Corporate Partnership Versus Sponsorship

There’s a new paradigm in corporate sponsorships; it’s called partnership. This means development professionals need to treat corporate partners like we treat major donors. In addition, we need to plan further ahead to allow corporate partners the time they need to review all our partnership opportunities for the year — not one at a time.

Therefore, sponsorships should be packaged and offer corporations a variety of ways to partner with your organization.

When developing a corporate sponsorship package, go beyond marketing your special events. Our experience has shown that developing an integrated corporate marketing program better serves the organization and its corporate partners.

Many nonprofits have more than two events a year. Consider your development calendar. Would a corporation be interested in sponsoring more than one of your events? Do you have the time to ask for corporate sponsorship more than once from the same corporation? Does that corporation want to see you asking for money all the time?

If you present one package that represents all the opportunities for sponsorship support, your time is better spent; the corporation makes an informed decision; and budgeting by both of you is more easily accomplished. It becomes very clear why an integrated corporate marketing program is so important.

Now here’s the real impact of a truly integrated corporate sponsorship package. In addition to all special events, your package offers sponsorship of programs, materials printing and any advertising. Talk to the corporate contact about the impact of a program that reaches a particular population, and watch the interest grow. Program outreach and sponsorship can include:

* Materials you need printed for the program, with a printed “thank you” or logo tastefully placed on the back;

* Posters that bring people to the program;

* A banner that you hang at the program or meeting; and