Wild Woman Fundraising What your Sponsors REALLY Want Webinar - PDF document

Wild Woman Fundraising What your Sponsors REALLY Want Webinar Presentation Notes Slide 1 Websites we will visit: http://leukemiaball.org/?page_id=10 http://www.columbiamemorial.com/foundation/special-events.cfm http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/tab3.aspx?EventID=1021617 http://partnershipsforparks.org/get_involved/volunteer/volunteer_company.html Think Different: Customized Volunteer Opportunities: Example NY Cares http://www.newyorkcares.org/for_companies/customized_volunteering.php Yearlong Sponsorship: Example from SF Food Bank http://www.sffoodbank.org/donate/corp_sponsors.html Slide 2 Mazarine Treyz, Author of The Wild Woman's Guide to Fundraising Cofounder of the Moon Balloon Project Fundraised for international, national, and local, small charities. Creator of the first fundraising Android Apps. Writer at http://wildwomanfundraising.com, with over 21,000 monthly readers. Slide 3 Have you ever polled or surveyed your former sponsors? Have you ever asked your sponsors what other nonprofits are giving them? Have you ever asked sponsors to brainstorm a brand new sponsorship experience for your event? Slide 4 What You'll learn today: How to Get Your Foot In the Door with Sponsors (How to meet them) How to use your website to make your nonprofit attractive to sponsors (with lots of real life examples!) What your sponsors are really hungry for Phrases Your Sponsors LOVE to hear Learn when to pitch sponsors! (When your sponsors make budget decisions) What to Bring To Your Sponsorship Meeting Slide 5 How to find and show your demographics 7 key elements of a good sponsorship proposal How to help sponsors measure the impact of sponsorship

Best practices for your sponsorship report (with tons of examples!) BONUS: Lots of real world examples of sponsorship reports from the best BONUS #2: New ideas for how to renew sponsors Slide 6 Ask HR if you can come in and make a lunchtime presentation/performance to employees. Go to ribbon cuttings and other Chamber of Commerce events. Go to conferences and trade shows for their industry. Go to high-end events like the announcement of a new fund. Go to events for your community foundation. Get into a high-end country club, or ask your board members to do this. Slide 7 How NOT to do it: http://leukemiaball.org/?page_id=10 Slide 8 How NOT to do it: http://www.columbiamemorial.com/foundation/special-events.cfm Slide 9 Example from the Humane Society Website & Sponsor Packet http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/tab3.aspx?EventID=1021617 Slide 10 Example from the March of Dimes Website Slide 11 Example from Partnerships for Parks http://partnershipsforparks.org/get_involved/volunteer/volunteer_company.html Slide 12 To show that you're ready, list things like: Affinity Program Cause marketing/Trademark License Corporate Volunteer Opportunities Sponsorship Advertising Ad Revenue Share Additional opportunities This list is an example from HumaneSociety.org Slide 13 What your sponsors are really hungry for Slide 14

Slide 15 Slide 16 Slide 17 Slide 18 Slide 19 MORE SXSW Sponsor Testimonials: "SXSW is a crown jewel in Miller's music strategy. It is a marquee, national- level platform and delivers experiences and insights that no other festival can achieve. And Austin's a pretty cool town alr eady." - Peter Laatz, Miller Brewing Co., Manager of Entertainment Marketing “When you think about how technology has changed the way people experience entertainment, our SXSW 2008 Super Sponsorship was an exceptional fit for us. Being integrated into all three aspects of the festival allowed us to intimately interact with both consumers and industry professionals in Music, Film and Interactive.” - Janet Wenzel, Dell, Entertainment Marketing Manager “Maxell has sponsored a number of high profile film festivals over the past two years, and none were able to deliver on our objectives as well as SXSW did. For a relatively modest investment, SXSW provided us with a platform to directly interact with our often hard to reach target - the independent filmmaker - in a way that not only exposed them to our products but also allowed us to show our sincere support for them and their films. Next year, we will be back to support SXSW.” - Pat Byrne, Maxell, National Marketing Manager, Professional Media Products Slide 20 What does the sponsor want? “Unparalleled exposure to a highly targeted group of customers .” “A platform to directly interact with our often hard to reach target” “E xposed them to our products” What sets you apart? “For a relatively modest investment” (cheap for the price) Will they be back? “Next year, we will be back to support SXSW. ”

So think about what really makes a good sponsor testimonial. They want marketing opportunities, exposure to a certain target market, a platform, integration into all aspects of your event They want something that gives them a lot of bang for their marketing buck And you want the ultimate testimonial: “We Will Be Back Next Year” Slide 21 “Are the sponsorship benefits we’re providing appropriate for your needs?” “We’ve done some research on your brand” “We’ve come up with some creative ideas for leverage you may want to consider.” “How will you be measuring the results of this investment?” Slide 22 “What perceptions and behaviors are you trying to change with this sponsorship?” “How will you be measuring your results against those objectives? Have you developed targets off of benchmarks?” What makes our event unique IS: . . . (Ask yourself, how is our event different from other nonprofit events? What makes our nonprofit stand apart? How can we offer different or better things than other nonprofits offer?”) Slide 23 Remember, don’t just ask them, 'What are your objectives right now?' Try to ask specific questions about their: Key Messages Operational Issues Visibility Reputation Product positioning Sales Goals New product roll-out

Workforce Consumer Market penetration Slide 24 What to bring to your meeting: Brainstorming hat: Ask them if they could have anything with this sponsorship, what could it be? Stories: Short case studies or testimonials of how other sponsors have done unusual and successful things with sponsoring events like yours. Magnifying Glass: Give proof of your reading. Give evidence that you understand their brand (attitude, attributes), target markets (psychographic more than demographic), and objectives. How you are different How your event is different Slide 25 Finding Your Demographics: HOW can you do it? How can you measure the kinds of people at your event? Have local college students ask people some questions Make them answer a survey when they buy tickets. If your sponsor has deep pockets, you might want to get them to pay for Third- party analytics firms or digital analytics companies Slide 26 Sample Survey questions: Where attendees live Income level The types of events they attend Car they drive Type of job they have # of children Leisure activities they enjoy Slide 27 Sample ways to parse your demographics Slide 28 From the Urban League, the AFP, and SXSW Slide 29 What are the specific kinds of people they target? What are these people's lifestyles, priorities, motivations? What do they want them to know, believe, feel, or understand?

What do they want these people to do? Choose their brand more often, try it for the first time, recommend it to others, or something else entirely? Do they have an experience they'd like to create for a certain kind of person? Slide 30 Slide 31 Just because you're getting the word out doesn't mean it will translate to sales. SO, how can you help sponsors measure the impact of the sponsorship? Create funnels such as: Access to sponsorship-driven promotions, unique content, or something else with a purchase. Click-throughs to purchase from a sponsor micro-site or social media activities. Slide 32 Create other funnels such as: Calls to hotlines and/or SMS from people wanting to learn more about the sponsor's products. Click throughs to do things that are trackable and could lead to purchase from sponsors' micro-site or social media (For example: Downloading software, creating an appointment, filling out sponsor survey). Slide 33 Elements of a good sponsorship proposal: Use these headers in your proposal: Sponsorship Opportunity: Short, no more than 2-3 paragraphs Marketing Objectives Measures of Success Value to Sponsor Unique Marketing Initiatives Terms and Conditions Call to Action (Show March of Dimes Sponsorship Proposal) Slide 34 How can you renew your sponsors? Build in benefits that get sponsors closer to a yes- Example: Luxury Car