How to Create An Effective Sponsorship Program That Adds Value and Helps Sponsors Meet Their Goals
So, you hosted a wildly successful fundraising event last year and this year, you want to grow your corporate sponsorship program.
After sponsors wrote the check last year, you sent them a heartfelt thank you note but realized you haven’t connected with them since. Now you’re racking your brain for the best way to make the ask again.
And, maybe like us, you’re really sick of the transactional nature of event sponsorships and are ready to shake things up.
What if there was a better way to secure corporate sponsors?
Goodbye, Transactional Event Sponsorships
The days of sticking a sponsors’ logo on your website and saying “done” are over (if those days ever really existed). I can't tell you how many sponsorships I have solicited over my 15 years in fundraising, and I feel like I can confidently say that the traditional tiered sponsorships that we ask for are inherently transactional. Companies are only giving money because we asked them and invited them to an event, not because of a deeper relationship with our mission, our organization, or even the people with whom we work. So let's shift that and make our sponsorships more focused on ongoing relationships with local businesses, companies, and even national organizations that are connected to our community.
And while a lot of this is about making the ways we fundraise more community centric, more equitable and more anti racist, this is also good for our bottom line.
The fact is that traditional transactional sponsorships usually don't work long term. The benefits that we offer sponsors - logo placement, social media exposure, etc - are often lackluster, and to secure those scarce dollars we end up pounding the pavement and making endless phone calls. It’s far more sustainable to structure sponsor benefits that bring in larger sponsors while building long-lasting relationships.
And that relationship starts by understanding what sponsors really want.
They’re not sponsoring because they want their logo on your website, or a mention on your social media.
It's because they are looking for ways to amplify their culture and their brand, and perhaps fulfill corporate social responsibility goals. And you can give them something they just can’t go out and buy…a meaningful way to meet those goals year after year.
To maximize the benefits of sponsorships for both the company and your nonprofit, it's important to create a reciprocal relationship. What can you offer the company that goes beyond just recognition in your event program?
Read More: Create a Nonprofit Sponsorship Deck That Gets Funded
Hello, Relationship-Driven Partnerships
So, here’s where things get really fun:
You get to create a sponsor program with great benefits that add value to sponsors and help them meet their goals.
Forget Gold, Silver, and Bronze levels. Booooring. Like, never even utter them again.
Don’t even mention logo placement. (Okay, you can, but you know what I mean).
In fact, let’s forget about sponsorship levels altogether, and instead focus on what relationships we can build.
Great sponsorship opportunities give companies access to something they can't just go and buy, and that is access to your mission. And you can create that access in a way that furthers the impact of your work. So beyond brand placement, what can you offer your sponsors? Think about what you do - your mission, your programs, your people - and how you can create sponsor opportunities. That might be:
Unique brand placement, like highlighting them in a blog post, including information about them at your registration tables, including their logos on t-shirts or swag, or other meaningful logo placement.
Inviting corporate sponsors to speak at your event, recording welcome messages for attendees to be sent out in emails, or other in-person opportunities.
Welcoming sponsors to VIP events or behind-the-scenes experiences such as dress rehearsals, site visits, or other opportunities to see your mission in person.
Providing opportunities for employees of the sponsoring company to volunteer their time and skills for your organization, whether that’s at your event or for specific programs you offer.
Really, your imagination is the limit! You can and should absolutely get creative and customize your sponsorships to make them reflective of your unique work.
Learn more: Check out our self-paced classes & event planning tools
Making Your Sponsorships More Equitable
Equitable sponsorship programs allow us to welcome more sponsors to our events and invite deeper relationships within our communities. A local mom and pop bakery might have less marketing money to sponsor an event than a major national bank branch, but their investment is just as valuable!
So let’s take the sponsor benefits you created, and put them together in a sponsorship packet that invites funders to invest. You might:
Not list funders by giving level, but instead just by alphabetical order so that you aren’t implying that some sponsors are valued more than others, just because they had more money to invest just now.
Offer the same sponsorship benefits to all sponsors regardless of how much they invest.
Invite sponsors to invest at sponsorship levels based on their budget and capacity, not artificially ranked sponsorship levels.
You want your sponsors to be investing in your mission, not just writing a check to meet a marketing goal. And to do that - to build long-term funder relationships - you need to rethink the narrative of event sponsorships. So what are you waiting for? Block off some time on your calendar, and start rethinking your event sponsorships!
Sponsorship Strategies Checklist
Download our free Sponsorship Strategies Checklist for more tips and resources to build your sponsorship program!