I know what you’re thinking: “Why do I need tips to grow my network? I love cold calling!” I’ve heard it thousands of times, sponsorship professionals and fundraisers want to spend all of their time cold calling giant companies and asking them for silent auction items or a CSR grant. Well, I hate bursting bubbles but there are better ways to sell sponsorship than the cold call.
Before you dive in, if you are interested in event sponsorship, check out these titles in our “sponsorship for events” series: How to Find Corporate Sponsorship for an Event How to Ask for Sponsorship for an Event The Six Step Event Sponsorship Checklist 5 Things to Include in Your Event Sponsorship Proposal How to Measure Event Sponsorship ROI Why Sponsorship is Important for Events: Using Sponsorship to Make Events Awesome Sponsorship During Times of Crisis: Cancelled Events, Postponing and Refunds Why Sponsorship Is Important for Events: Using Sponsorship to Make Events Awesome! How to Display Sponsors at an Event (That People Will Actually See) How to get Media Sponsorship for an Event: A Practical Guide Event sponsorship often seems like one of those unobtainable, too good to be true options. It’s hard to imagine a company would be willing to provide a large chunk of the funding needed to run your event. We need to change the way we think about sponsorship, from that of begging for money to offering a real partnership opportunity and charging fair market value for the opportunity. When you can prove you offer value to them such as increased brand exposure with their ideal target […]
Before you dive in, if you are interested in charity sponsorship, check out these titles in our “sponsorship for charities” series: Resource Page for Charity Sponsorship Corporate Social Responsibility: A User’s Guide for Nonprofits Charity Sponsorship Mistakes Sponsorship Cause Marketing Common Mistakes Cause marketing, sometimes called cause related marketing, provides a partnership opportunity between for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations. When done properly, it creates benefits for both partners by providing financial support for the cause and marketing opportunities for the business. As a nonprofit, you have the chance to get creative when approaching cause marketing initiatives, allowing you to customize the marketing opportunities to help meet your partners’ goals. However, to be effective and continue to develop longer-lasting partnerships, it is important to use cause marketing best practices that help guarantee success. You’ll need a solid cause marketing strategy to help keep you focused on your goals while also ensuring you don’t go too far off the mark when it comes to finding the best prospects and partners. Here’s everything you need to know about cause-related marketing for successful campaigns every time. What is Cause Marketing? The term cause marketing, or cause-related marketing, not only refers to a partnership between […]
Many corporate entities make decisions for the following calendar year by the end of October/early November, which means that now is the time to act or you could leave some money on the table. Try these techniques and strategies for the next 30 days and you will be surprised at how much money comes in during the winter and spring as a result! Tip #1: Think Partnership, Not Philanthropy This one is less of a technique than it is a shift in mindset. Is your cause important? Absolutely! Will it come up in a meeting with a corporate prospect? Definitely! But if you spend the majority of the meeting talking about your programs and your cause, you may be in trouble. As a charity, you exist to achieve your mission. You mission and programs are your product and how you measure success for your shareholders (donors, board and volunteers). Companies exist to make a profit, that’s how they measure success and how their boards and shareholders measure their success. In all likelihood you are pitching to a marketing, business development or HR person, all of whom are being measured and held accountable for their budget. Good causes are important, but […]
One of my personal heroes is Ira Glass, the longtime radio producer and NPR reporter. He’s turned the radio show into a modern art form, built for the podcast age before podcasts were even a thing. One of my favourite quotes about creativity comes from Glass. It’s a bit long, but I promise, it’s worth the read: “For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good… But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you… Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have… And if you’re just starting out, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work… You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
This week I’ve invited my friend and networking genius Paul Nazareth to share some networking strategies with you! Paul has worked on both sides of the table, for sponsorship seekers and corporate grant makers, and knows what he is talking about.
This post flows nicely from last week’s post about the differences between Individual Giving and the Sponsorship sales process. In that post I argue that the two worlds are different, very different, but that the best fundraisers have the transferable skills needed to make it work. This week I caught up with Maeve Strathy (yes THAT Maeve Strathy!). Maeve is one of those fundraisers who makes both types of fundraising work. I am firmly in the camp of “cause marketing specialist who makes it work in the world of individual giving” and Maeve is in the “other” camp- and does both well. I suspect there are far more full service fundraisers called upon to do cause marketing and sponsorship than the other way around and so I am very excited to be teaming up with Maeve on this post.
This post is meant as a primer for major gift fundraisers who find themselves involved in sponsorship and asking themselves how to get sponsors. That said, I think this will also be useful to the full service fundraising professional as well as the Executive Director who is occasionally asked to join in sponsorship meetings or who has been asked to build a sponsorship proposal.
The sponsorship process can seem complicated and intimidating and so I’ve created this infographic to help simplify things. Check it out and click on on each step of the Sponsorship Journey for some tips related to that topic.