Non-Profit Sponsorship: Change Your Mind
I’m preparing notes today for my upcoming webinar, Corporate Sponsorship For Non-Profits: How To Put A Price Tag On What You Do. A big piece of what I try to get across—my number one objective—is to get development staff, grant writers and the like to think about sponsorship with a different mindset than the one they use in their approach to fundraising.
I’m reminded that in the 25+ years that I’ve worked for/with a variety of non-profit organizations, sponsorship discussions were rare. And when those discussions did come up, they were usually incorrectly defined by well-intentioned development staff who used “sponsorship” as an all-encompassing term for corporate giving.
In my Foundation Center webinar, I cover four main areas:
· The Corporate Marketing Mindset
· Identifying and Pricing Assets
· Building the Proposal
· The Pitch
Having worked on both sides of sponsorship, I know first-hand that marketing department decisions are rarely, if ever, made based on the desire to “support,” “fund” or “underwrite” someone else’s event or exhibition. (And truth be told, we don’t even like allocating marketing dollars to our own internal events and outreaches.) Rather, corporate marketers are reading non-profit proposals the way they read demo sheets, ratings books, and per-cap spreadsheets: is this going to help grow the business?
I previously wrote that with my museum clients, one of my favorite techniques to get the content folks to focus on the customer was to fire three questions at them:
“So what?” “Who cares?” “What does it mean to me?”
Direct? Irreverent? Perhaps. But in the end, my goal was to get staff to think about what they do from a customer perspective. So too, I encourage non-profit staff to think like the sponsorship “customer” when trying to tap into their marketing dollars. After all, if marketers weren’t interested in their Return On Investment, they wouldn’t be putting nearly eight of ten sponsorship dollars into sports and other entertainment.
And when was the last time you attended a ball game and said, “Wow, I really love the mission statement of my team.” But marketers love your team’s fan demos, TV ratings and how much fans spend. That’s the mindset you need to have.
Michael Savino is a marketing and communications professional with more than 25-years experience working for, and with, non-profit organizations and public attractions. He currently serves as Director of Marketing at Resorts World Casino New York City, where he leads media buying, creative, sponsorship and social media efforts, as well as overseeing the Casino’s Analytics, Audio-Visual, Database and Entertainment/Events departments.
Rate Content
Average Rating (0 votes cast):Subscribe to the Blog
You Might Also Like
Tags
Archive
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
