Episode #250
Do you find it hard to get corporate sponsors for your event?
If so, you are in luck. Because, today Shanon Doolittle is going to show you what she does to bring in more sponsors to her events. Not only that, she is actually going to give you the words to say to your potential sponsors.
You’ll find out a few of her great strategies in today’s video.
Come meet and talk with Shanon at this year’s Nonprofit Storytelling Conference.
Do you have any stories or advice on getting more sponsorships for events? If so, please share them in a comment box under the video. Thanks.
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Do you have any stories or advice on getting more sponsorships for events? If so, please share them in a comment box. Thanks. 🙂
Shannon, is right on. The last few years I have tried to interest a local luxury car dealer to sponsor our golf tournament. This year I tried again, but pointed our to him how many of our golfers were actually his customers. They will park three or four high end vehicles at the golf course and have a drawing for golf equipment, they get names and contacts.
It works.
Love it! Perfect tie in, Pat. We did something similar with a local Honda dealership at an event mostly attended by moms. They brought the newest mini-van, and our guests loved hanging out in it!
We created a proposal for an office furniture company that allowed them to bring office furniture out on the golf course at one of the tee boxes and use it as the backdrop for the team photos we were shooting that day. We titled the photo “A Day at the Office”. Players really “hammed” if up for the photos while spending time with the sales staff enjoying refreshments. Everyone loved the photos and since they were unique they did not end up on a pile, but on the office walls of our players.
Brilliant! Totally stealing this, Mike. 🙂
Has anyone experienced the trend that more corporate sponsors seem to be looking for in-kind sponsorship trades vs cash donations? It has been really frustrating for us because our organization is small, but I feel that access to our network has a cash value worth paying for. I have been weighing in-kind offers because sometimes having a big name associated with our events helps us acquire more cash sponsors, so I have to be careful, but I like to tell the in-kind folks that we can’t pay people or for programs with in-kind donations alone. How have other folks addressed this?
Ford, you are so on the money. What I like to do is set aside a certain number of in-kind trades per event, and I once I meet that threshold, I tell potential sponsors that our in-kind opportunities have sold out. Then I offer an opportunity for the prospect to still provide an in-kind benefit (if it makes sense and will help them meet their marketing goals) but at a reduced sponsorship rate.That way, they’re still providing value but you’re also receiving cash to offset your event expenses.
Great! This was a super packed clip! I love this approach and will work it into our foundation. Thanks Shannon and Movie Mondays!
You bet, Darlene. So glad it was helpful! Let us know how it goes, okay?
Shannons advice is spot on for those companies who want marketing value from their parterships – although not all do. You have to take the time to visit with them and find out what their hot buttons are. For some it is all about marketing and that’s great if you can think outside-the-box to give them added value like the legos table. If you take the effort to make their first experience with you stellar – you will have an almost guaranteed renewal and those are the easiest dollars to get. Another tip is to give them a face to face “thank you so much and what can we do to improve our event” visit. It’s personal and starts the conversation about the following year.
Yes, yes, yes! Meredith, you are so right. Awesome perspective and advice that I hope many will see. The post-event debrief with your sponsor is so important! Thanks for bringing that in to the conversation.
Shannon, thank you for the great tips. My approach has always been to create a grid of benefits and dollar levels, with the note that I will customize the benefits package to the corporation. I can see now how that may instantly stall and limit the conversation. I have a proposal out for a museum exhibit — with the grid as per my past system — and am just finishing up a separate proposal for a film festival. For the latter, I am deleting the grid and replacing with language that I will work with the prospect to develop a tailored benefits package. I’ll keep the grid “in my back pocket” so I have ideas about what I can offer, but by letting the sponsor come up with ideas my sense is they will feel more engaged in the transaction. Thanks again for sharing your experience. –Patrick
So great, Shanon! Love these tips…
Thanks Shannon! My concern is that if I tailor sponsorship to a company, then other sponsors may feel as if they received less marketing benefit. For example, what if we organized a 5K but did not include booth space to sponsors, but we allowed it for one company? Although they are give the same gift, would other companies feel as if they received less?
Great timing – meeting with a potential donor that just signed on as a sponsor for an event/project here. Want to build the relationship to see if we can partner in another way or keep the dialogue open to consider sponsorship next year. Will watch this again before I meet with them and other corporations, for sure! Shanon, you always have great ideas!