January 8, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Made Possible By: Succeeding With Sponsorship
by Patricia Martin
This book discusses how charities and for-profit organizations benefit from corporate sponsorships — for example, by featuring a sponsor’s name on the program of a fund-raising event or allocating a portion of the sale of a product to charity — and how sponsorships can be arranged. Among other benefits, sponsorships can help nonprofit groups gain community recognition, which might help attract other donors, writes Patricia Martin, president and founder of LitLamp Communications Group, a consulting and training company in Chicago that specializes in relationships between nonprofit and for-profit organizations. She adds that unlike many foundation grants, sponsorship fees to nonprofit groups are typically unrestricted.
Ms. Martin writes that charities need to understand that a sponsorship arrangement is “a business deal, not a donation.” Organizations must, therefore, assess what they can offer a company. She suggests that a nonprofit group gather information about the people who participate in the charity’s programs so it can show companies what types of people they would reach by attaching their name to a charity project. She also advises nonprofit organizations to keep track of the news-media coverage they get because companies are often attracted to projects that receive positive coverage.
The book describes how to calculate appropriate sponsorship fees and how to decide what benefits companies should be awarded — for example, whether sponsors can use the charity’s logo on products. The book also gives tips for contacting potential sponsors and writing offer letters and proposals.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 989 Market Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94103-1741; (317) 572-3986 or (800) 956-7739; fax (317) 572-4002; http://www.josseybass.com; 138 pages; $30; I.S.B.N. 0-7879-6502-2.
