Speaker 1: Trying to get sponsorships as part of your non-profit fundraising strategy? You might be wondering what goes in the sponsorship package that you give to potential sponsors. That's what we're going to talk about in this video. Welcome or welcome back. My name is Amber Melanie Smith, and I am a non-profit founder, an executive director, and YouTuber who makes these videos to help people who want to make a social impact through a non-profit, social enterprise, or other methods. As always, I hope that you find this video is helpful, and don't forget to give it a like and subscribe to my channel for more content like this. Also, I have a website, foundertofulltime.com, where I have some online trainings that are perfect for people just starting to figure out the process of starting a non-profit or developing a sustainable fundraising plan for their non-profit. So go check those out there too. All right, so let's talk sponsorships. What exactly is a sponsorship packet? Well, a sponsorship packet or package or whatever you want to call it is the document, either hard copy or electronic, that you give to your possible sponsor that includes everything they need to know about the program, project, or event that you're requesting sponsorship dollars for. Now if you get to the stage where you are creating a sponsorship package, my assumption is that you've already done some of the other groundwork needed to get sponsorships, such as determining what events, projects, or programs are the best fit to get sponsorship dollars for, developing your goal for how much you need to raise in sponsorships, and of course creating a target list of possible sponsors who could be a good fit for that thing. If you are not quite at those steps yet and you're starting there, I recommend my other video, How to Get Sponsorships, that talks through the process step by step. So all that is to say that if you've done all that foundational work, you can move on to the step of creating your sponsorship package. And I'm so sorry if you can hear my dog chewing her bone in the background. Anyway, so here are eight things that you might want to include in a sponsorship package, plus a couple of bonus items. Okay, thing number one, and this would typically go in the very front of your sponsorship package, is a personalized sort of cover letter addressed to the specific company that you're requesting support from. You can have the rest of your sponsorship package be the same document you share with all companies, but you really want that one personal touch in the beginning. So in this letter, you're going to include obviously the the person's name who you're addressing at the company, a little bit about why you think their company is a good fit as a sponsor. I've talked about in other videos how getting sponsorship successfully is all about finding your perfect fit, making sure that your goals and the sponsor's goals align, that your values align, that the issues and causes you care about align. So you can talk a little bit more about how you think that is true in your letter, and then just sharing a little bit of your excitement about the program, project, or event that needs the sponsorship dollars. All right, thing number two, the very next thing in your sponsorship package is simply a description of the program, project, or event that needs the sponsorship support. This can include your organization's mission statement to provide a little bit of extra context, and then more detail about the specific thing that will be getting the sponsorship dollars. Here's an example I'll share from an organization called Education Works on screen, so you can kind of see how they've laid this out here. In this section, it's also a good idea to include a couple of goals of the program or event, and what it aims to accomplish. That way you're helping the potential sponsor who, just like any other donor, wants to understand how their dollars are going to connect to the actual outcomes or impacts of your work. The third thing you want to include in your sponsorship package is your sponsorship levels. You want to illustrate in a very clear, concise way all of the different ways and dollar amounts that sponsors could contribute, as well as the benefits and different things that come with each level. I'm going to show an example on screen here of a very, very, very simplified page that I created that illustrates what I'm talking about. I've seen this done in a lot of different ways. Some people will do a list of the sponsorship levels and then a description under each one. Some people will do like a grid or a chart, which is kind of what you see on my example page here. I prefer a grid or a chart because I find that people are highly visual and it's just easier to digest information that's illustrated in that way. People don't like to read a lot of text, and so anytime you can make it easier to digest, you're more likely to get the results that you want. The next two things I'm going to talk about kind of go hand in hand. So number four is, in addition to the sponsorship levels, you want to have the dollar amount that can be counted as a tax deductible donation under each dollar amount or somewhere on the page. I've talked about this in other videos, but the thing with sponsorships is not all of the amount of the sponsorship is necessarily a tax deductible donation for the sponsor. So because that is true, you have to be transparent about what the actual tax deductible amount will be for the sponsor so they can make sure that their accounting is accurate and up to date. How do you know what amount is tax deductible? Well, the very simple rule is that donors or sponsors in this case, if they receive something of material value in return for their donation, in exchange for their donation, then the value of that thing that they received cannot be counted as part of the donation because it's not a donation in that case. It's almost more like a sale. They purchased something from you, even if it's a speaking opportunity or tickets to your gala that came with a sponsorship package. So if you're not quite sure how to do this, I recommend talking to an accountant so that you can be fully transparent with your potential sponsors. Okay, so thing number five, which goes with the thing number four, tax deductibility of the sponsorship levels, is the benefits that you get for each sponsorship level. So if you've seen a sponsorship package, and I'll show a couple more graphics as examples throughout this video as well, but you'll see they each come with a list of benefits or perks for the sponsor. So let's say your top sponsor gets a speaking opportunity at your event. They get to be included in your press release and so forth. So sometimes they might include things of material value, like I was just talking about before, such as four tickets to your fancy dinner. And normally, as this is a fundraising dinner in this example, you'd be selling these tickets for $100 each. Well, if you're giving four tickets to the sponsor, the value of that exchange is $400. So the sponsor cannot count $400 of their overall sponsorship as a tax-deductible donation. So hopefully that helps you connect how the benefits, if they're of material value, cannot be part of the tax-deductible donation that I just talked about for the value you need to include as thing number four. Okay, hopefully that's not too complicated. Anyway, so you want to think hard about what are appropriate sponsorship benefits that go with each level. You want to make sure that the benefits are obviously not too costly for your organization, or else the sponsorship is not even worth it to your organization anymore. Ideally, these are things that are not going to take too much complex effort or work for you to pull together, because again, in this case, time is also money. If you're spending all of your time fulfilling a sponsorship benefit, then was the sponsorship dollar amount even worth it? Who can say? Anyway, and you want to make sure that the benefits align with the event, program, or project that they're connected to. I mentioned an example a minute ago about speaking opportunity. Well, speaking opportunity for a sponsor might be a great fit for an event where you'll have a presentation of some kind, and there are speaking opportunities on the agenda, and an audience there to listen to them do their speaking. But if you're talking about sponsorship opportunities for a program that runs all year, speaking opportunity might not be the ideal perk for that sponsorship. Anyway, so a couple of examples. I mentioned speaking opportunities, but some more might be logo placement. So putting the sponsor's logo on your website, or on your event materials, or program materials, including a quote from them in a press release that you send to the media is another great sponsorship perk. Tickets to an event, if it's an event-based sponsorship, if it's something like a building that you're trying to get sponsored, classic examples might be the donor's name on the wall of the building, or on a brick leading up to the building, stuff like that. So opportunities for visibility and building goodwill for that donor might be good perks. Item number six that you want to include in your sponsorship package is any specific deadlines connected to the sponsorship opportunities. This might especially be relevant if you're planning an event that takes place on a specific date and time. You want to choose a deadline to decide whether or not to sponsor the event that will give you ample time in between to do anything you need to do to fulfill the sponsorship benefits before the event. For example, you wouldn't want a sponsor to confirm their sponsorship the night right before the event after you've already printed all of your event programs and materials that are supposed to include their logo. That's just really stressful. So best to be up front with the sponsors or potential sponsors about the timeline that you need to make decisions about the sponsorship. And this is honestly left up to your best judgment. I can just tell you from experience that it can be stressful not being clear with the sponsor about the needs of the timing of your sponsorship so that you can make sure you do a good job honoring the sponsorship agreement that you put together. The seventh thing that you want to include in your sponsorship package is a final call to action. This could be a final page in the package where you're listing your contact information and also saying something like, you know, the next step is to contact us by this date to let us know if you're interested. Or I have seen some other organizations just put a page in there where the sponsor can fill out a form that says, I want to sponsor and here is the dollar amount. They can check the box that next to the dollar amount that they want to sponsor. So you can do it that way too. And that even might help you with some record keeping because then you have the form in your hands that clearly says they want to sponsor. I will say though, you shouldn't just rely on what you hand them to seal the deal. Even if you include a call to action in the sponsorship package, the odds are that you're going to be having more personal conversations with them, possibly answering some of their questions before they're ready to make a decision about whether or not to sponsor your initiative. So just be prepared for that. And the eighth thing that you definitely don't want to forget to put in your sponsorship package is something I already mentioned just a second ago, and that is your contact information. Don't get so far in this process that you don't even leave the potential sponsor with a way to reach out to you. So those are the eight must-haves for a sponsorship package. I'm going to share three bonus items that you might also consider including in your package that I think are probably a good idea if you can make them look good in the package. The first is compelling photography, especially if the sponsorship is for an event that you've had in the past and you have some good photos from the past event. Helping the sponsor really visualize the experience or what it will be like to participate in the thing that you're asking them to sponsor can go a long way. It really humanizes the request. And if not for an event, photos from your organization, your team working together, your team serving the community, doing whatever it is that you do. Another bonus item might be a list of your team members and short bios for each of them. And I say this because people like to know who they're working with. People want to see the human beings behind these initiatives. And a lot of times people are more likely to say yes to a donation or sponsorship request because they trust the people asking for it. So any opportunities that you have to humanize the request and not make it just a text document that others can ignore is a good idea in my opinion. Final bonus item, and I alluded to this towards the beginning of the video, but anytime you can share the specific impacts of the event, project, or program that either will occur or has occurred in the past when you did this thing before presumably is a good idea. And I'll show this graphic here. I really like how this one United Way organization showed their impacts here. It's clear, it's succinct, and it's done in a graphics way that isn't too hard to read. All right. That's what I've got for you today. I'd love to hear. Are you actively seeking sponsorships? Do you already have a sponsorship package? Is there anything that I missed that you think should be included? Be sure to leave all that in the comments below as always. And as I mentioned before, if you are developing a sustainable fundraising plan or starting a nonprofit, be sure to check out my trainings at founder to fulltime.com. If you're looking for other resources, I have a great newsletter that I send out for nonprofit leaders or aspiring nonprofit leaders and change makers of all kinds. The link to subscribe to that is in my description below. So be sure to check that out. And finally, I have a group on Facebook called change the world or bust, where we have thousands of people in there having conversations about the good work that they're doing to help make the world a better place. So I hope you can join us there too. Once again, I'm Amber Melanie Smith. I hope that you found this video helpful and don't forget to give it a like and subscribe to my channel, please. That's all I have for you today. Thank you so much. And I hope to see you next time. Bye.