Planning may be an integral part of executing an event, but it goes nowhere without good promotion. Part of promotion may include seeking sponsors. There are two basic reasons for this: 1. A sponsor or sponsors can contribute funds where funding is limited and 2. Their involvement and subsequent promotion of that involvement will ultimately aid your efforts. You can essentially piggyback off of their advertising as well as doing your own. However, charming an organization, corporation or individual to open their wallets to aid your cause is more easily said than done. There are steps that must be taken and a certain degree of finesse that will increase your chances of snagging that sponsor.
Create a Media Kit.
If you don’t have one already, you will have to start from scratch, but it is essential. Include in the kit a fact sheet that gives good information on your cause, company or organization that is behind your event. If you have tear sheets from newspapers that contain articles, add them as well. You should also give an overview of the event itself. If it is to benefit a cause or non profit, highlight that aspect. It could be your shoe in with the company. In short, you want to give the company you are pitching enough positive, good information to determine if sponsoring your event would be a good opportunity.
Figure your Budget
The next thing that you need to do is figure your budget. Break down every single expense so that you have a clear, concise picture of your overall costs. This will aid you in determining how much you want or need your sponsors to contribute. It is important to know how much you will spend on each aspect of the event as well as total event cost. From there, you can offer different levels of sponsorship. Bronze, silver, gold and platinum are commonly used to name different sponsorship levels. Platinum is, of course the highest contribution while bronze is the lowest.
Define Sponsorship Levels
Once you have determined each sponsorship level, you need to assign what deliverables will be attached to each level. For instance, if a company chooses to be a platinum sponsor, contributing $10,000, their logo will appear in the prime position on all promotional material and it will be larger than lower sponsorship levels. Additionally, they may be featured on the event website, mentioned in press releases and named in all PSAs that promote the event. Your role is to make the deal so sweet to them that they can’t resist. Include this information in your media kit.
Write the Letter
Once you have established a clear delineation of each sponsorship level, you can begin reaching out to the sponsors. You should begin contacting corporations at least three months in advance, six months prior to the event would usually be even better. You will generally approach their marketing department so the first thing you need to do is research the companies you want to approach and find out who their marketing director or marketing point of contact is then address the letter directly to that person.
The letter should be on letterhead. It should be well written, grammatically correct and free of spelling and typographical errors. Begin the letter with one or two attention grabbing sentences, such as an interesting fact that is related to your event (i.e. for an event supporting the American Diabetes Association, you may start off with “It is estimated that 23.6 million people in the US have diabetes. Of this number, 5.7 million people are undiagnosed and are not aware that they have this debilitating illness.”). Name your organization or cause, the event, the date and invite them to participate as a sponsor.
In the second paragraph, detail how the event will aid the cause or what the purpose of the event is. If there are well known people or recent high profile press regarding your cause, you should mention that in this area as well.
In the third paragraph, briefly discuss details from previous events (if it is an annual event), how much money was raised (if it was a fundraiser), the current goal and how their sponsorship can aid in those efforts.
The fourth paragraph will introduce the media/fact kit that contains the event information, cause information and sponsorship information. Emphasize the press, recognition and promotion that they will receive as a result of sponsoring your event.
In the fifth paragraph, invite them to contact you (don’t forget to include your contact information) with any questions. You may offer to custom design a sponsorship package if you feel that is within your capabilities. Advise them that you will be contacting them within a specified time to follow up on the letter.
Thank them for considering the sponsorship opportunity (wording is important here!) and let them know that you are looking forward to partnering with them for this worthy event.
Send out the letters, then follow up when you said you would. Keep track of who you talk to, what correspondence you receive and what is said in all communications. For the sponsors who participate, make the experience as positive and enjoyable as you can. That way when you reach out to them the next time, they will have good memories and will be more willing to work with you again.
