Nonprofit Fundraising Ideas: How to get Corporate Sponsorships
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Amber Melanie Smith discusses strategies for nonprofits to secure corporate sponsorships. She emphasizes the importance of building relationships and community reputation, researching potential sponsors to ensure alignment with their values and goals, and understanding how companies fund charitable giving. Smith advises nonprofits to identify the correct contact within companies, make specific asks, and follow up politely. She also stresses the value of learning from rejections and maintaining relationships with sponsors for future opportunities.
Takeaways
- 🤝 Building relationships is crucial for securing corporate sponsorships, as it helps establish trust and familiarity with potential sponsors.
- 🔍 Researching potential corporate sponsors is key to finding companies that align with your nonprofit's cause and values.
- 📊 Understanding a company's charitable giving motivations can help tailor your sponsorship pitch to meet their goals and needs.
- 👤 Identifying the correct contact within a company is essential for effectively communicating your sponsorship proposal.
- 📋 Creating a clear and specific sponsorship proposal that outlines what you're asking for, the benefits for the sponsor, and how the funds will be used is important for a successful ask.
- 💡 Be mindful of IRS regulations regarding unrelated business income to ensure your sponsorship benefits align with your nonprofit's mission.
- 🗣️ Make your sponsorship ask by introducing your cause, expressing your sponsorship needs, and inviting discussion for potential partnerships.
- 🔄 Following up on sponsorship requests is necessary, as many companies receive numerous requests and may require reminders.
- 🚫 Learn from rejections by seeking feedback, which can provide valuable insights for improving future sponsorship proposals.
- 🤝 If you secure a sponsorship, follow through on your promises and maintain a relationship with the sponsor to potentially secure ongoing support.
- 🙏 Express gratitude and continue to build relationships with sponsors throughout the year to foster long-term partnerships.
Q & A
What are some strategies nonprofits can use to successfully get corporate sponsorships?
-Nonprofits can use strategies such as building relationships, researching corporate sponsorship prospects, understanding how companies fund their charitable giving, identifying the correct contact within the company, making specific asks, following up on requests, learning from rejections, following through on promises, and maintaining relationships throughout the year.
Why is building relationships important for securing corporate sponsorships?
-Building relationships is crucial because it increases the nonprofit's visibility and reputation in the community. Companies are more likely to invest in organizations they know, trust, and that have a good standing.
How can nonprofits identify companies that align well with their cause?
-Nonprofits can identify aligned companies by reviewing the corporate social responsibility pages on their websites, checking out events and sponsorships of similar charities, and considering how their mission aligns with specific companies' goals.
What motivates companies to engage in charitable giving and sponsorships?
-Companies may be motivated by goals such as enhancing their public relations, building employee community relationships, or aligning with causes that match their brand and business objectives.
How should nonprofits approach finding the correct contact within a company for sponsorship discussions?
-Nonprofits should first consider personal connections they might have within the company. If none exist, they can contact an administrator or look for information on the company's charitable giving process to identify the appropriate person.
What should a nonprofit's sponsorship ask include?
-A nonprofit's sponsorship ask should include a clear outline of what they are seeking from the company, the benefits for the sponsor, and how the sponsorship will help further the cause. It should be specific and ideally presented in a visual one-pager or brochure.
Why is it important for nonprofits to follow up on their sponsorship requests?
-Follow-ups are important because many companies receive numerous requests and can become overwhelmed. Polite and persistent follow-ups can help keep the nonprofit's proposal at the forefront of the company's consideration.
How can nonprofits learn from rejections when seeking sponsorships?
-Nonprofits can learn from rejections by politely asking for feedback on their proposal. This can provide insights into timing, fit, or other factors that can be improved upon for future requests.
What should nonprofits do once they secure a sponsorship?
-Once a sponsorship is secured, nonprofits should follow through on the promises made during the partnership, acknowledge the sponsor as agreed, and maintain credibility and trust.
Why is it beneficial for nonprofits to maintain relationships with sponsors throughout the year?
-Maintaining relationships with sponsors year-round is beneficial as it builds trust and can lead to repeat sponsorships. It also ensures that the company feels valued beyond just being a source of funding.
What is the role of personal connections in securing corporate sponsorships?
-Personal connections can significantly aid in securing corporate sponsorships by providing an introduction to the right person within the company, which can increase the chances of a successful sponsorship request.
Outlines
💼 Strategies for Securing Corporate Sponsorships
Amber Melanie Smith introduces the topic of corporate sponsorships for nonprofits, emphasizing the importance of relationship-building, aligning with sponsors' goals, and clear communication. She shares her experience in running a nonprofit and the challenges faced in securing corporate funding. Amber outlines the steps to approach corporate sponsorships, starting with laying the groundwork by building relationships and reputation in the community, followed by researching potential corporate sponsors to ensure alignment with the nonprofit's cause. She advises on understanding how companies fund their charitable giving and identifying the right person within the company to approach for sponsorship.
🔍 Identifying the Right Sponsorship Contacts
In this section, Amber discusses the importance of identifying the correct person within a company to discuss sponsorship opportunities. She suggests leveraging personal connections within the company to find the right contact, as this can significantly increase the chances of a successful partnership. Amber also provides strategies for those without existing connections, such as reaching out to administrators or using online resources to find the appropriate person in charge of charitable giving and sponsorships. She stresses the importance of tailoring the sponsorship ask to the company's goals and creating a clear, concise proposal outlining the benefits for the sponsor and how the funds will be used.
📝 Crafting and Executing the Sponsorship Proposal
Amber explains the process of crafting a sponsorship proposal, emphasizing the need for specificity and clarity. She advises on creating a visually appealing, one-page document that details the nonprofit's cause, the sponsorship ask, and the benefits for the sponsor. Amber also touches on the importance of adhering to IRS regulations regarding unrelated business income tax and suggests common acknowledgments that are acceptable, such as logo placements and social media shoutouts. She encourages making a compelling ask, following up on inquiries, and learning from rejections to improve future proposals. Amber concludes with the importance of maintaining relationships with sponsors, thanking them, and keeping communication open for ongoing partnerships.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Corporate Sponsorships
💡Nonprofit Organizations
💡Fundraising
💡Relationship Building
💡Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
💡Alignment
💡Charitable Giving
💡Sponsorship Proposal
💡Unrelated Business Income Tax
💡Follow-up
💡Rejection
💡Acknowledgment
Highlights
Corporate sponsorships are a key strategy for nonprofits to raise funds.
Building relationships is crucial for securing corporate sponsorships.
Understanding how to solve a sponsor's problem while meeting your needs is vital.
Clarity in what you ask for is essential in the sponsorship process.
Laying the groundwork involves building a strong community presence and reputation.
Researching corporate prospects involves aligning with their values and business goals.
Understanding a company's charitable giving motivations is key to a successful partnership.
Identifying the correct contact within a company is critical for sponsorship discussions.
Creating a specific and visual sponsorship proposal increases the chances of success.
Avoiding unrelated business income tax issues by adhering to IRS guidelines on sponsorships.
Offering benefits that align with the sponsor's goals is important for a mutually beneficial partnership.
Making the sponsorship ask by introducing your cause and inviting further discussion.
Following up on sponsorship requests is necessary due to the high volume of requests companies receive.
Learning from rejections and feedback is a valuable part of the sponsorship process.
Fulfilling promises made during the sponsorship partnership is crucial for building trust.
Saying thank you and maintaining the relationship throughout the year can lead to repeat sponsorships.
Join the 'Change the World or Bust' Facebook group for further discussions on making an impact.
Transcripts
Corporate sponsorships are one of many ways that nonprofit organizations can
raise money, but why does it seem like some nonprofits manage to get corporate
funding and sponsorships where it's such a struggle for others? In this video I'm
going to talk through some of the basic strategies that nonprofits use to
successfully get corporate sponsorships. Welcome back! My name is Amber Melanie
Smith, and I make these videos here on YouTube to help aspiring changemakers
with tips and strategies to help you change the world and live a life of
impact and purpose. So I've been running the nonprofit organization that I
started a while ago for some time now, and I can tell you that figuring out how
to get corporate funding and corporate sponsorships was something that took me
a while. Once I finally figured it out though, a lot of strategy started to make
sense. I learned that getting corporate
sponsorships is a lot like any other kind of fundraising - it's all about
relationships, it's all about figuring out how you can solve the sponsors
problem as well as meet your own needs, and it's all about being clear about
what you are asking for. In fact it's a lot like sales in that way. So without
further ado, here are the steps that nonprofits can go through to get
corporate sponsorships. Step one: lay the groundwork you want to be building a
foundation to fuel your asks for sponsorships by building lots of
relationships so you can try cold-calling a company to see if they'd
be willing to sponsor your charitable effort but it's a lot harder fundraising
across the board gets easier the more well-known you become in the community
the more relationships you build and the bigger your network and that makes sense
because people are more likely to invest their dollars and give you donations if
they know who you are trust you and that you have a good reputation so you want
to start by building your relationships and your reputation by getting out there
in the community raising awareness about who you are and what cause you represent
you can do this in a variety of ways from public speaking to attending
networking events you can write articles guest blogs on other popular websites
you can share your cause with the media and hope that they pick up on and do a
news story about you you can attend other
charitable that's going on in your community the people who are there
already care about some causes in the community so they might be likely to
care about yours too if you can get to know them
generally it's all about becoming a known entity and getting a good
reputation step 2 is to research your corporate sponsorship prospects it's
very unlikely that a random company is going to sponsor your cause you have to
figure out which companies are most likely to believe in what you're doing
and align well with your cause and your brand there are a couple of ways of
figuring out if a particular company would be a good fit for your cause you
can go on their website look at their corporate social responsibility pages
and they often will list the causes they care about right there from environment
or poverty or whatever it may be they'll list them on their site you can also
check out the websites and events fundraising events other types of events
of other charities who are working a similar space as you so let's say you
are working on a hunger related issue check out what other hunger related
nonprofits are doing with their corporate sponsors who those sponsors
are those companies are already proven to be aligned with that cause in this
case hunger so they might be potential sponsors for your cause to ultimately
just keep remembering that a company sponsorships have to align with their
own brand and their own business goals so be thinking to yourself what mission
does my nonprofit have that aligns with specific companies if you are a farming
or hunger related nonprofit maybe a company that deals in agricultural
products would be a good fit for you if you are a non-profit that deals in
helping animals maybe a pet supply company could be a good fit for you
because then they're gonna be able to put their name on the cause that aligns
with what they're already doing to attract customers as well the third step
is to understand how each individual company funds
their charitable giving and sponsorships what motivates them in other words
what's a goal that the company has that your cause can help them meet so that
it's a mutually beneficial partnership a company motivated by getting some good
public relations for example might be interested in partnering with a cause
that aligns with their brand but also that has a really big audience since
they're trying to get their name out there a company who is interested in
getting their employees out there in the community building relationships might
be interested in a partnership or sponsorship in which they can also
volunteer with your organization so there are lots of different things to
consider in terms of what the company is looking for when they are doing their
charitable giving and how your cause can help them meet that need so step four
once you think you've identified a couple of potential corporate sponsors
you really want to figure out who the correct person is within each of those
companies to talk to about a sponsorship the first thing I would do is take a
look at my list of potential corporate sponsorship targets and think to myself
do I know anybody who works at any of these companies or do I have any
personal connections there because a personal connection can go a long way to
getting your foot in the door if you have a personal connection there
great you can ask that person who the correct person in the company would be
to talk to about their charitable giving their social responsibility and their
sponsorship efforts consider that every company does this a little bit
differently one company might have their Human Resources person in charge of
their charitable giving another company might have the CEO in charge of their
philanthropy and charitable giving and yet another company might have a whole
committee of employees they've nominated to take in applications for sponsorships
and make a decision every company is different so if you ask the wrong person
you might not get a response and it might be a dead end for you so figuring
out who the correct person to ask is really important if you're not sure
where to start and you don't have a personal connection at a company one
strategy you might consider is contacting an administrator there and
just asking them very simply hey I'm and learning more about your company's
charitable sponsorship efforts where can I find more information about that who
is the correct contact for questions then that person will hopefully respond
to you and you will have a lead there that you can start the conversation with
about partnering and sponsoring in the future step 5
now before you actually ask for a sponsorship you've got to decide on what
you are asking for in your sponsorship you're going to have better odds of
securing a sponsorship if you make your sponsorship ask very specific you want
to create a brief ideally visual one-pager or brochure that outlines what
you are looking for from the company in terms of sponsorship now this document
needs to include a little bit about your cause of course your website it needs to
include what you're asking for that could be either a specific dollar amount
or an in-kind ask which means something that's not monetary but something of
value to you like media exposure or an item you want to include what the
benefits are for the sponsor and then how those dollars will help you further
your cause when you're thinking through what kinds of benefits to offer a
sponsor you just have to be a little bit careful because there's something called
the unrelated business income that means that if you are generating funds for
your nonprofit in a way that has nothing to do with your mission as a non-profit
the IRS can actually penalize you by charging you taxes because in their
perspective you strayed from your mission of your nonprofit and you're
just generating income in some random way so you need to be treated more like
a business in that case now what this has to do with sponsorships is that
there are certain rules you have to follow in sponsorships to avoid getting
penalized through this unrelated business income tax just be sure to look
up what those rules are before you proceed with offering a potential
sponsor some of those perks I can tell you right now certain kinds of
advertisements violate this IRS policy you are unable to for example include
coop that offers 50% off for the company that
is sponsoring your cause because that from the IRS his perspective is like you
are becoming a marketing arm of the private company and that is unrelated
business to your mission so just be sure you review those rules and make sure you
are on the up-and-up there are plenty of ways you can acknowledge your sponsor
however that are totally fine things that are pretty common include logos on
websites logos on t-shirts social media shoutouts and acknowledgments doing a
video together in which the sponsor has an opportunity to share what the company
does or have a speaking opportunity at your event again this is where you want
to think through what problem you're solving for the company and making sure
that the benefits can help them meet their goals then they're gonna be more
likely to want to partner with you once you have that document together you want
to go ahead and make your ask you want to talk to the contact you found at the
company you want to introduce yourself and let them know what you're hoping for
and invite them to have a discussion with you you want to always end your
email or your correspondence with a question that prompts them to respond
something like would you have an opportunity to chat with me about this
or what other information would be valuable for you in considering
partnering with our costs step 6 is to follow up a lot of companies get a ton
of requests for charitable donations or sponsorships throughout the year and
they can get quite busy with these requests so don't be shy about following
up on a request that you previously made politely follow up ask if they have any
additional questions or if there's any other information that they need that
would be helpful for them and then if there are any updates or if any
decisions have been made about partnering with your cause of course if
they do have questions answer them thoroughly and transparently step 7 and
this is a hard one you've got to learn from rejections also keep in mind you're
gonna hear no a lot just keep on moving it's okay you're gonna get that yes at
some point and that's what's gonna carry you forward so if someone tells you no
they will not sponsor your cause the is actually a great opportunity to learn
and grow and make your next sponsorship request whether it's to that company or
some other company more successful if they say no it's really important that
you respond politely that you thank them for their time and that you ask them if
they'd be willing to share any feedback with you about their decision you would
be really surprised what you can learn from this exercise maybe for example
they told you that they actually did like your cause but your timing wasn't
very good because they make all of their budgeting decisions in one month of the
year and it's not that month this gives you a lot of information this means that
you can go back to them when it is that month and try again or maybe they liked
what you were trying to do but felt that you were a little bit too new or
unproven as a nonprofit that means that maybe after a couple of years of getting
some more experience under your belt and showing some more impacts you might be
able to go back and try to re-establish that relationship or maybe someone at
their company had a bad experience with your nonprofit it sucks to hear this but
it's really important to know that it happens that you can try to get to the
root of it and fix it sometimes you might also learn that they're just not a
good fit for what you're trying to do that's okay that means that you don't
have to spend time pursuing that relationship any further and they don't
have to pursue a relationship with you any further and you can part ways and
it'll be fine and you can go off and spend your time finding a better fit for
your work step eight if you get a sponsorship follow through on the
promises that you made through the partnership acknowledge the company and
the sponsor how you promised you would in the very beginning this is going to
build credibility and Trust and believe me companies talk to each other if one
company has a great experience supporting your cause they're gonna tell
their friends and other companies I've had this happen to me so I know for sure
that it's a thing finally step 9 and this is really
important for your future success say thank you and keep building that
relationship throughout the year many businesses will return year after year
to keep sponsoring your cause if you maintain that trust and keep that
relationship going you want to be talking to that company throughout the
year inviting them to other things that you're doing
sharing blog articles you've written about your cause just generally keeping
up communication so that the only time that they hear from you isn't when you
need money so those are the basic steps I would love to hear from you if you
have tried to get corporate sponsorships in the past what kind of success have
you seen what strategies did you try to be successful or if a company said no
what kind of feedback did you get share in the comments below let us know I've
met an amazing amount of folks on this channel and I just know that we will
have a great conversation about it before we wrap up one final thought and
that is that if you are in Facebook don't forget to check out my group
change the world or bust where myself and other change makers are having great
conversations around making an impact nonprofit social enterprise work and so
much more once again my name is Amber Melanie Smith thank you for checking out
this video please like subscribe to ring that Bell and I hope to see you again
soon
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