Sponsorship fundraising can be a valuable addition to the development initiatives of most charities.  Over the past two decades, I have raised millions of corporate sponsorship dollars for traditional sponsorship properties in the arts, culture and recreation. However, I have raised even more for less obvious sponsorship opportunities in health care, education, and social services – and little of it for fundraising events.  If you are not already pursuing sponsorship, you probably should be.

The good news about getting started with sponsorship is that development professionals have much of the expertise needed for sponsorship success. Both charitable and sponsorship fundraising are about presenting your cause to prospective contributors.  That said, successful sponsorship fundraising has its own unique requirements. To be successful, you and your organization have to adopt a sponsorship culture. Experience shows you may not be ready to take the leap. Here are eight possible reasons why. Consider it your Sponsorship Gut Check.

1.  You think you are already doing sponsorship when you are not.

Many charities think sponsorship is charitable fundraising with bigger signs. Too many organizations offer only recognition benefits – overlooking corporate entertaining, sales promotions and other marketing opportunities. If you are not finding at least a dozen different and novel ways you can partner with companies, you are not ready for sponsorship.

2.  You think your organization has no sponsorship value.

An organization like Kids Help Phone might not seem like the ideal candidate for major sponsorship.  After all, the organization serves kids at risk, and it does so in a very private, one-on-one way.  However, the charity has turned the challenge of promoting its service into millions of dollars from Bell Canada and others. The public advertising of their service to kids that sponsorship makes possible also provides the marketing benefit for partners.  If Kids Help Phone can run a successful sponsorship program, chances are your organization can too. If you don’t believe though, you are obviously not ready for sponsorship.

3. You think sponsorship is selling out.

In 1905, George Bernard Shaw in his play ‘Major Barbara’, asked if it was alright to accept funds from an arms dealer if the money was going to a good cause.  We have been debating the acceptability of certain contributions ever since. Questioning the virtue of accepting support from companies of debatable virtue though is very different than begrudging partnering with any company. Many companies invest heavily in their brands, and can add as much to your image as you can to theirs. However, to achieve this benefit, you must have the right mindset. If you view sponsorship as a necessary evil – selling out but for a good cause – you shouldn’t even consider pitching companies. 

4.  Your fundraising doesn’t focus on providing stakeholder value.

Successful fundraising has a strong contributor focus where donors and sponsors are our customers. Of course, organizations have a variety of stakeholders. While your sponsorship program must provide benefits to your corporate partners, it must also create value for those you serve.  Sponsorship depends on people appreciating the contributions corporate partners make.  So, your main stakeholders groups must be the ultimate focus of your efforts. If you don’t have a plan to ensure corporate partnership is creating tangible benefits for your major stakeholder groups and a strategy to communicate that benefit, you have more work to do before launching a sponsorship program.

5.  You believe that sponsorship is too expensive and too time consuming.

To recognize your donors with events, thank you letters, donor walls and the like, you might typically spend three cents for every dollar raised. Meanwhile, to offer a truly competitive sponsorship program, you can plan on spending 15 to 20 cents on the dollar with an equally significant investment of your time.  It can be easy to assume that this makes sponsorship more expense than it is worth. However, you can raise much more for some projects with sponsorship than you can with charitable fundraising. If you focus on what corporate partnership costs and not on what it can earn, you are not ready for a sponsorship program.

6.  You are focussed solely on your needs and new projects.

With charitable fundraising, we are taught to tell prospective donors what we need, and ideally to give them a detailed breakdown of how we will spend the funds we raise. We also learn that when it comes to capital projects, we should focus on raising funds for new initiatives as it is too hard to retroactively fund those projects already completed. Sponsorship does not face these limitations. Most companies care more about the value of the association and benefits they will receive than they do your specific needs or project state.  Despite this difference, many organizations continue to present sponsorship opportunities in charitable terms. If you prospective sponsorship portfolio looks a lot like your charitable case, you have more work to do.

7.  You think sponsorship is the responsibility of the Development department.

Successful sponsorship fundraising involves a level of participation from your organization that is often not required for charitable solicitations. Sponsorship requires entering into marketing partnerships, and sometimes, operating partnerships with companies. For these partnerships to be fruitful, the operating side of your organization must be involved in helping provide the tangible benefits sponsorship promises.  For example, if you represent a health or education institution, you might help your corporate partners develop employee programs in these areas.  Providing good customer service to a corporate partner can require a difficult change in mindset for you and your colleagues. If people across your organization think sponsorship is not their responsibility, you won’t have a successful program.

8.  You think you have the expertise you need.

If you have never participated in a sponsorship program that was more than ‘philanthropy with bigger signs’, or if you have never studied the art and science of securing corporate partnerships, you are not ready to raise funds in this way.  You don’t necessarily need to hire a sponsorship consultant or experienced employee, but at the very least, you have some serious homework to do. Pick up a book on sponsorship, read articles online and subscribe to sponsorship publications.  Look at what experts in sponsorship like professional sports organizations or major festivals do. Interview companies with high calibre sponsorship marketing efforts. Sponsorship can seem seductively simple to pick up. If you feel that way, rest assured – you have more learning to do.

Developing a high-performing sponsorship culture in your organization can be challenging. This is especially true given that both the corporate and charitable sectors are all over the map regarding what they consider sponsorship to be. You can have a successful program you call sponsorship even if the initiative sticks to charitable fundraising strategy. However, if you are not taking advantage of advanced sponsorship tactics, you are almost certainly leaving significant money on the table.  Once you come to this realization, you may not be ready for sponsorship, but at least you will have reached the point where you can start getting there.