How to Maximize Your Event’s ROI with Strategic Sponsorships
Strategic sponsorships can be a gamechanger for your nonprofit event’s return on investment. Read our article for tips to make the most of these relationships.
Guest post by Bloomerang
Event planning can be one of the most engaging and exciting parts of your nonprofit’s year, or it can be a source of worry and stress. There’s an element of unpredictability and uncertainty to events. Will you have enough attendees? Will it improve member retention? Will it inspire people to donate, or will it raise the awareness your cause needs?
Your nonprofit can take steps to mitigate some of this stress and maximize your event’s potential return on investment (ROI) through pursuing sponsorships. A strategic sponsorship can be one of the most rewarding and supportive partnerships that your nonprofit has. These guidelines will help you make the most of your connection with your sponsor and strengthen the impact of your event.
Identify and clarify your event plans and the value proposition
Corporate sponsorships are a valuable addition to any nonprofit’s toolbox because they offer wide-ranging benefits for your organization, your sponsor’s business goals, and your community. In order to make the most of this opportunity, it’s important to identify your event’s needs and the value proposition for the sponsor ahead of time.
Your Event Plans
You don’t need to finalize every detail of your event before you start reaching out to sponsors, but your team should aim to have a broad outline in place. Sketching out a general plan will help you identify the right sponsors to approach and ensure you ask for the specific support or resources you need.
Some questions that you should answer before you start talking to potential sponsors are:
What is our timeline for this event?
What are the largest expenses we anticipate during this process?
What role will volunteers play in our event?
What in-kind donations would be most helpful for this event?
Do we have the right event management tools in place?
What is the focus of this event, and what businesses would be most interested in our cause?
Having a basic idea of the event as a whole will allow you to target your outreach to the right potential sponsors with a clear ask.
Your Value Proposition
Before you reach out to a potential sponsor, you need to put yourself in their shoes and understand what partnering with you will mean for them. Though more and more businesses are interested in doing good work for the sake of doing good, they still need to consider the costs and benefits of their decisions before making any commitments.
Build a compelling case for supporting your nonprofit by thinking through how their sponsorship of your event will help their business thrive. Selling points may include advertising opportunities on any merchandise or swag, the opportunity for face-to-face time with potential customers at the event, or even the tax benefits of a donation.
Sponsors will appreciate that you’ve done your homework about their business and that you’re considerate of their needs.
Keep everything in writing
The process of acquiring corporate sponsorships can and should include face-to-face, personalized meetings. However, your team should also track every touchpoint with the sponsor in a centralized location, like your CRM, and follow up in writing after each interaction.
This attention to detail has two important benefits:
Everyone on your team knows where the relationship with the sponsor is. If someone is on vacation or takes a sick day, another team member can make sure that you don’t miss any follow-ups or accidentally make a repeat ask of the sponsor. This will help keep the relationship stress-free and make sure the sponsor feels like their efforts are important to your nonprofit.
By completing all follow-ups in writing, your nonprofit and the sponsor are always on the same page regarding expectations and agreements. While it may feel overly formal, it’s vital to your long-term relationship to manage expectations on both sides so that the event goes off without a hitch and no one feels as though promises were broken or results were not delivered.
When you know exactly what forms of support your sponsors are willing and able to provide, you can direct your nonprofit’s existing resources to other areas.
Apply donor stewardship best practices to your sponsors
Your strategic sponsors are a critical part of ensuring that your event provides as much value for your nonprofit as possible. By repurposing your donor stewardship practices for your sponsors, you’ll ensure they feel appreciated and included through the event planning process.
The following tips can help you keep your sponsors engaged and potentially deepen their involvement with your event:
Start with a positive first impression by showing sponsors you’ve done your background research and making them feel welcome at your organization’s offices or headquarters.
Maintain a structured communication cadence, with regular check-in calls and emails.
Prove that you’re using their support as promised by delivering ongoing updates before, during, and after your event.
Use software to keep track of touchpoints and responses to maintain continuity in sponsor interactions.
Ask for feedback and incorporate your partners’ insights into your next event planning process.
Create personalized moments for sponsors, such as special shout-outs during your event or a handwritten letter from a beneficiary after your event wraps up.
Bloomerang’s donor stewardship guide also recommends incorporating corporate partners into your nonprofit’s overarching community. Show them that you value their partnership long after your event wraps up by sharing ongoing mission updates or reaching out during special times of the year, like the anniversary of their business’s founding.
By integrating stewardship through the event planning process rather than leaving it for the end, you can deepen sponsors’ engagement and keep the relationship healthy.
Plan for a long-term partnership
Corporate sponsorships are amazing for improving event ROI because they take some of the burden of planning and funding off of your nonprofit, but their impact can be much farther-reaching than just one day. When you create a relationship with a sponsor, consider how you can turn that relationship into a long-term partnership that benefits you both.
Though your nonprofit’s immediate need is support with the event, include your sponsor in discussions about the future and see if you can find other common areas for collaboration. They could become a recurring donor in exchange for visibility on your website or other public outlets. Their staff could become part of your nonprofit’s volunteer strategy. Their CEO might even consider joining your board, if you have an opening!
This is an opportunity for your nonprofit to ask for feedback from the sponsor as well. How would they like to remain involved? How do they envision the future of the relationship with your nonprofit? Keeping open lines of communication will help you maintain the relationship and drive value for you both in the future.
With corporate sponsorships, your nonprofit can maximize the ROI of your events and focus more on what matters: your mission. Use Bloomerang’s free ROI calculator to keep tabs on your event results and find new ways to adjust your approach for better outcomes. Stay curious and creative, and you might find new avenues of support in the most unlikely of places.
6 Expert Sales Strategies Nonprofit Fundraisers Need to Steal
Guest Post By Tatiana Morand, Content & SEO Manager at Wild Apricot by Personify
You might think that your fundraising work is worlds away from that of Fortune 500 sales professionals. You’re cold-calling in hopes of a double-digit gift, while they’re landing six-figure deals over a boozy lunch.
But if you’re dismissing the strategies they’re using, it might be time to take another look.
You both have the same task: convince your prospects that your mission is a good investment.
So, before you pull your hair out trying to think of new “viral” fundraising strategies, take a look at how sales pros successfully pitch their products and consider how this could translate into funding for your organization.
1. Make It Personal.
Research has shown that consumers prefer personalized sales experiences. With so many analytic tools available, individualized recommendations have become the norm. Just think of the way Netflix curates “Recommended For You” selections based on your viewing history.
Mailing out stock donation envelopes doesn’t cut it anymore. Your donors and supporters expect communication that shows you’ve taken the time to get to know them.
That doesn’t mean you have to send handwritten notes for every gift. Instead, identify easy things that you can customize a bit more.
Possible Actions:
Use personalization fields (merge tags) to address donation letters and emails.
Send individualized welcome and thank you emails to new donors.
Handwrite thank you letters at major donors. Affirm their sense of importance by including specifics about the use of their gifts.
Create drip email campaigns to ask donors questions and elicit replies. Drip emails can be triggered by actions or criteria in your database to make them seem like personal inquiries.
Look for commonalities and create targeted segments. Let’s say you work for a literacy organization and realize that 10% of your donors and members are licensed educators. Why not send them unique volunteer opportunities perfect for teachers? Figure out how to leverage their common experience for your organization’s benefit.
2. Go Beyond Your Direct Connections.
A survey by LinkedIn found that consumers are five times more likely to engage with a sales professional if an introduction is made through a shared connection. In your case, this could mean asking your current donors to invite their friends and families to a fundraising event or encourage your current followers to share a post about a new campaign.
Possible Actions:
Start a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign via your current supporters to grow your network.
Look at your executive leadership team’s LinkedIn connections and make a prospect list.
…And then move to your board and do the same!
Create content for your board members to post on their social media feeds. For example, ask them to share a link to a blog post or event announcement.
Familiarize yourself with the community through local chambers of commerce and networking groups. Learn who might want to help your organization.
Introduce yourself to local media outlets. Offer to write articles about the nonprofit sector or mission-related issues.
Pay for your leadership staff and board chair to attend a few key events, such as trainings, conferences, or even other fundraisers. This allows them to network with philanthropists and other nonprofit leaders in the community.
3. Be Confident.
Another essential way sales professionals build trust is through professional competence. They speak with conviction about the products and services they’re offering.
We know that people, unfortunately, perceive nonprofits as dysfunctional or financially unsound.
As a result, you may face an uphill battle when speaking about your organization’s stability and success.
Possible Actions:
Refine a succinct and clear elevator pitch, and professional and consistent branding.
Train your employees and board members to give statistic-backed responses to questions.
Equip your employees and board members with case study examples that prove your organization’s success.
Prepare a 5-10 year strategic plan that can be shared externally. This shows you’re confident that you’re in it for the long haul.
4. Try Out This Tactic.
It seems counterintuitive, but some of the most successful sales pros encourage customers to explore competitors.
While it may feel terrifying or downright foolish to lead potential donors away from your organization, this type of honesty shows you’re so confident that you know they’ll ultimately choose you.
More importantly, it shows that your primary concern is the mission, which will reassure your prospects.
This may mean discussing the other organizations in your area that have similar programs. This openness lets prospects know that you have a mission-first mindset. Potential supporters will appreciate that you care about the greater good, not just the good of your particular organization.
(But hopefully you’ve sold them on why you’re the best option!)
Possible Actions:
Understand others in your nonprofit niche.
Develop your value proposition so you can effectively compare and contrast your organization with others.
Foster and emphasize collaborative partnerships with other nonprofits, so it’s clear you’re willing to share resources if it leads to greater impact.
5. Think Outside the Box.
When it comes to fundraising, it feels safe to play to the audience we already have a relationship with. However, creating new donors is necessary for organizational growth. Businesses are always trying new ways to expand their market share and reach new populations. That means taking risks and allocating resources to new products or novel marketing approaches.
For your nonprofit, this might mean investing in online outreach to engage younger donors or trying a new theme or venue for your annual fundraiser.
Who knows… you might find a huge new base you didn’t know existed!
Possible Actions:
Dedicate a small portion of your budget to experimentation.
Track results in terms of cost-benefit as well as engagement and retention.
Try out a few different fundraising ideas.
6. Less Is More.
One of the most important characteristics of a successful sales pro is tenacity. The same goes for a nonprofit fundraiser.
You’re probably accustomed to being hung up on and just picking up the phone with a smile on your face and trying again and again… and again.
But some sales pros suggest backing off and giving the prospect some space. When it comes to donation calls, less can be more.
So, equip your prospective donors with everything they need to know about your organization within the first couple of touchpoints, including ways to give. After that, the ball is in their court.
This strategy has two benefits: they’ll feel empowered, and you’ll be freed up to pursue other new supporters.
Possible Actions:
Prepare call scripts, sponsorship packages, and presentations that include a clear expectation of follow-up communication and call to action. (i.e. “We will send you an email and follow up in a few days.”)
Donors can also feel empowered by a challenge. A recent study shows that creating fundraising challenges (for example, saying “A generous sponsor has committed to give $1000 if you and your coworkers raise $2000 by the end of the month”) can positively influence giving. These types of fundraisers appeal to humans’ competitive nature and makes donors feel urgent and integral to the operation.
At the end of the day, a top sales executive and a fundraising manager aren’t that different (although the beverage selection may be a little better at one of their offices...).
To get yourself started, think of something you were recently compelled to purchase and consider what made you make that decision. How can you evoke that same feeling or experience for your potential donors?
Start thinking like a sales pro, and it might just pay off.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company.