Finding event sponsors isn’t just about asking local businesses for donations—it’s about identifying organizations whose goals align with your mission and showing them how supporting your event is mutually beneficial.
The strongest partnerships are built on preparation, a clear value proposition, and a thoughtful approach to relationship building. But you don’t need an extensive corporate network to secure sponsorships. Many nonprofits build successful sponsorship programs by starting with existing supporters, researching businesses that share their audience or community interests, and creating sponsorship opportunities that offer meaningful visibility rather than just logo placement.
What Is Event Sponsorship, And Why Does It Matter For Nonprofits?
Event sponsorship is a partnership between a company, brand, or corporation and an organization or nonprofit. Typically, the sponsor will give monetary or in-kind donations to support the event.
In return, the sponsor gets perks such as their name and logo on promotional materials, exposure to a new audience, a competitive edge, networking opportunities and a visible social responsibility distinction.
The benefits of a corporate sponsor for the organization are obvious, mainly that it helps to offset event costs. Corporate sponsorship has the added benefits of driving attendance, boosting your organization’s profile, and broadening your potential audience. But an event sponsor can be extremely beneficial in many ways:
- Diversifies Your Revenue: If you’re looking to develop your revenue streams, having an event sponsor is a great place to start. Getting sponsorship from a company means you’ll get a significant, reliable amount of money from one source that can make a big impact on top of any other revenue sources you may have.
- Provides In-Kind Support: Your event sponsor’s support doesn’t have to be monetary. A company can provide in-kind donations to help you offset costs or take your event to the next level. If there are gaps in your expertise or exclusive items you’d like access to that a sponsor could help with, an in-kind donation might be the answer.
- Creates Company Partnerships: As mentioned, a winning event sponsorship is when you’re partnered with a company with similar values and missions. Why? It opens the door to future collaborations and a potential long-term, mutually beneficial partnership.
- Gives Exposure to New Audiences: Event sponsorship is a great way to reach new audiences (for both you and your sponsor!). You’ll get exposure to their partners and customers, while they’ll get exposure to your nonprofit. This broadens your reach and can help attract new members or volunteers to your organization.
- Adds Credibility to Your Organization: Partnering with a well-known company as a sponsor adds credibility to your organization. By being your event sponsor, they’ve already vouched for you. People who are already familiar with them and trust them will be more likely to extend that to you.
Ideally, you and your sponsor share similar values and interests, and your missions should complement each other. A successful event sponsorship is about both the sponsor and the organization working together to create a win-win situation.
Builing Sponsorship Packages And Levels
When you’re creating your sponsorship package, be creative and flexible, and include only the crucial information. Above all, focus on your sponsor’s interests, budget, and needs. You’ll also want to give them more than one sponsorship option to consider.
- Explain the Sponsor Benefits: Make sure your sponsor knows what they’ll get from your event and why it stands out from others. You can highlight benefits like:
- Past successes and impact stories
- Sponsor incentives like:
- Branded videos
- Social media content
- Event swag and goodies
- Return on investment (ROI)
- Visibility
- Reach
- Engagement
- Write a Comprehensive Description: Describe your event in a way that makes sponsoring feel like a no-brainer. This comes down to knowing your WHY. This includes things like:
- Your projected impact
- Your audience demographics
- The community and cause you’re serving
- Your mission
- Your organization’s story
- Offer Low-Commitment Options: Some companies may hesitate because of their size or resources. So it’s important to offer sponsorship options such as in-kind donations or scalable cash donations. This means you’ll probably need more than one sponsor. However, having a range of sponsors comes with its own benefits. You’ll be growing your network of companies that know and support your organization, which means a wider audience for your event!
- Have Good Numbers: There’s power behind good numbers. In addition to your audience demographics, review any past event surveys you may have conducted and the data you can use for your pitch. When information is quantified with impressive stats, it creates a convincing argument.
- Contact the Right Person: Research your prospective sponsors and identify the best point of contact within the company or corporation. Often, this is someone who works in the marketing department.
- Build Your Connection: A good relationship is never rushed! Take time to get to know your prospective sponsor. If you have them on your list of potential sponsors, it likely means you share interests and values. Use that as a jumping-off point for building a genuine connection.
- Follow Up: Follow up promptly. Be professional, concise, and personable. Sometimes people just want to know that someone is willing to listen to them. But also remember: if someone says no, that doesn’t mean forever. Keep them on a list to reach out to for your next event.
Finding The Right Sponsor Prospects
There are many ways to go about finding event sponsors, but the two that we suggest you start with are:
- Look Within Your Network: You might be surprised to find that the best sponsorship for your event may already be among the people you know. According to Cause Marketing expert Joe Waters of Selfish Giving, there are three main types of people you can reach out to in your network:
- Supporters – Existing supporters in your organization. They’re already on your side and are the people you should reach out to first!
- Contacts – People who know you, but haven’t given money to your organization yet. They’re usually familiar with your mission and are people you should reach out to after your Supporters.
- Prospects – These are people you don’t know. They know nothing about your organization and are the most difficult people to reach. Contact them last.
- Utilize Tools and Research: Let’s say you’ve contacted Supporters and Contacts and want to find some good Suspects. Or maybe you want to expand your outreach from the get-go. Whatever your motivation, here are some other ways you can find an event sponsor using tools and research.
- Research related events and reach out to past sponsors.
- Research brands that align with your organization’s mission.
- Survey your members and get their input.
- Use digital tools like SponsorMyEvent and Sponsorpitch to find like-minded organizations.
Writing A Sponsorship Pitch That Gets A “Yes”
Sponsorships can elevate your events and open up partnership opportunities. The sell is giving them an opportunity to build lasting relationships with your donors. To kickstart these connections and start bringing in donations, you’ll need a sponsorship pitch that companies can’t say “no” to. These are the keys to writing an undeniable sponsor pitch.
Research The Interests And Goals Of Potential Sponsors
One of the keys to securing corporate sponsorships is choosing the right businesses to approach. Research is your friend here and will guide you towards finding those connections.
As you search through different sponsors, keep an eye out for:
- Past charitable donations and collaborations
- Key details on the company’s website
- Relevant posts on leadership members’ LinkedIn pages
Align Benefits With Your Target Sponsors
Once you have an idea of the goals, needs and values of prospective sponsors, create a benefits package that hits some of its pain points.
For example, if a company’s website proudly shares its recent expansion to a Canadian audience, and your nonprofit is based in Toronto, including a VIP booth at a live event is a fast way to make a community introduction.
A tiered model for sponsorship packages can help you meet the needs of similar sponsors of multiple sizes. An à la carte package, on the other hand, will make it easier to have a little more variety of sponsors. Choose whichever one best fits your target sponsor list!
Highlight Unique Selling Points Of Your Event/Organization
What is it that makes your organization the one a business should sponsor? In your sponsorship letter, highlight the niche that you’re filling, especially if you haven’t found any other organizations quite like yours. And if your nonprofit is serving a cause within a larger industry or community, draw special attention to the unique initiatives that make you necessary and worth supporting.
This might include:
- The specific location you are serving
- Innovative programs you’re establishing
- Urgent projects you’re initiating
Demonstrate The Value Proposition For Sponsors
Part of what makes your organization special is the value it offers your sponsors in terms of collaboration. A good portion of sponsorship packages should be dedicated to what makes partnering valuable to businesses themselves.
Emphasize the value of each level and type of sponsorship opportunity with:
- Examples of past sponsor success
- Data about audience overlap
- Hard numbers highlighting your reach
- Engagement opportunities
If sponsorships are monetary, ask yourself: are they getting what they’re paying for? A large part of sponsorship comes from a charitable place, but it’s not the same as a donation.
Include Digital Assets And Virtual Experiences
Even if you’re mostly building in-person event sponsorship packages, sponsors can still benefit from the virtual realm!
Since your audience visits your website, reads your newsletters and follows you on social media, sponsors can benefit from perks like:
- Banners
- Logo placement on your website
- Branded profile frames & filters
- A spot in the digital vendor’s hall
- A highlight in your newsletter
And if your event is virtual, you can ask businesses to sponsor experiences like:
- Livestreams
- Breakout rooms
- Virtual Q&As
- Online games
Include Opportunities For Sponsor and Attendee Interaction
Whether your sponsors are trying to make new connections in the community or attract potential customers, interaction is essential. Think of yourself as the host of the party—it’s your job to make those introductions!
Opportunities for sponsors to connect with attendees could include:
- Prime real estate in the vendors’ hall
- Advertising free swag at the sponsor’s table
- Including sponsors in programming
- Networking games
- Event management software like event apps
If you’re building event sponsorship packages, don’t just note who your attendees are—tell sponsors exactly how you’ll help them connect.
Financial Vs. In-Kind Sponsorships
The most common type of sponsorship is Financial Sponsorship, in which the sponsor provides cash and the organization offers perks, publicity, or other benefits in return.
Alternatively, In-Kind Sponsorship is where a sponsor provides goods or services, such as raffle prizes, venue support, or food/drinks, rather than donating money.
Depending on your organization and its needs, one type of sponsorship may be better suited to your event than others.
Avoiding Common Nonprofit Sponsorship Tax Pitfalls
Corporate sponsorships can be a valuable source of event revenue, but they aren’t always as straightforward as accepting a check in exchange for putting a logo on a banner. It’s worth understanding a few basic tax and governance principles to structure sponsorship packages appropriately and avoid unnecessary complications.
But you don’t need to hire a roster of tax experts. A few thoughtful practices during the planning stage can help keep sponsorships aligned with your organization’s mission and reduce risk.
Understand The Difference Between Sponsorship And Advertising
One of the most common areas of confusion is the line between sponsorship and advertising. Typically, a sponsor can receive recognition for supporting your event through displayed logos and listing on your event website without creating unrelated business taxable income (UBTI).
Avoid language that encourages attendees to purchase a sponsor’s products or services, or that includes pricing/special offers, as that can be considered advertising rather than sponsor recognition.
When creating sponsorship packages, think “recognition” rather than “endorsement.” Your nonprofit is acknowledging support—not acting as a marketing agency for the business.
Avoid Excess Private Benefit
As a tax-exempt organization, your nonprofit exists to serve a charitable mission rather than private business interests. So you must avoid situations in which a sponsor receives disproportionately valuable benefits relative to their contribution, or in which the partnership appears designed primarily to promote a single company rather than support your event.
Providing sponsor recognition, networking opportunities, or exhibit space is common. Providing one company with extensive marketing services unrelated to your mission could raise questions about whether the arrangement constitutes excessive private benefit.
Document Sponsorship Agreements
A written sponsorship agreement protects sponsors and nonprofits alike. Having expectations documented upfront reduces misunderstandings and makes sponsorship fulfillment much easier. Just be sure that your agreement clearly outlines:
- Sponsorship amount and payment schedule
- Included benefits
- Deadlines for logo submissions and marketing materials
- Event cancellation or postponement policies
Review New Sponsorship Ideas Before Launching Them
As nonprofits look for creative revenue opportunities, sponsorship packages often become more customized. That’s a positive trend—but new benefits deserve a quick review before they’re offered publicly.
If you’re considering perks that go beyond standard recognition—such as revenue-sharing arrangements, extensive advertising, naming rights, or exclusive commercial opportunities—it’s wise to consult your finance team, board leadership, or legal advisor before adding them to your sponsorship menu.
A short review now is much easier than restructuring sponsorship agreements after they’ve already been sold.
Design sponsorship packages that are appealing to businesses and still aligned with nonprofit best practices by documenting any agreements, focusing on sponsor recognition rather than corporate promotion, and keeping your organization’s mission at the forefront of every decision.
Tip: Organizations such as the Council of Nonprofits and the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance offer helpful resources on governance and nonprofit management if you need additional guidance.
Tools To Manage Event Sponsorships
Event management software is an invaluable tool for managing event sponsorships and all event details. If you’re looking to streamline your technology stack and have everything in one place, you may be in the market for an all-in-one member management solution like WildApricot. WildApricot can take care of everything you need to do member management-wise as well as all of your event management tasks, including:
- Event registration
- Event calendars
- Email automation
- Online payment
- Mobile apps for events
Remember, it all boils down to what drives your organization every day: your WHY! The right event sponsor will connect with the WHY behind your event and your mission. And that is what will create a relationship that will be meaningful in the long run! So take your time, make your plan, and be confident in what you have to offer.
FAQs
How do I find sponsors for a nonprofit event?
There are many ways to go about finding event sponsors, but the two that we suggest you start with are to look within your network and utilize research tools.
What should be included in a sponsorship package?
When you’re creating your sponsorship package, be creative and flexible, and include only the crucial information. Above all, focus on your sponsor’s interests, budget, and needs. You’ll also want to give them more than one sponsorship option to consider.
- Explain the Sponsor Benefits: Make sure your sponsor knows what they’ll get from your event and why it stands out from others.
- Write a Comprehensive Description: Describe your event in a way that makes sponsoring feel like a no-brainer. This comes down to knowing your WHY.
- Offer Low-Commitment Options: Some companies may hesitate because of their size or resources. So it’s important to offer sponsorship options such as in-kind donations or scalable cash donations.
- Have Good Numbers: There’s power behind good numbers. In addition to your audience demographics, review any past event surveys you may have conducted and the data you can use for your pitch. When information is quantified with impressive stats, it creates a convincing argument.
What’s the difference between a financial and an in-kind sponsorship?
Financial Sponsorship is when the sponsor provides cash and the organization offers perks, publicity, or other benefits in return. An In-Kind Sponsorship is when a sponsor provides goods or services, such as raffle prizes, venue support, or food/drinks, rather than donating money.
How do nonprofit event sponsorships affect tax status?
Nonprofit event sponsorships do not jeopardize a tax-exempt status as long as they qualify as tax-exempt “qualified sponsorship payments,” though providing commercial advertising or substantial return benefits can trigger Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT).
How do I keep sponsors coming back year after year?
The key is to build a relationship. Take time to get to know your prospective sponsor. If you have them on your list of potential sponsors, it likely means you share interests and values. Use that as a jumping-off point for building a genuine connection. Once your missions are aligned and the relationship is truly mutually beneficial, that relationship is sure to become a recurring sponsorship.
