Getting Sponsorship for Activities

For many community groups sponsorship is the only way to get enough money to support their activities. Sponsorship comes in a variety of forms, from straight financial help to offering goods and services, but in most cases it will be offered in return for whatever publicity the group you can.

Sponsorship And Donations

Many community groups will be able to get donations from philanthropic people or societies, or grants from councils or other relevant bodies, either charities or government bodies. These differ from sponsorship in that they are freely given with no return expected.

The point about sponsorship is that the people, bodies or companies who donate will be expecting some sort of exposure through your advertising, events literature or whatever other methods you can offer. So you need to be clued up about what you can offer.

Sponsorships For Events

For instance if your group is an amateur dramatic or operatic society, then you can sell sponsorship in the form of advertising in the programme and mentions on the posters that you will be putting up around the area to advertise your shows. You can sell the major pages, such as the back cover and the first page, for more than other pages, but to make it accessible to smaller concerns, offer whole pages, half pages and quarter pages.

Decide on a rate table for the adverts but also be aware that you may have to give some of the slots away to people who offer goods and services as well as cash. So if you need some special constructions for the theatre sets, for example, you might be able to persuade a local joiner to knock something up in return for an advert.

Finding Sponsorship

For a local event like this finding sponsorship is a case of walking the streets and knocking on doors of local shops and businesses who might think it's a good idea. It's usually retail businesses or services who will be interested because your production is a way of attracting local customers.

But don't ignore other companies. They may see a benefit from being seen to support local community initiatives even if they aren't looking for local consumers. They might want to look for staff or simply increase their local presence, so try and offer as many benefits as you can and hopefully you'll trigger something that makes a connection.

Sponsorship For Equipment And Facilities

If your organisation isn’t event based but perhaps needs equipment such as a minibus or playground stuff for kids, then sponsorship could help lower the cost of that equipment. Try approaching place s that sell or make the equipment you need to try and get a discount in return for logos and other features of the sponsor's name.

Make sure you will be able to tell prospective sponsors how you can feature their name and who will see it, what kind of people they are (i.e. parents, people interested in whatever the group is or does) and where it is likely to be seen, either locally, regionally or nationally. Companies will need to know how much exposure they are likely to get.

Try Sponsorship Angles That Are Outside The Box

Finally, if you are finding the search for sponsorship a little difficult, try and think of relevant links. If you are a local astronomy club looking for help in buying a new telescope, for example, try opticians, or any company with stellar references in their name.

Remember that even if there isn't an event to link to, you can still offer publicity in the form of press coverage when the piece of equipment is bought and handed over.

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