SPONSORS: How to get what you want

Are you looking to approach sponsors for your event? Are you doing it in a professional manner or are you just blind emailing and hoping it works? The most impactful way to get your point across is to make a customizable Sponsorship Prospectus. I say customizable because you should make a more generic version and place it on your website where it can live and be seen outward facing. This allows individuals or corporations that are browsing your website to have a better understanding of what you are looking for in a sponsor.

When compiling your Sponsorship Prospectus you should have both a broad overview of your organization and then a more detailed look at your event and what type of sponsor you are looking at. Your broad information should include such items as: size of the organization, active members, demographics of members, mission of the organization, volunteer hours, focuses of the organization. If you have measurable items make sure that you mention them. This is impactful and can relate to more analytical people. Make sure that you present this information in a manner that is visually appealing and not a wall of text. Nobody wants to think that they reading a college term paper when they are looking to give you money.

After you have given a general overview of your organization it is now time to move onto the fun stuff… your event! You want to be able to evoke the feeling of your event and at the same time not come across as desperate for money ???? If you had the same event last year it would be beneficial to add a few of the statistics from the last year such as: money raised, attendance, and how many people the event impacted. Then move into what your mission is this year. This should be short, impactful, and relatable to your potential sponsors. It should also explain why you need sponsors but in a classy and put together way. Just like a first date you don’t want to come across as desperate.

Next, you want to outline your sponsorship levels. You can choose to do traditional levels or you can have sponsors for specific items such as: wine, entertainment, or even social media. It is important to detail out what the expectations are from both sides for Sponsorship. Setting this up in a chart is a very easy way to see exactly what the Sponsor needs to provide to the Organization and what the Organization needs to provide to the Sponsor. It is important to remember that the Sponsor isn’t donating money out of the goodness of their heart they need to see an ROI on their investment.

Remember that when you have a meeting with potential sponsors that you will want to customize the actual prospectus for them. Replace the word Sponsor with the Company’s Name and outline the specific area that you want the company to Sponsor.

Finally, make sure to close the Prospectus. This includes a recap of your organization and the event, a hope that the Sponsors will join you in your mission, and contact information. It is very important to include either an email or phone number so that people can contact you for your event. Then put the Prospectus on your website and good luck securing your sponsors.