A Small Change- Fundraising Blog

Do you struggle setting levels for your sponsorship events? Ever wonder what is too high or what is too low? I think those are questions everyone struggles with when you first start a sponsorship program.

Before you set your levels make sure that you have some way to steward and work with these groups (see my post on starting a business program). It is also useful to have a gift acceptance policy and have talked about beforehand how you will negotiate with sponsors regarding their cash and in-kind gifts. I’m getting ahead of myself.

When starting a sponsorship program make sure that you know your history. Many organizations have programs in place with historical sponsors to those programs. Take the levels that you currently have and have an internal discussion about if they are working. Is it really easy for you to get a high level sponsor (then your levels might be too low)? Do you traditionally have a lot of major sponsorship gifts or is it all small size gifts (levels too high)?

Before I say anything about levels I should say that your sponsorship levels really change depending on the size of your event, your organization, what kind of benefits you can offer, etc. So this is more of a starting place than a definitive reference on how to set your sponsorship levels. It makes a difference what businesses or groups are geographically near where you work, are you in a big town with lots of small middle and large businesses? Are you in a small town that has mostly small businesses?

Often times non-profits will either ask for way too much or way too little. If your fundraising office raises between 2 to 7 million dollars a year it is going to be a long time before you are able to find a presenting sponsor at the $50,000 level. I would say set your presenting level at somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. It might take a couple of years to get there but at least you have a starting place. If you have a great event with a sizable number of prominent people coming don’t sell yourself short.

Part 2 will have more specific information about sponsorship tiers, what levels different size businesses will give, and a musing about in-kind sponsorships.

Note: I want this blog to be about what your nonprofit needs and questions are. Please let me know if I am talking about information you are interested in or if you have specific or general questions. If your questions are not about this topic, post them on the ideas, questions, and answers page.