Sponsorship

One way to provide funding for your project or initiative is sponsorship. Here you receive a contribution from a company in exchange for something in return. Sponsors are mainly companies with a commercial purpose; they want to sell something to a group of people. Your initiative or project could contribute to reaching their target group, building their brand or selling products at your event. However, there are also organizations that have an idealistic goal linked to their business, because they want to show the outside world that they are socially involved or, for example, have good intentions for the municipality in which they work. Ultimately, sponsorship for a company can lead directly or indirectly to increasing sales, and that will usually be the goal.

Forms of sponsorship

Cash contribution

Sponsorship can take the form of a financial contribution, or money that is free to spend on your initiative or project.

In-kind contribution

In recent years, however, you also see forms of sponsorship that work with a "closed exchange. This means that no financial transaction takes place but that the company donates your products or services without you having to pay for them. These may include facilities, equipment or raw materials; a company may make a space available or they offer to do work for you without charging for those hours. It is also possible that a portion is sponsored and you still pay a portion. This "in-kind sponsorship" is cheaper on balance for a company than if they give you money. The better the e goes with the economy, the easier it is to get something sponsored.

Counterpart

There are countless quid pro quos you can think of. This depends very much on the initiative or project. In any case, it is always important that you feel it suits you and that you have a good feeling about it. You can list a number of options in your sponsorship proposal but always keep room for dialogue with a company. Especially if you do not have much experience with sponsors, it may well be that a company has a better proposal than you, and that is not a bad thing. Also, try to come up with creative and distinctive quid pro quos. The easiest and most common quid pro quo has to do with communication. A company sponsors your initiative because it wants to reach a target group. Grab your communications plan and take a look at the promotional displays you have planned. Perhaps one of the following options will fit:

• Putting their logo on your website or on posters and flyers.
• In cooperation with the sponsor, communicate a discount promotion through social media.
• Being able to link the name of the company to your initiative or project so that it appears in all communications.
• Communicate a fun and personal story about the sponsor through your communication channels.
• Including logos on displays at the location where your initiative or project is taking place, for example on a banner.

In addition to offering additional reach through your communication tools, you could also think about things like:

• Offering a copy of your product or service.
• Offering admission tickets.
• A special VIP treatment
• Provide a unique performance for clients or company employees.
• A creative workshop linked to a current theme or to a theme brought in by the potential sponsor
• Offering brainstorming sessions or a think tank leading up to a new product or service the company wants to launch, after all, creativity is pre-eminent in the cultural sector.
• Partnering for a new campaign (for example, Introdans starred in a Mercedes commercial)
• Have a company hand out giveaways during the execution of your initiative or project.

Methodology

In general, there are a number of steps that recur when approaching sponsors. Of course, this can vary a bit depending on the kind of initiative or project it is about. We have put these steps in a separate document for you. You can download it here.

Maecenas

Often the company likes to carry their community involvement and it can be seen as a marketing ploy by the company. However, this is by no means always the case. Some companies or private sponsors (individual benefactors who sponsor your initiative, also called "patrons") want to feel that they "belong. To capitalize on this feeling, cultivating involvement is especially important. See a video of a private sponsor (patron) here. If you listen carefully, you can hear that this lady especially likes to be recognized for what she does. If you want more information about attracting (and retaining) patrons check out these tips for attracting and retaining patrons. On this website we have listed a number of sponsorship tips. In addition, you can download a sample sponsorship proposal for free.

If, from your expertise, you yourself have knowledge that would fit this topic, or if you see opportunities to improve this text, we look forward to receiving your message at info@cultuuracademy.nl.