6 Signs You Have Found an Effective Corporate Event Sponsor

No matter what type of organization you work at, if you host events to further your goals, you probably know about corporate sponsorships. This type of help from businesses can provide crucial support in the following forms:

• Financial: The most widely-known type of sponsorship is a company donating money to fund an event. In exchange, the event organizer helps promote awareness of the sponsor by including their branding in marketing and event materials.
• In-kind: The sponsor will donate goods or services to your event, instead of providing funds. For example, a catering company might provide food and drinks, helping you reduce spending in this area.

While sponsors clearly provide valuable support for your organization’s events, establishing a successful partnership can be difficult. Not only must you identify businesses that are willing to sponsor you, but you must also find one that makes the process easy.

In this guide, we’ll cover six signs or characteristics of effective corporate event sponsors. Whether you’re hosting a product launch, school fundraiser, trade show, or another event entirely, we’ll help you identify sponsors that are sure to support you. Let’s dive right in!

1. Alignment of Values and Goals

Ideally, your sponsor won’t just partner with you for the marketing perks. They should genuinely care about your event’s success and want you to meet your goals. Therefore, seek sponsors that align with your mission, values, or goals for a smoother partnership.

An effective sponsor will align with either your overall or event-specific goals. For example, if your event’s purpose is spreading the word about your product, you may have trouble finding a sponsor specifically interested in promoting your new product. However, if your business’s mission is to bring sustainable goods to consumers, you can more easily identify organizations with similar ideals and reach out to them for sponsorship.

2. Financial Reliability

Since most corporate sponsorships provide monetary support, your partner should be financially reliable. Usually, that means you’ll look out for consistently profitable businesses with positive cash flow. You can usually discover this information in financial statements corporations publish for their stakeholders.

This isn’t to say that small businesses are not valuable partners—just because a business isn’t able to provide a large amount of funds doesn’t mean you should overlook their support. In fact, if your organization or event is on the smaller side, you may have difficulty securing a sponsorship from a large, well-established business.

Design sponsorship packages that accommodate many sponsorship levels to invite support from organizations of all different sizes. For example, you might create the following packages:

• Bronze: If an organization provides the equivalent of $1,000 in sponsorship, you’ll include their logo on your event site.
• Silver: If an organization provides the equivalent of $5,000 in sponsorship, they’ll get all the benefits of the bronze package, a social media shoutout, and a speaker slot on one of the event’s panels.
• Gold: If an organization provides the equivalent of $10,000 or more in sponsorship, they’ll get all the benefits of the lower packages, as well as its branding included on all event materials and a thank-you in the end-of-event speech.

With sponsorship packages and tiers like these, you can accept support from organizations no matter their size and profitability. Remember that the key is reliability, so make sure businesses you partner with have a positive reputation in their community and the greater industry.

3. Clear Communication

Think about the last time you worked with an uncommunicative vendor. Maybe a caterer took a while to get back to you about meal options for your event, or a performer showed up late and didn’t let you know. Not only is this unprofessional on the vendor’s side, but it’s stressful for your event staff.

While sponsors don’t have a traditional vendor relationship with your organization, a lot of communication still needs to take place for a successful partnership. For example, you’ll need to discuss:

• Details of the sponsorship
• Event information, including schedule, target audience, and more
• Marketing strategy
• Sponsor engagement opportunities, such as panels and product demonstrations
• Event planning progress, including any roadblocks

As you begin connecting with potential corporate sponsors, look out for how communicative they are. Does the main point of contact respond promptly? Do they schedule regular check-in meetings to ensure the partnership is going smoothly? Do they update you on any obstacles they’re experiencing on their end?

Transparency is an important component of any partnership—both organizations need to feel that the other is acting in their best interest. With clear communication, you can avoid misunderstandings and frustration in the event planning and sponsorship process.

4. Audience Alignment

Another common way for businesses to support the events they’re sponsoring is by promoting the event to their unique audience. This allows your organization to connect with more individuals who may buy your products, donate to your mission, or support your organization in other ways.

However, not everyone will be interested in your event or your organization—for example, if your association is hosting a conference to help medical professionals network, local homemakers probably won’t be interested. That means you need to work with a sponsor whose audience is similar to or includes yours.

Look for partners whose audiences align with yours in:

• Demographics
• Location
• Income level
• Lifestyle
• Interests

When your sponsor helps you promote your event, their audience will learn more about your organization and what you do. Having shared audience characteristics improves your chances of securing more registrations for your event and makes it easier for you to engage attendees with what you’re doing.

5. Strong Marketing Strategies

It’s not enough for a potential sponsor to have an audience that aligns with yours—they also need robust marketing strategies to maximize their outreach. Ideally, your sponsor should take a multichannel approach, sending promotional messages through these channels:

• Their website
• Email newsletters
• Social media
• Direct mail
• Text messages

Check out the sponsor’s digital marketing efforts and evaluate how effective they are based on how frequently they send messages and the levels of engagement they receive on social media platforms. After you’ve formed a partnership, you may ask them for a look into their marketing data to help you pinpoint which channels will be most effective at securing registrations for your event.

Not all sponsors will include marketing as part of their support, but the most effective ones will, as they understand how thorough promotion can only benefit your event.

6. History of Corporate Social Responsibility

Securing sponsorships can be more difficult for associations, nonprofits, and other mission-driven organizations, than for other entities. Since your organization doesn’t operate in the for-profit sphere, sponsors may stand to gain less from a partnership with you than with another business.

That’s why one of the signs of an effective event sponsor is a history of corporate social responsibility (CSR) or activities and initiatives that demonstrate a commitment to improving the business’s community. For example, Ben and Jerry’s supports a variety of movements that seek to eliminate injustices in its communities.

According to FundraisingIP, here are three top CSR programs businesses may implement:

• Matching gifts. In this program, the business matches donations its employees make to mission-driven organizations, usually at a 1:1 ratio. For example, if an employee donates $10, the company will donate $10 to the same organization.
• Volunteer grants. When an employee volunteers a set number of hours at a nonprofit, the business will donate to that nonprofit. For instance, the policy might be that after an employee volunteers for 30 hours within a calendar year, the company donates $50 to the nonprofit.
• Sustainable business practices. These practices vary from business to business but may include offering holistic compensation, respecting work-life balance, staying open to feedback, and reducing negative environmental impact.

Previous successful sponsorships are another marker of CSR. In particular, keep an eye out for businesses that have worked with organizations or on events similar to yours. For example, if your school is taking Funds2Orgs’s suggestion and hosting a shoe drive fundraiser, you would look for businesses that have previously partnered with schools or supported drive-style events.

When researching this information, directly checking the company’s website is a great place to start. Companies participating in CSR are usually proud of it and feature related information about their policies, previous partnerships, and more. For instance, in addition to outlining its values on its website, Ben and Jerry’s also includes links to its foundation, which provides grants to fund organizations across the country that are working for progressive social change.

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When soliciting sponsorships, research businesses that are local to your organization, work in a similar vertical, and have previously partnered with similar organizations to yours for the best chance of identifying valuable potential partners. As you begin interacting with them and sending sponsorship proposals, remember the key characteristics above to help you decide if the partnership is worth pursuing.