National Director of Education

By Rosalie Courage
Director of Education
   

The Art of Acquiring and Retaining Sponsors . . . 

We all know how important sponsorship is to the overall net contribution for our fundraising events, however, acquiring a sponsor for a new event or a new sponsor for an existing event can be a significant challenge.

Once you have acquired the sponsor, how do you ensure that they will keep coming back to spend marketing dollars with your club on this event when there are so many charitable events in our communities?

Whether the sponsor is a friend of Progress or a corporate entity that has no known link to the club or the charities that will benefit, it is important to have a well documented case with outcomes that can be measured in some way to prove to these valuable sponsors that they benefiting as promised in partnering with your Progress event.

How do you value the assets of the sponsorship that you are offering?

There are two types of assets: Tangible and Intangible.  Tangible sponsorship assets are benefits (deliverables) that have an accepted marketplace value as defined by advertising or public relations firms.  Those tangible assets offering corporate visibility—advertising, signage, logo impressions on marketing and communications materials, all have a value.  For example the cost per thousand (CPM—the cost to be seen by 1,000 individuals).

Intangible assets are benefits or deliverables that have an unqualified value, as there is no system of valuation, however they often have considerable value.  These assets could be prestige, geographic reach, hosting, leadership and innovation etc.

Sponsorship Marketing is when a corporation purchases a marketing opportunity (in the same way they would be purchase traditional advertising) because they feel there is a unique business building and branding benefit that an event can offer.  The success or failure of these sponsorships is measured according to business building results.  This also makes the point that in order for a club to market to a corporate sponsor, they have to know the demographic profile of the people attending the event.  Example: it is unlikely there would be much business generated if ‘Depends Adult Diapers’ was the sponsor for an ‘Alternative Rock Concert’.  Who should we be marketing our sponsorship opportunities to and why?

Sponsorship is sold on the marketing value of what the Club/event can deliver to the corporate partner and is not based on what dollars the cause needs for a specific program.  The first step is to conduct an inventory of assets (tangible and intangible). Examples as follows:

Tangible: 

Paid Advertising
Promotions
Posters
Flyers
Signage (Interior; Exterior)
Website (Logo Exposure; Hotlink)
Tickets
Discounts
Opportunities to meet and greet
Mailing List Sampling
Use of Venue
Logo on Merchandise

Intangible:

Prestige
     Popular Local Event
Recognizability/Awareness
     City of XXXXX
Category Exclusivity
     Exclusive in materials
Level of Audience Interest
     Interest among members
Ability to Activate
     Opportunity for sponsor to activate new business through
     association with the event
Limited Degree of Sponsorship
     Number of Partners
Networking Opportunities
     Only with other sponsors
Ability to Deliver on Package
     Progress has good reputation
Media Coverage Potential
     Minimal for sponsors

These efforts can make you hone your sponsorship proposals and marketing of the same.

HERE is an opportunity:

Before you come to the National convention in Saskatoon, do an inventory of your event sponsorship assets and bring all of your materials to a working session. Together we will learn how to rate the tangible benefits and ensure that your sponsorship proposals are substantiated by facts. Learn from others who enjoy sponsorship success . . . if you are successful with sponsorships, make sure that you are remaining competitive.

Ed. note: Don’t miss this opportunity to bring your challenges (and solutions) to convention.  The interaction with other Progressians will help participants explore, rethink and solve sponsorship issues.  And we all have them!