Should You Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth? What You Need to Know Before Setting up a Sponsorship Program

Part l.

Special events are expensive – in terms of time, resources and cost. Yet they’re also a wonderful way for your organization to get funding for a special project, increase community awareness about your issues, provide training or acknowledge supporters.

As a VISTA Volunteer or Americorps member, you should constantly be on the lookout for new resources of private and public funding – and one of the most available – and lucrative for your organization can be business or corporate sponsorships.

Which sounds great on paper, but there are always lots of questions when it comes to putting the theory into action – and this article is going to attempt to answer the most common questions.

Think in Terms of Your Mission and Strategic Plan

Before rushing out and looking for a corporate sponsor, you have to get back to the basics – take a good look at your mission and strategic plan. Ask yourself these questions:

• Does this project fall within our mission and fit within our current or emerging strategic plan?
• Is this project a priority? (For example are there unexpected circumstances or a sudden emergency that makes it vital to our community?)
• Is there another organization that is already doing similar work, or that is better suited to manage this project?
• Do we have the staff, space, expertise and additional resources necessary to carry out the work? (And will we have to drop another project in order to do this one?)

If the answers to these questions still gives you a green light for the project in question, then it’s time to think about what type of sponsorship opportunities would be fit within the goals of the project and your mission. Sponsorship comes in many different forms – and it’s entirely possible to have more than one sponsor and more than one type of sponsorship for a project. (It depends on a few different things – your organization, the project, the type of sponsorship you’re looking for, the type of businesses and corporations that would see a direct benefit in a sponsorship, what they have to offer, etc.)

Different Types of Sponsorships

Sponsorship comes in many forms and at many different levels – and you can often set the stage for the types you receive simply by doing a little planning ahead. Here are a few different types:

• Cash – this is one of the most common forms, and can run from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars
• Product or Service Donations – this is also known as an In-Kind donation and could include food, prizes, supplies or specific materials needed for the project
• Labor – this is also an In-Kind donation, and is usually offered in the form of employee volunteerism, but can also be offered by a business person providing his or her usual service – such as accounting, plumbing or technical support
• Advertising – a business could provide in-house or outside advertising services, or pick up the cost of advertising your project through newspaper ads, flyers, promotional posters, etc.

First Steps

The first thing to do is to put together a broad outline of your project. (This is also known as a project scope.) Answer all the “who” “what” “when” “where” “why” and “how” questions. For example:

• What is the project? Describe it in broad terms
• When is it going to start? When will it end?
• Who will it benefit? Who will be involved? Who will be affected by it?
• Where will the project be held?
• Why is the project necessary? What will happen if the project doesn’t go through as planned?
• What do we need to make the project successful?
• How will we do what needs to be done?

Once you’ve created your project scope, it’s time to look at it in terms of who could benefit from a partnership with you on the project.

Why Businesses and Corporations Sponsors Projects

All businesses need to advertise, and are looking for new and innovative marketing ideas. Forming a partnership with nonprofit organizations who are working on issues that are important to people in the community is just good business. It enhances the business’ image in the community by showing that they are concerned about, and support the programs that are working to solve local problems.

But sponsorships often go deeper than that, if you take the time to do your homework.

Many companies have mission statements and vision statements, and these are often written around issues that are vital to the way the company is structured and run.

A company's mission statement will give you some insight into what's important to them, and the way they see the "big picture" of doing business.

For example, if you check out Microsoft, here's what their "values statement" says:

Our Values

As a company, and as individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness, personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual self-improvement, and mutual respect. We are committed to our customers and partners and have a passion for technology. We take on big challenges, and pride ourselves on seeing them through. We hold ourselves accountable to our customers, shareholders, partners, and employees by honoring our commitments, providing results, and striving for the highest quality.

Or what about this from the Bank of America?

Our Philosophy

“We believe, very simply, that it is the actions of individuals working together that build strong communities ... and that business has an obligation to support those actions in the communities it serves.”

Kenneth D. Lewis, Chairman and CEO

Here's something else you might not have thought of before. It’s in a company’s best interests to be located in a healthy, thriving community in so many ways – their employees do a better job if their basic needs are taken care of, people tend to spend more money when they go shopping, and other businesses are attracted to the area, which causes more people to come – either to live or to shop.

So think about how that ties into your project - for example, if you're creating an after school literacy childcare project, then link it to the way that employees won't need to take as much time off work, because they are secure in the knowledge that their children are safe and being well-taken care of.

Or if you're working on a health-related project, talk about how much money companies lose when employees or their children are sick. And if the project doesn't affect the company directly, talk about how important the project is for everyone in the community. And how people in the community are going to feel about the company for helping to make it happen.

The reality of it is, you're offering the company a unique opportunity to make a difference in the community and increase their presence, standing and value in the eyes of the people who live there - and that's the kind of publicity that can't be bought at any price through an ad in a newspaper or magazine.

So now you should understand that you’re not “begging” when you approach a company with a sponsorship opportunity – in fact, if the project meets their needs, you’re actually giving them something they can't get anywhere else!

Watch for part 2 of this post coming soon - this is an excerpt from the Special Event Workbook that we'll be making available after the November 7 teleconference - and it will be for a special price only for people who have registered for the conference. (So if you want to get it, make sure you've registered - even if you can't attend, because you'll also get the powerpoint presentation and a mp3 file download, so you can listen to it at your convenience!

If you haven't already registered, sign up today here: Special Event Teleconference