A big part of running a nonprofit is receiving donations to help keep your organization running. Corporate sponsorships are one way of doing that.
Typically, companies can contribute funds or in-kind donations (non-cash donations) to help nonprofits further their missions. Corporate sponsorships can go a long way toward supporting a nonprofit’s event or project.
Corporate sponsorships are mutually-beneficial relationships—in exchange for their support, corporations usually enjoy increased brand recognition and a boost in their reputation within the community. Especially the community your nonprofit serves and represents.
With the four following tips, nonprofits can make the most of their corporate sponsorship efforts by collecting and leveraging data.
1. Use Data to Communicate Impact
Communicating your nonprofit’s impact to sponsors is a big part of landing corporate sponsorships for events. It sets the foundation for securing support for your mission. Whether you’re crafting your annual appeal to donors or reaching out to a potential corporate sponsor, it’s important to be able to demonstrate a few things. You need to demonstrate both how you’ve been making a difference and how the necessary support will enable you to continue making a difference.
Some key ways a nonprofit can share its impact include:
- Website: Your website is a great place to start. It’s not only good to show corporate sponsors, but the public as well. Your website presents all of the important information about your organization. It’s also a good place to direct people so that they can learn more about your nonprofit.
- Annual report: An annual report gives a broad overview of what you’ve done during the year. It shows what you’ve achieved with your previous donations. This is great to present to potential corporate sponsors as an example of how your organization operates.
- Social media: Social media is an excellent way to show how wide of an impact your organization has. Show off your broad online presence to corporate sponsors! The internet brings people together from a wide array of places around the world. Showing sponsors that you have a worldwide impact is a great way to show how wide-reaching your organization is.
- Thank-you messages: Personal messages from individuals are a fantastic way of putting your impact in perspective. Reading personal stories and testimonials makes it easier for people to connect to the impact you’ve made if they can see the individuals you’ve helped. Too many big numbers can sometimes be difficult for people to put into perspective. Add in some positive messages from individuals to bring a smaller and more personal scale to your impact.
- Events: You can provide potential sponsors with information on previous events you’ve run. Attach statistics like attendees, guests, and the amount of money raised. This helps to show what you can do with support from sponsors.
Alongside all of these, use data from your fundraising software to share relevant statistics, stories, and visuals that convey your organization’s tangible impact. This will help it stand out among other nonprofits.
2. Find Companies with Similar Values
Since a corporate sponsorship is essentially a partnership, it’s key to do your research and find companies that have similar values and priorities to your nonprofit. Finding sponsors can seem daunting, but there are a few things you can consider when determining whether a sponsor would be a good fit for your organization. First, consider your:
- Goals — what do you want?
- Values — why do you want it?
- Audience — who is this for?
With these elements in mind, start your search for potential corporate sponsors that align with your specific nonprofit.
You want a corporate sponsorship to be a good experience for both your nonprofit and the corporation. Ensuring you’re a good match is the way to make a more effective partnership. Doing this increases your chances of securing a sponsor that is open to supporting your organization long-term.
If the corporation has similar values to your nonprofit, they’ll be more excited to partner with you and help you achieve your goal. If you share an audience or have overlap in your audience, you will both benefit from reaching more people that would be interested in your goals and values.
A corporation with similar values will be more likely to want to go above and beyond in their support, and to come back next time you’re looking for a sponsor.
3. Share Success Metrics
As you begin creating your sponsorship ask for corporations, be sure to include success metrics upfront. This helps companies understand how they’ll be able to evaluate your performance and impact from the start. By sharing your success metrics, they’ll know how good you are at what you do, and that their support would be well placed if they were to sponsor your organization.
Here are some key performance indicators that nonprofits should consider tracking and reporting on:
- Fundraising return on investment (ROI): So that they know what they’re getting out of it, and what previous sponsorships have helped you accomplish!
- Number of gifts received and average gift size: So that they know what you’ve worked with before and what’s worked for you in the past. This helps to give them some idea of where to start.
- Share your future fundraising ideas: So that they know the directions you’re planning to go next.
Corporate sponsors want to know how their support contributes to your nonprofit’s impact. So be sure to have clear, specific ways to report success in place.
4. Request Feedback from Corporate Sponsors
Once you’ve secured a corporate sponsor, it’s important to continue strengthening your relationship with them.
Gathering additional data is crucial for finding ways to improve your nonprofit’s corporate sponsorship efforts moving forward. After a fundraising event or project comes to an end, follow up with all of your supporters. This is everyone from donors to volunteers to corporate sponsors.
Just like getting feedback from events, feedback from sponsors is incredibly valuable. Request feedback from your corporate sponsor to guide your future planning and remember to thank them publicly for all of their support. This ensures that they feel appreciated and remain motivated to partner with your organization in the future.
Collecting feedback from sponsors is also useful to use as a testimonial. You can put their positive feedback on your website or social media so that your audience and other prospective sponsors can see how satisfied they were with partnering with your organization.
Wrapping Up
Corporate sponsorships are mutually-beneficial relationships. By leveraging data, nonprofits can stand out from other organizations seeking support and demonstrate their impact to potential sponsors. These four tips should help any nonprofit get the most out of their data and their corporate sponsorships.
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