The latest writings from our team
In Kind Sponsorship: How to Upgrade to Cash Sponsorship
I have been getting a lot of questions about in-kind sponsorship lately. Not so much focused on getting in-kind, but how to get your in-kind sponsor to “upgrade” to cash. In my post “The Seven Deadly Sins of Sponsorship,” I speak out against in-kind sponsorship as one of the deadly sins. In a world where cash is king, I am not a big fan of in-kind sponsorship. There, I said it! I am also not a fan of the philosophy that you should use sponsorship to cover off your expenses and let ticket sales drive your revenue. The hard costs of your event or program have nothing to do with the market value of your assets. Getting “free” wine, AV, lunch, dinner, photo booths etc. is actually costing you thousands of dollars. Why? Because the value of the wine as a marketing opportunity is unrelated to its hard costs. Every logo placement, call out from the stage, and opportunity to connect your sponsors to their audience has value. Apply your valuation calculator to your wine (and all in-kind sponsorships) and sell it to companies who care about your demographic. Bonus tip: I never sell wine sponsorship to wine producers. Instead, […]
5 Things to Include in Your Event Sponsorship Proposal
Before you dive in, if you are interested in event sponsorship, check out these titles in our “sponsorship for events” series: How to Find...
Seven Corporate Sponsorship Strategies for the New Year
Welcome back from, what I hope was, a restful and relaxing time with friends and family! If you’re anything like me, you spent the month of December saying things like “I will take care of that in the new year!” Putting off tasks to be handled by some future version of yourself in a distant land called “next year.”
Disruption in the Marketplace: Three Sponsorship Trends Worth Paying Attention To
The sponsorship landscape has changed dramatically over the last five years and the pace of change has picked up, with no signs of letting up. While this increased pace of change makes it challenging for sponsorship sales professionals, it also opens up opportunities. Here are three changes and trends that you should be aware of:
How to do Corporate Sponsorship Badly! Part Two
In part one of my corporate sponsorship gone wrong post I covered three examples of what NOT to do with your sponsors. If you liked those three examples, you are going to love these last two examples. Have a horror story of your own to share? Leave it in the comments!
How to do Corporate Sponsorship Badly! Part One
The goal of this post is simple: learn from my mistakes! I have been doing corporate sponsorship deals for charities, private companies, and associations and not for profits for a long time and I have had some great successes but I have also had some disastrous corporate sponsorship deals gone wrong.
How do I sell sponsorship for…?
I get this question or a variation of it every day, multiple times a day and at every speaking event, workshop and webinar that I run.
How to Secure Mega Sponsorships for Your Fundraising Event!
Events can be great. They can engage your donors, show off your cause, increase revenue and, most important of all (in my highly biased opinion) drive sponsorship dollars. Sponsorship sales can be a major revenue source from events. With a little effort, you can make your next event a sponsor’s dream!
7 Things to do to Prepare for the Holidays…and still bring in sponsorship dollars!
7 Things to do to Prepare for the Holidays… and still bring in sponsorship dollars! The holidays are a weird time! A mixture of excitement for some time off with family, daily invites to networking holiday parties and the pressure of year end all rolled into one. As you get closer and closer to the holidays people start to put things off to “the new year,” a magical time in the distant future where all of your tasks lie waiting. Here are nine things that you can do in December to keep the momentum going for your sponsorship program: