Fundraising Ideas

The Art of Online Donations

August 22, 2019 By Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario

We’re all accustomed to the typical fundraising programming––galas, events, cold calling––but having a ‘donate now’ button on your website can help you reach diverse audiences and gain a new pool of donors. At ARTE, we work to engage young people, amplify their voices and help them organize for human rights change through the visual arts. To help them rise to the challenge, we have to remain flexible in the ways that we work.

To achieve our vision, we work not only with our students but with our donors, meaning we work both at grassroots and foundational levels. Donations help organizations like ours do the work they need to create a more just world. But, like so many others, we’re still up against limited bandwidth and budgets, so we were thrilled with the opportunity to work with Wix, the website development platform company, to redo our website through its Social Good Project at its Wix Design Playground in NYC.

We worked with the program’s students to create a strategy for increasing reach online and getting more people to donate. By including the button clearly on our site, we were able to create a simple call-to-action.

Tools to help nonprofits grow

Having an online presence is fundamental for nonprofit organizations. We are all attracting different stakeholders: donors, volunteers and recipients of our services. A website helps engage us with each stakeholder, while helping them easily understand the organization’s mission and culture. It also allows you to reach more people and create a connection, building an online community.

To get people to donate, make sure that the website enables them to easily do so. People are busy and anything that can delay a transaction can result in the most well-intentioned donor leaving. So, make sure to provide a process that is easy to understand, simple and quick.

Additionally, make the website informative enough that it keeps people coming back. That way, while some might not donate immediately, you can drive donations later by including a donate button in an email newsletter. This will also help readers continue to equate donations with the organization.

Donation button on your website

Connecting the donation button to your nonprofit’s bank account is the first and best option, since it eliminates third-party fees and expenses. However, third parties can help to spread the word about your organization and better appeal to their audiences. Wix’s funding options allow us to do both, enabling direct donations, as well as going through PayPal Donations, which connects directly to our PayPal account.

Using trusted merchant services to accept donation payments is crucial because it gives donors a sense of security when making donations to our organizations. Depending on the type of nonprofit, it may be wise to also use crowdfunding and social media donation buttons. Donors can more easily recognize these brands and trust them.

While Paypal is our go-to, there are also different donation buttons that suit an organization’s needs. Fundly, for example, is a great crowdfunding donation tool, particularly for collecting a lot of small donations. Other good tools include Double the Donation, a matching gifts donation button, and a verified button, which helps secure the organization and its donors.

Like galas, fundraisers and community activities, a website is a way to connect with your audience. Make sure it’s updated to modern standards, so you don’t lose the ability to continue the important work your nonprofit is completing.

How to Write a Letter of Thanks for Donations

June 17, 2019 By Giovonni Santiago

Funding can be one of the biggest single challenges of running a nonprofit. Without funding, programming becomes increasingly difficult. So what is the key to funding a nonprofit? Gratitude, of course! Writing an effective and heartfelt letter of thanks for donations lets donors know that you value them. And hopefully, this letter helps keep your nonprofit top of mind for future donations.

I started my own nonprofit to support transgender youth called Meta Center Inc in 2016. I had a big goal of creating an inclusive space for transgender youth to feel safe and supported. My goal was large but my funding definitely on the small scale. I dug as deep as I could into my own pockets. I also relied heavily on the kindness and generosity of family, friends and community members. A letter of thanks for donations helped ensure that my nonprofit started off on the right foot.

Over the years, I’ve worked on perfecting the art of gratitude. Here are my tips on how to write a standout donor-centered letter of thanks for donations:

Be Swift

You should send out your thank you letter within 48 hours. This means that you need to be prepared for a donation that could come at any time. Follow the steps below to ensure that your letter is ready to customize and send quickly.

Make it Personal

Avoid a pre-printed card you keep on hand. Personalization is the key to a memorable letter of thanks. Skip “Dear Donor” or “Hello Friend” and include your donor’s name. They took the time to donate to your nonprofit. You need to take the time to write a real personalized letter. If this is not their first donation, make sure you include: “Thank you for another contribution..” Return donors are so important to your nonprofit’s livelihood. This simple touch acknowledges in a personal way that you appreciate them thinking of you again.

Tell A Story

I start all of letter of thanks for donations the same way: I tell a personal story. This is the best way to grab the reader’s attention. Detail how the nonprofit directly impacted an individual’s life for the better. With permission, share that individual’s name and include a direct quote. Make it clear right from the beginning who directly benefited from their donation. For Meta Center Inc, a story might details an individual who was able to start their medical transition, find a gender-affirming doctor, buy their first binder and live as their true authentic self.

Include Statistics

Numbers, figures and statistics take the personal story and extrapolate that one individual’s experience to demonstrate the full reach of your nonprofit’s work. Did your nonprofit organization increase individuals served this year? Were you able to step up your programming efforts? You added an extra weekly support group? Share that with your donor! As a donor, they are champions of your nonprofit’s success. Brag a little!

What’s Next for Your Nonprofit

Once you’ve let your donor know how their funding has impacted your organization already, let them know what you plan to do next. If you haven’t completed a project, let them know where you stand. No one expects you to have everything together, but an update goes a long way! Stay transparent and tell your donor how their funds will be used.

Don’t Ask for Another Donation

This is a letter of thanks for a donation. This is not the time to ask for another donation. Asking for another donation 48 hours after you received the first one simply comes off as ungrateful. An effective letter of thanks for donations will ensure that when your donor is ready to give again, your organization will be top of mind!

Keep the Door Open

If your donor is local, let them know about your next event or invite them over to the office for a tour. Take them to coffee. Think of your donors as relationships. You nurture relationships, right? Donors are the same! Make sure the letter is written and hand-signed directly by someone on your leadership team.

Feel confident you can nail the letter of thanks for donations yet? Remember to keep it personal, tell a story and show that gratitude!

How to Plan a Profitable Nonprofit Gala

June 10, 2019 By Gail S. Bower

Thousands of nonprofits produce galas and other elaborate fundraisers each year. They can be tremendous assets for your organization or enormous wastes of time and money.

If you choose to make yours an asset, here are the two most important areas where you need to focus.

Start With Your Business Model.

Let’s be clear about the purpose of your gala: it is to make money profitably. That’s it.

Events can be used for many purposes—build audiences, fulfill your mission, communicate news, reinforce the sale, among others.

The gala’s function is to generate a significant profit.

Before you do anything else, determine the best business model for the event so that it does expressly that.

And here’s a hint. Galas do not make money on ticket revenue, just like newspapers do not make money on subscriptions or individual newspaper sales.

In both cases, the big dollars come from sponsors. Corporations and individuals commit to a fee or a more generous contribution in support of the cause.

Your business model should identify the activities and relationships necessary to secure sponsors, attract individual donors, and lead to profit. For sponsorship, be prepared to articulate compelling value and engage the sponsor in mutually beneficial ways.

You also want to activate your attendees in other revenue generating activities at the event, such as a Live Auction and a Fund-A-Cause. Be sure to hire a great auctioneer and put the odds ever in your favor.

Attract the Right Audience.

That leads to the next important detail, which is to attract the right people to your gala.

It’s quite natural to want to open the invitation up broadly to your community, to include constituents, partners, friends, donors, funders, and all sorts of stakeholders. For any other event, that broad invitation is appropriate.

For your gala, be selective.

Attract people who have both the financial capacity and commitment to your cause. Your attendees must be enthusiastic about actively participating in the gala and donating.

One of the best ways to attract the right audiences is to have your best supporters do it, not by absent-mindedly delegating. Rather, be highly strategic.

In fact the word my colleague Kathy Kingston uses is “obsess,” as in obsess over audience development. Kingston, an expert fundraising auctioneer and author of A Higher Bid: How to Transform Special Event Fundraising with Strategic Benefit Auctions, encourages leaders to “hand-select every Table Ambassador,” she says.

“Invite each person with a call or personal visit,” Kingston says, “so you can explain how they can help build relationships with your great cause by engaging with their guests before, during and after your fundraising gala.”

When you fill the room with the right people who have the right expectations, you reach your revenue goals and create loyal fans for the future.

When you don’t, your revenue suffers. One organization gave a discount to an honoree who wanted to buy one hundred tickets to bring her young staff. First, red flag: “fundraiser” and “discount” do not go together. This honoree clearly didn’t appreciate that filling the room was not the primary goal.

Things got worse. These one hundred young people showed their enthusiasm and support for the cause and the honoree, cheering her on and having fun at the event. However, no one prepped them to give. They had no idea of the expectation to make a contribution through the silent auction or fund-a-cause.

Because this group represented about a third of the audience, the organization missed a huge opportunity and lost money on these one hundred attendees. To make matters even worse, the organization never connected with them afterwards to nurture them and activate them in their young friends program.

Galas are enormous investments and, with the right strategy and attendees, important assets. Use these focal points to lay a strong foundation for profitability.

Top Challenges Keeping Your Emails from the Inbox

May 17, 2019 By Tom Sather

Email marketing is a crucial channel for nonprofit marketers. In fact, email accounted for 28 percent of all online revenue for nonprofits in 2017. Given how nonprofits rely on email to connect with their donors, volunteers, and advocates, it may come as a surprise to learn that nonprofit marketers are struggling to reach the inbox. A recent study by Return Path found that, on average, 19 percent of nonprofit emails are sent to the spam folder—more than double the overall spam placement average of nine percent.

So what’s causing this loss in email opportunity? Poor sender reputation.

As mailbox providers receive incoming messages, they check the reputation of the sender to determine where to deliver the message. Senders with strong reputation are delivered to the inbox, while those with poor reputation are delivered to the spam folder. There are hundreds of signals that determine your reputation which contribute to determining how your mail is delivered. Following are the two biggest factors that may be harming your reputation, along with tactics to help nonprofit marketers reach their advocates’ inboxes.

List hygiene

List hygiene refers to the quality of the email addresses you have on your mailing list. Mailbox providers look at the quality of your list when determining whether to accept your messages and where to place them. There are three types of “bad” addresses which impact list quality.

Spam traps are emails created to identify marketers with poor list hygiene. Having even one spam trap on your list will lead to a significant decline in deliverability.
Unknown users are email addresses that don’t exist, have been terminated by the mailbox provider, or were abandoned by the end user. Mail that is sent to these addresses will be returned with an unknown user code.
Inactive addresses are subscribers who have not taken any action with your email in a long time.

To maintain a healthy email list, try the following:

Use a list validation service. By running your entire list through a validation service, you can eliminate invalid emails and ensure that every address is owned by a real, active user. You should also re-validate periodically as you add new advocates to your list.

Monitor your list and remove inactive addresses. Suppress and remove subscribers who have not engaged with your email program within the last 60 days. This will help you identify addresses that could potentially harm your reputation.

Complaints

On average, nonprofits receive spam complaints on 0.65 percent of their emails. That’s about one out of every 150 emails sent! Not only is this well above the overall average for spam complaints, but it’s also more than three times the recommended complaint rate advised by most mailbox providers (no higher than 0.2 percent).

Complaints are a direct signal from your subscribers that your content is unwanted. As such, mailbox providers factor complaints heavily in their placement decisions, because they want to create the best possible inbox experience for their users.

To combat complaints, try the following:

Sign up for feedback loops. A feedback loop is a service that tracks the messages that receive subscriber complaints and sends a report back to the sender. By signing up for feedback loops at all the mailbox providers you send to, you can get insight into when and why subscribers complain.

Identify why subscribers complain and make adjustments. Once you are signed up feedback loops, you can begin to analyze the complaints you’re receiving. Are you seeing complaints when you first start emailing new subscribers? Are certain campaigns generating a lot of complaints? Have you made changes to your program and seen complaints spike? Use these signals of subscriber dissatisfaction to identify where you need to improve your subscribers’ email experience.

The Evolution of Corporate Engagement: Best Practices for Communicating with Progressive Companies to Gain Their Interest in Engaging with Your Nonprofit

May 10, 2019 By Tara Spalding

Over the past decade, there has been a growing emphasis on workplace wellness, corporate social responsibility and the importance of investing in programs that will attract and retain talent for companies. Businesses have become more attuned to the opportunity for engaging with nonprofits to increase workplace participation and community engagement. This has proven to be a popular branding tactic for many companies who are looking to recruit a new generation of employees who are eager to have impact inside and outside of the company. In fact, according to America’s Charities’ Snapshot 2017 report, 88 percent of employers believe that effective employee engagement programs help attract and retain employees. Since fostering a strong employee engagement program has such a large impact on the company’s brand, partnering with a reputable nonprofit to fuel these programs is imperative. Ninety percent of respondents from the above report actually stated that partnering with a well-rounded nonprofit was top of mind when looking to enhance their brand.

With corporate philanthropy proving to be a valuable recruiting and retention asset, companies are also asking their employees for opinions in which nonprofits to invest their time and money. Gone are the days when a CEO or executive team solely determines exactly how corporate dollars will be spent. Employees want to work for an organization that is mission-driven and does good, and they want to have a say in how it happens. Given this shift in corporate engagement, it is important that you, as the nonprofit’s fundraiser, explore the various ways to build relations with a company and its employees in order to win over their hearts and show them why they should be investing their time and funds in your cause.

Here are a few ways to ensure you are effectively communicating with potential corporate partners and building the bottom line for a successful working relationship:

Prioritize employee communication – With corporate philanthropy becoming more grassroots and collaborative, there is a bigger opportunity for nonprofits to develop a customized and tailored approach to communicating with the company’s employees. In a situation where the employee could be a potential advocate for your organization, treat them like brand ambassadors through solid cultivation and stewardship. This will help deepen the relationship between the nonprofit and the employee, ultimately reaching the corporate donor.
Show them your mission first hand – Many companies have a philanthropy committee that ultimately makes the decision for non-profit partnerships, so it’s important to engage this group as much as possible. Consider scheduling an annual visit and tour of your organization. During the meeting, introduce the committee to program staff and let them see the program in action. This will make them feel even more connected with your organization and show them where their dollars are making an impact.
Build a Corporate & Foundation team – Having a strong Corporate & Foundation team who can devote their time to writing strong proposals and report on solid outcomes is always critical to securing corporate investment. A formal “corporate giving” program should also show companies the different ways their employees can engage with your agency. A corporate program may include minimum thresholds that link with certain benefits: listings on your website, social media shout-outs, newsletters, invitations to events and best of all, experiences for their employees.
Tie this investment to their business values – Companies are always looking for team-building opportunities for their employees. Point out the various volunteer, networking and event opportunities—experiences that go beyond donations and corporate matching gifts—that their employees can gain from partnering with your organization. This will help the companies increase job satisfaction and take a step in the right direction towards improving retention rates.

At Horizons for Homeless Children, we also work to incorporate these types of tactics. After signing on a new corporate partner, we held a luncheon which hosted over 100 employees and executives from the company. Instead of doing a traditional presentation that explained the nonprofit’s mission and impact, we broke the employees down into small groups and played a game which illustrated the effects of toxic stress on a child’s developing brain—a topic that is relevant to our organization. For more than one hour, the employees were enraptured with the game and, at the end of the day, the feedback was incredibly positive. Leadership was thrilled the staff worked together so well, and the employees loved learning more about a meaningful topic. Creative thinking like this can easily differentiate your organization from others and can turn the heads of other companies looking for similar partnerships.

Overall, nonprofit fundraisers know that relationship building is key to developing the long-term partnerships crucial to so many organizations. Whether it be individual, corporate or one-time donors, developing transparent, open communication will continue to be the best form of contact for any nonprofit. As we consider the evolving workplace, nonprofits shouldn’t necessarily re-invent the wheel to engage with potential corporate partners. Rather, they should look towards their best advocates and nurture those relationships in head-turning ways.

3 Ways Giving Can Help You Save

May 9, 2019 By David Anderson

When considering the option of giving, emphasis is often placed on the direct gains from tax deductible contributions. There are other, more indirect benefits of giving to charity that are important to observe.

Consider your financial goals and learn to plan wisely.

Donating to a charity can help you learn how to manage your finances more effectively, and actually increase the amount you save. By establishing a set of goals or priorities, philanthropic giving affords valuable skills and develops better financial habits. Understanding yourself and what you believe in will help you plan more wisely for the future. Identify what is most important to you, and assign a realistic number to what you could give over a period of time.

Charter change and make the world a better place.

Every little bit helps. Just a few U.S. dollars can go a long way in other parts of the world.

Studies show that charitable donations in the form of prosocial spending, e.g. money spent on others or the act of charitable giving fosters social connection and compensates the donor in many ways.

More specifically, generous behavior precipitates a more positive outlook, sweetens success, and promotes higher levels of happiness.

Claim Donations & Collect Tax Benefits

Charitable donations are tax deductible when made to qualified nonprofit organizations.

On the list of top 5 tax deductions, the benefits of donating to charity are well documented and should not be overlooked. When you make a cash donation to a registered nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, the amount of the donation can be listed and deducted from your taxable income. This will reduce your overall tax liability.

Another way to save on your taxes is to donate old items to charity. Less common than cash, donating goods is a way to make use of items you no longer want or need, and receive a sizeable tax deduction. The Salvation Army provides a valuable guide for determining the value of your donated items. Always get a proper, itemized receipt to keep on record for the IRS.

With the balanced approach characterized above, engaging in charitable work in your community, or giving money to a cause is a way to invest in a more profitable future. In return for your investment in a better world, you will gain personal knowledge about yourself, your values, and how to save for a better financial future.

How to Promote Nonprofit Events

May 3, 2019 By Gail S. Bower

When you think about nonprofit events, automatically you probably think about fundraisers, such as a gala or semi-formal gathering with a silent auction and other opportunities to give.

In fact, nonprofit organizations can use events for a host of reasons, ranging from a primary source of revenue, such as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, celebrating its 50^th Anniversary in 2019 and providing millions to support the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation mission, to a key focal point of your communication efforts, to a simple relationship builder.

Whatever the goal of the event, always think about events as a way of bringing your organization, mission, and brand to life in three-dimensions.

When viewed this way, several crucial ingredients need to be part of your marketing strategy, either overall or based on timing relative to the event. Let’s dig in.

What Every Event Needs

Compelling event. Obviously your event needs to be compelling and, frankly, awesome. If it’s not, go back to the drawing board and raise the bar. How will you stand out among your competition, which these days includes the trendy restaurant in town and the entirety of the Internet?

Brand and graphic identity. It’s natural to want to start selling tickets or, if there is no charge, inviting guests, but before you dive in, think branding. An unknown event poses a risk for audience members and sponsors. People’s time and sponsors’ dollars are valuable, and neither wants to waste these resources on dicey events.

Organizations that invest in a graphic identity and a compelling brand positioning make it easier for guests and sponsors to say, “yes.” You mitigate risk, at least on a perceptual level.

Eventgoer journey. What kind of experience do you want your attendees to have? And what do you need to do, say, and show throughout the eventgoer’s journey to create that effect?

What To Do Before the Event

Ignite influencers. Build the buzz among the influencers in your community so they help drive traffic to you.

Build social proof. Show us the people who attend the event. Photos tell a story that you cannot. Engage audiences on social media in a natural and organic way so people can connect before and after the event.

Focus on value. In the course of sharing the key details (place, date, time, cost, what will happen etc.) about your event, communicate what’s in it for the attendee, not what’s in it for you.

Build an audience. Implement a plan to encourage the influencers in your audience to attract their friends and colleagues. Having table captains at a gala, for example, who know exactly the right people to invite, can help quickly build a great audience for your event.

What To Do After the Event

Marketing your event and organization is where the really sophisticated marketers rise to the top. Too often, organizations run through the finish line from producing the event and then fall into a heap. Pace yourself with one more effort (which can be automated).

Rinse, lather, and repeat. What is important to do before the event is just as important afterwards. Engage influencers to let them know how things went, how many people attended, how much money was raised, and send photos so readers/viewers can ogle the fashion statements made.

Personalize. After the event is the perfect time for personal outreach. Everyone there raised his/her hand and expressed interest in your mission. Go meet them, talk to them, find out if they had fun, learn more about them, and figure out together how to further engage them.

Nonprofit events are lots of work and a great demand on your staff members’ time and energy. All of that goes to waste if you don’t leverage everything you have so that your events become important assets for your organization.

Newsletters Best Practices for Nonprofits

April 15, 2019 By Gail S. Bower

One of the smartest tools you can have in your relationship-building arsenal is a newsletter. It doesn’t matter if it’s electronic or printed, this regular connection with your audiences is one of the most important assets your organization can develop.

What is a newsletter?

A newsletter is a regular and reliable publication produced by your nonprofit organization that shares valuable news and information with your audiences. The key is to present the information in a way that is aligned with the reader’s self-interest.

This is no small point. A mistake too many organizations make is droning on and on about themselves without advancing their business goals with the reader.

Why is it so valuable?

Producing a newsletter may sound old school, given all the platforms and ways we can stay in touch with audiences. But here’s why relying on external platforms, without developing your own, is risky and why you need to think about a newsletter in a new way.

If Facebook or Twitter or Instagram collapsed tomorrow, all your content and contacts would vanish. Not so with a newsletter.

If you regard your newsletter and its subscriber list as assets, you’d focus much more of your time and effort on building your newsletter. In fact, it’s one of the most important activities of your marketing initiatives.

Your development team only has so much time and energy available, especially if that department is one person or smaller. The development office has to focus on the highest value relationships—in other words, donors with the highest giving capacity. They are not able to spend as much time with donors who contribute smaller amounts.

Herein lies the rub. These smaller donors are still critical to your organization, especially if you’re a membership organization or need demonstrable proof to another entity that you’ve got community support. And you never know when these smaller donors turn into larger ones nor who else they know.

Your newsletter then is the virtual (or paper) representation of your organization that gets out there to cultivate your relationships.

Newsletters: Best practices

Here are seven tips to make sure you create your newsletter using best practices.

Know your audience. Why are they connected with your organization? What do they need to know? What do you hope to gain by communicating with this group?
Write for your audience. Gear the content to your reader. If your audience is too diverse, consider multiple newsletters.
Short and to the point. Everyone’s busy. Keep it brief and pithy.
Use images. People learn in different ways. Interesting photos make your newsletter interesting to read and look at.
Hire a graphic designer. Poorly designed newsletters will be deleted (or thrown in the trash). Invest in resources to make sure your newsletter gets read.
Be regular and consistent. It’s how you build trust.
Sum of the parts creates the whole. Showcase multiple areas of your organization so that you’re building a relationship, communicating lots of interesting tidbits, underscoring your success and impact, and engaging your audience.

How do you get started?

First determine whether having a newsletter is aligned with your organizational and marketing strategies. Then make a commitment to get started. Spend time conceiving the purpose, brand, and regular features of your newsletter. A staff member or team must take responsibility and be accountable for producing it with the support of external resources, as needed, on a regular basis.

Whether it’s in-depth and periodic or short and frequent, have fun with the newsletter and with engaging the important people in your community.

Nonprofit Fundraising – Getting Corporate Sponsors

April 4, 2019 By Gail S. Bower

You produce an event, and you want sponsors.

Well, maybe you’re not sure you really want sponsors, but let’s be honest: you definitely want the money.

You may be a little unclear about what’s involved. And maybe you have no idea where to begin.

If this describes your situation closely enough, you’re in the right place. We’ll answer these questions and get you on the right path.

But first, you have an important decision to make.

Let’s assume that you have all the right conditions to be successful with sponsorship:

Organizational competence (or the ability to acquire that competency)
A sustainability strategy and business model conducive to sponsorship
Adequate staffing, and
The right raw materials—a great event, compelling marketing operation, enthusiastic audiences—to convert into viable sponsorship opportunities.

We can shape all this together into a strategy to help you get sponsors. Before we do, you need to answer a question.

That is: What kind of seller do you want to be?

This question may be a curious one to you, but I guarantee you that most people never ask it.

By defining the type of seller you want to be, you set an intention. You avoid jumping in with something subconscious operating as your default. You will thank yourself when faced with tough decisions when you have to advocate, move forward, decline, negotiate, and refine on the fly. Being clear on your intention can make your job easier and more transparent.

In my work, I generally encounter three types of sellers:

Pauper. The pauper, as the name implies, is begging. He or she doesn’t really understand the value of the organization’s sponsorship program and desperately focuses on getting money. The individual may even see the big rich corporation as nothing more than an ATM machine.

Pompous. The pompous seller is the one who covers his lack of skill or perhaps poor offering with a bombastic personality. He or she may disguise insecurity with know-it-all or arrogant behavior that prevents any meaningful connection with the sponsor and colleagues.

Partner. The seller who is a partner builds trust and is in service to his or her sponsor along with his or her own organization. Quick thinking, solution-oriented, and creative, the partner always has the sponsor’s best interests at heart. In fact, he or she is willing to say “no” to an opportunity (and the money) that is not in both parties’ best interests.

There actually is one more type: the Slimy Salesperson. You know the type, too. But have you ever met him or her? I’m convinced this image is what we fear becoming, a figment of our imagination.

From these four descriptions, you know the right answer is to set your intention to become your sponsor’s partner.

When you have partners and are one yourself, you have companies that collaborate with you to make your event, program, campaign, or initiative a great success.

Doesn’t that sound a lot better than the other three options?

Now, back to your questions about getting sponsors and where to begin. If you’ve committed to being a partner, you know that you’re not going to start by simply craving corporate money.

Instead you have two key steps ahead:

Value. First you have to assess, define, and develop the value your organization will offer. In other words, what do you have to sell? And why would someone want to buy it?
Business Development Plan. When you’re clear about the value you offer, you’re ready to define your ideal buyer. What industries and specific corporations would be interested in leveraging the opportunities you have to offer? What would they gain by doing so? Develop and prioritize your prospect list.

With these two steps complete, you’re ready to get out there. Who you are as a seller is now your touchstone, your north star. When you partner, you will win.

How to Write a Corporate Sponsorship Proposal

March 27, 2019 By Gail S. Bower

In your corporate sponsorship development process, the proposal is a pivotal tool. In this post, you’re going to learn the right way to use and develop yours.

What is the purpose of a corporate sponsorship proposal?

Developing and sharing the proposal occurs at a crucial moment in the sales process: when you have buyer interest and the information you need to develop it.

Submit it too soon and you invariably missed critical information. Miss this right moment and your buyer is onto something else and you haven’t asked for the sale.

A far worse issue is a habit that grips far too many organizations which is the attempt to sell sponsorship through the mail, sending out generic sponsorship levels, like Gold, Silver, and Bronze packages. Sponsorship selling is a complex sales process, not direct response marketing. Remember, you’re not in the mail order business.

The net result of any of these gaffes is a lost sale or money on the table.

The proposal, then, is one part summation of your discussions, one part business case, and many parts creativity, ideas, and strategy. It’s important to get it right.

The purpose of the document is to make an offer to your sponsorship buyer. The proposal spells out how the corporation can leverage your opportunity or property—your event, program, initiative, or campaign—to drive the company’s business goals. The offer is your best recommendation to meet the brand or business’ marketing or other business goals.

Here’s why it’s pivotal. In order to uncover the information you need for the proposal—indeed to determine if what you have to offer is even the right fit—you have to have a trusting relationship and meaningful discussion with the right person—the decision maker and any others involved in the buying decision.

No one is going to share their priorities with you if they don’t know or trust you.

What goes in your corporate sponsorship proposal?

Before you get to your recommendations, build the business case. Include details such as:

A description of your event or property and how popular it is. Feel free to tie in the role of your property for your overall organization: does it help fulfill your mission? Does it have a long history? How is the event an asset for your organization?
A brief bio on your organization to lend credibility, especially if your event is new
More on who attends, including research data
Describe how you market the event
Include anything new about this year’s event

These sections should be compelling and well written. Quality photos and video can add visual interest but are not necessary.

Next you’re ready to get into the meat of the proposal: the sponsor’s goals and how you’ll meet them. The descriptions should be strategic and creative and convey a meaningful level of engagement. Paint a verbal picture for the reader so he or she can visualize what you have in mind. Sweep the reader into this section so that he or she is so excited, saying yes is easy.

A few more tips:

Review what you’ve written. Do your recommendations meet the buyer’s goals? Is this obvious and clear?
Have you helped streamline the sponsor’s labor intensity?
Have you also streamlined your closing and contracting process through your proposal?
Are the recommendations going to propel your event and add value to your attendees?
If the readers never attended your event, would they get the picture?

Writing sponsorship proposals is a little art and a little science. The rationale for the proposal is science—and should be a summation of your discussion—and the art is the magic that only you and your organization can offer.