What is in it for your sponsors?
Show how sponsorship will accomplish their business objectives as well as help you accomplish your mission.
When submitting a proposal to a corporation for sponsorship, quantify the value the corporation will receive from the exposure you can offer. There are 2 guiding principles: quantity and quality.
1. Quantity or Size of exposure:
Divide the requested amount by the impressions to give a $ per hit rate or per day rate.
- number of impressions/year?
- include their logo in your printed literature? Link from your website to their website? Will you include their literature in mailings to your donor database?
- attendance at the event?
- foot traffic/year?
- number of days a truck is on the road (with logos on outside)?
2. Quality of exposure:
- size and placement of logo
- corporate logo is standalone or combined with other sponsors?
- will the sponsor have exclusivity within their industry (ie the only bank sponsor)?
- are viewers also the target client of your sponsor?
- will logo be viewed by other sponsors?
3. How do you compare?
Get into the mindset of the corporate donor.
- Review the exposure the corporation got from previous sponsorships with other non-profits.
- Compare their exposure from sponsoring you with their exposure from their regular promotional efforts (e.g. placing ads in the newspaper, logos on their own trucks, etc)
- Mention the non-quantifiable benefits (e.g. improvement to their brand by connecting with you, employee morale, etc)
For more information, see Non Profit Management 101 by Darian Rodriquez Heyman page 373-388
