How to get sponsorship offers for your events and projects

How can you, as a small business owner, take advantage of this sponsorship for your events and projects and also earn some money from it? Read on to find out how to take advantage of the sponsorship arena.

The reason why most of these large and medium-sized organizations get involved in sponsoring their events or projects is because they want to improve their public profile in a more economical way. Keep in mind that not only are large corporations dominating here, even medium-sized companies are jumping on the sponsorship bandwagon and taking advantage of sponsorship of everything including local or community sports, health programs, lighting campaigns, cultural festivals, just to name a few.

In reality, there is no event or project that cannot be sponsored. But the events or projects that often attract sponsorship are those that add value to the community and indirectly increase the brand image and profits of the organization’s products and / or services. Events or projects that impact health, education, charity, entertainment, art, empowerment, children, and gender are real examples of what can attract sponsorships.

You may also notice that events like Gulder Ultimate Search, Star Quest, Lagos Half Marathon, Argungu Fishing Festival, among others, have been fortunate enough to attract annual sponsorships.

What are the types of sponsorships that I can take advantage of?

There are two types of sponsorships that you can take advantage of:

• Product Sponsorship – Many small and large businesses are comfortable with this. They give you their company’s products as a backup for your event or project. Examples of these companies are Nestle Foods, Nigerian Bottling Company, UAC, MTN, Zain, Etisalat, Globacom, etc. There are also small organizations in your locality that you can confidently approach for this type of sponsorship and even unique entrepreneurs who have product offerings that your events need to project them.
• Financial Sponsorship: Companies will provide you with reserved funds for your event or project as long as it is a community impact driven project. The amount requested should be fairly specific and each step in your analysis of how the funds will be used should be clearly stated. Examples of financing companies are the British Council, Nokia, UAC, Chevron, Texaco, Mobil, British Tobacco Nigeria Ltd, Guinness, Nigerian Breweries, Nestlé, Wampco, Ford Foundation, Unilever, GTBank, Ecobank, etc. There are also plenty of small and medium-sized businesses waiting to be contacted with their sponsorship proposals.

Am I eligible for a sponsorship deal?

The painful truth is that it is almost impossible for a person to get a sponsorship deal. Companies are more comfortable dealing with sponsorship proposals from a group, whether governmental or non-governmental. So make sure that when you submit a sponsorship proposal, it bears the name of a team, whether registered or not, and this covers religious groups, clubs, NGOs, educational institutions, registered private companies, etc. Now we move on to the next section, how to get that winning sponsorship.

So how do I get that winning sponsorship?

What you simply need to make sure your sponsorship takes place is your proposal. I recommend that you submit your proposal at the beginning of each quarter because that is when most companies review their financial books. You should now follow up on your proposal, unless the company indicates that they will contact you. But one secret to keep in mind is trying to cultivate a platonic relationship with the officer in charge, probably outside of the office zone.

The first thing to do is write a short but meaningful proposal for the organization of your choice. The essential thing is that your proposal indicates how your event or project can advance your brand and paint the image of the company in good light. But how do you write a winning sponsorship proposal?

Now you must realize that your proposal will have to fight for attention among the hordes of other proposals that these companies receive on a daily basis. It should be apt in your writing, make it at least a page or two and keep it simple. Take note of the following tips to write that winning proposal.

• Your Title – This is the subject of your proposal content. Write a headline that is straightforward and can be sold on its own. If you can’t write one, find a good copywriter who can do it for you.
• The project / event – When writing your proposal, this should come first. Be clear when explaining what your event is about and avoid giving details that would not help clearly state the purpose of your project or event.
• The Target Audience – Clearly explain who your project will target in the audience.
• Type of sponsorship you are looking for: Describe the type of sponsorship you need, be it product or financial sponsorship.
• Sponsorship Benefit – Explain in your proposal how sponsors will benefit because they would only put money on what they say.
• Present your outfit: Having completed the above, then formally describe what your outfit is about and why you are embarking on the project.
• Proposed Event Date – Highlight when the event or project is scheduled to take place for sponsorship consideration. If you don’t, you may be taken for a walk, which means they will take their time quite well.
• And the last one is your cover letter – Attach your cover letter which must be signed by whoever receives it from you.

So how can I make money from these sponsorship offers?

You can hit the pot of gold in two ways: First, after running the event / project successfully, you don’t need to refund any excess money. It’s all yours. Second, you make extra money from tickets, where you promote your event using the popularity of a known brand as your main sponsor. You can make this a 50-50 deal with the sponsor, but in some cases the backers don’t even care about this part.

Before submitting your proposal, do your research on the company of your choice and find out who is in charge of handling sponsorship issues.

Be prepared for the presentation

Once your proposal is accepted, don’t be surprised when you are called to make a presentation of your event / project. Be prepared before then and get all the correct data.

As advised above, obtain the phone number of the officer in charge (if you can) so that you can do proper follow-up in and out of office hours.

The only thing that can stop you is yourself. So go ahead and get that endorsement deal for your events or projects.