship is not a donation to your nonprofit, it is a business deal.

Corporate sponsors expect to get something in return for their financial support of your event. This something takes the form of advertising opportunities and an acknowledgement of their sponsorship during the event itself. The idea is that exposure at your event will increase public awareness of their brand and philanthropic inclination among your donors and supporters.

That’s perhaps the most important point. Corporate sponsorship should ALWAYS be a win-win situation for companies and nonprofits. These are not one-sided relationships. You reach out to sponsors because you see a benefit in working together, your corporate sponsor must also see that benefit.

All corporate sponsorships should bring legitimacy to the nonprofit, improve the public image of the corporation, and increase public awareness of both.

Before You Dive In
Before you even begin reaching out to potential sponsors, do your research. Brainstorm a list of corporations who are already aligned with the goals/mission of your nonprofit or who are in an industry that directly relates to your cause.

You will have better luck approaching corporations who are already aligned with the goals of your nonprofit than you will approaching those to which there is no intrinsic link.

For example, if your nonprofit is a homeless shelter it makes sense to reach out to companies that specialize in food or personal care items because access to these items objectively improves the lives of your beneficiaries. You could also reach out to companies invested in job training or addiction treatment, services often needed by your beneficiaries. Aligning your nonprofit with corporations that match your core values is incredibly important.

If your nonprofit doesn’t already have robust email lists and a solid social media following, it is a good idea to work on growing those before approaching potential sponsors. Social media followers and email lists are used as currency, your nonprofit needs to show potential sponsors that you have something to offer them in terms of potential customers.

Most of my nonprofit clients have worked hard to grow their social media followers in order to offer mentions on social media as part of the compensation package presented to potential sponsors. For example, you could offer two dedicated Facebook posts, seen by your 10,000 followers, in addition to branding opportunities at the event and recognition from stage.

Regardless of which corporation your nonprofit decides to approach, you must sell your potential sponsor on the benefits to their company, not the benefits to your nonprofit.

Remember that sponsorship is first and foremost a business partnership. The partnership must benefit both your nonprofit and the corporation, otherwise it’s not worth it.

There’s so much more to corporate sponsorship than I’ve covered in this post. Next week we’ll take a look at the two main approaches your nonprofit can take to corporate sponsorship.

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Corporate Sponsorship for Nonprofits: A Step-by-Step Guide

Corporate Sponsorship for Nonprofits: Things to Consider

Corporate Sponsorship for Nonprofits: Two Approaches

Corporate Sponsorship for Nonprofits: The Basics

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