Corner of the Desk

When you do sponsorship off the corner of your desk, you will get corner-of-the-desk results. I laugh when I hear nonprofit and charity board members say, “Oh staff can do this with a couple of phone calls” or “I could raise that sponsorship money in a couple of phone calls.” You and your organization are where you are in sponsorship because you believe those words and you have lived by them for a long time. But your sponsorship program sucks and revenue is even worse. Still, you stick to that theory.

Recently, the president of the 2016 Canada 55+ Games slammed the City of Brampton and its dismal results for the upcoming event from a sponsorship perspective. Why? Because they left sponsorship until the last minute and they are $600,000 short in expected sponsorship revenues! When you leave sponsorship off your “to do” list, it does not get done. And thinking you can rustle up $600,000 in three months is a joke.

The average timeline for a sponsorship deal from prospect clearance to closing is 18-22 months. If you are awarded the Games (or any major event) two years out, get sponsorship in place first. Too often, time and effort is spent on petty things such as logo and “packages.” You need “feet on the street” at least a year and-a-half in advance. Even if you are a small organization looking for sponsorship levels below $5,000, you need effort dedicated to sponsorship (it may be a dedicated volunteer or part-time staff person). They need to have targets and go out and build relationships with brands, and custom build proposals. This is where long-term success comes from—not from hoping that, if we ask the receptionist or the event coordinator to do sponsorship when they have time, we will succeed. Those folks don’t like to sell sponsorships, so they will never make the time!

If you want to generate sponsorship revenue, do it right—or at least stop blaming others for the lack of leadership provided in the sponsorship game within your organization.

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