How to Write a Sponsorship Letter

Writing a proposal or letter to potential sponsors is an important part of getting sponsors for your event. You will need a sponsorship proposal that gets the attention of your corporate prospects. Since corporate event sponsorship is basically a form of advertising, the key things that will get a prospects attention is the impressions the event will generate and the quality of those impressions. These are the basic marketing ideas behind sponsorship.

For the initial contact with a prospective sponsor, often the best approach is to put together a single page that briefly outlines what you have to offer the sponsor. The details of the offer will come out of your event planning process. Once this is done, it is relatively easy to modify this single page into a letter, an attachment to a letter, a presentation or similar proposal format. The final proposal can be customized to meet the sponsor’s specific needs and requests.

Some of the information the proposal should include:

• information about the organization that is offering the sponsorship opportunity
• information about the event or property
• impact of the event i.e. funds raised or other objectives achieved
• traffic generated by the event or associated with the property
• the amount of the investment required for the opportunity and a summary of the benefits that the sponsor will obtain

Don’t discuss price at this stage. Try to get a meeting and find out more about what the sponsor wants before you start negotiating the price. For lower sponsorship amounts and smaller packages, you may attach the price to your proposal.

The sample shown below is a one page summary done in preparation for a proposal:

Sports for Families - Family Fun Run - Naming Sponsor Opportunity

About Sports for Families

• Nonprofit organization that operates a multi-purpose recreation facility
• Serves 7 communities with a population of over 150,000 people
• Foundation of facility is 3500 active family memberships
• Partners at the facility include Moms Marathoners, Progress Hockey, Bluejay Soccer, Magpies Little League Baseball

Street Traffic and Site Visitation

• 75,000 cars drive by main entrance off Johnson Drive daily
• 20,000 cars at the NorthTown mall (across the street) each day
• 150,000 cars on nearby Smith Freeway each day
• 600,000 visits to the Sports for Families facility per year
• 5000 unique visitors to the Sports for Families website each day
• 70,000 newsletters and program brochures sent out three times a year
• 10,000 day use fitness centre clients use the facility each month

The Event

• Family Fun Run attracted 5000 runners in 2001 at the first event
• Last year, the run attracted 55,000 runners from across North and South America and Europe
• It is the only event that attracts both world-class marathon runners and families
• Stories about the event in three national newspapers and on four national TV networks attracting estimated attracted 4,000,000 impressions
• Media tracking services discovered 180,000 blog mentions
• The Youtube video of the 2007 event attracted 78,000 views

Exclusive Naming Rights for Sponsor Would Include:

• Renaming the event with your corporate name and a new logo (to be mutually agreed)
• Corporate name/logo on all new street signs leading to the event and on the race route
• All the existing facility signs will be modified with the new event name/logo
• Corporate sponsor name/logo on all publications and collateral including letterhead, website, directional signs, program brochures, newsletters, etc.
• New name/logo on all promotional media for the event

Sponsorship Could Also Include:

• Individual training programs for the naming sponsor employees
• Employee use of a multipurpose room during the event
• Rights to use the event for product sampling
• News conferences to announce the name change
• Your company spokesperson will speak at the event opening ceremonies

Add some photos that give the prospect an idea of the character of theme of the event. If it is a new event, perhaps take a few photos of the venue and activities that represent your event.

Writing a Sponsorship Letter

This introductory format can easily be transferred into a more formal sponsorship proposal or letter. An example of a specific sponsorship proposal is shown below (this example is asking an existing sponsor to consider a more prominent role):

Family Fun Run Proposal for the consideration of Steam Engines Inc.

Introduction

When it comes to showing corporate and individual support for Family Fun Run, the management and employees of Steam Engines Inc. are without equal. Family Fun Run started on July 4, 2001, with 5000 runners. The run has grown each year, both in size and scope. Early registrations show that we will exceed 100,000 participants for the 2009 run. What started as a family event now includes elite athletes from all over North America, South America and Europe. It is one of the few events in the world where families can run together along side the world’s best.

Every year, many of our participants and visitors tell us that a highlight of the run is the motivational dinner held the night before and sponsored by Steam Engines Inc. This dinner, along with the media attention it receives each year, has been one of the reasons why the participation in this event has grown so dramatically.

Complementing the excitement of seeing and experiencing the motivational speakers at the Family Fun Run dinner is the popular educational program, Fitness for Fun. This program allows us to share with members and visitors the important role fitness has played in the success of Steam Engines Inc. We are able to provide our guests with a taste of what your founders experienced as they tried to introduce fitness into the workplace, long before the concept was popular. Telling their story has been a vital part of the success of our year-round fitness programs.

We hope it is a partnership you value and will want to build upon.

Our Vision

In light of the increasing demands of a rapidly growing city and on the verge of celebrating our 10^th anniversary, we believe Family Fun Run is well positioned to move forward with a significant redevelopment and expansion effort. Our vision is to franchise the Family Fun Run to 10 major cities across North America by 2011. We believe that adding the Steam Engine name to the name of our run will help make this expansion possible. With your financial aid, partnering with your media and advertising departments, we can make Steam Engine Family Run one of the largest simultaneous events held in North America. After careful consideration of our needs and with input from senior executives at Steam Engines Inc., the following items have been identified as key to this vision:

The Key Components of our Proposal to Steam Engines Inc.:

1. Renaming the Family Fun Run the "Steam Engine Family Run".

2. Steam Engines Inc. will be the exclusive naming sponsor for 5 years.

3. This name will be used in the franchising of the run to 10 additional cities.

4. Steam Engines Inc. will continue to sponsor the motivational dinners held on the night before the run in all 10 cities.

5. Steam Engines Inc. will have their name and logo on all promotional material for all events, including start and finish line banners, all registration forms, runner's vests, and all event advertsing.

6. Steam Engines Inc. executives will participate in all opening events and media conferences leading up to the event and after the event.

Steam Engines Inc. Investment

We are confident these sponsorship opportunities will provide millions of impressions on the day of the run and millions of positive mentions in the media. In addition to this exposure, our research shows that Steam Engines Inc. will increase its sales in direct proportion to the media attention it receives. We have provided the impressions generated by our event in the past and the Steam Engines Inc. marketing people have used this to calculate a very positive ROI. The research shows that a similar ROI can be achieved on an international level with expanded and continued sponsorship.

In exchange for the sponsorship opportunities outlined above, we are asking Steam Engines Inc. to consider an investment of $2 million a year for each of the next 5 years.

Our Future

If this offer of sponsorship is acceptable, the organizers of the Family Fun Run will prepare a more detailed document that will serve as a contract between us and Steam Engines Inc. We will strive to make sure our relationship continues to be mutually beneficial during this time of our exciting expansion plans. We look forward to the success we expect.

Check out the Hubs "Getting Sponsors" and "What You Need to Know to Get Sponsored" for more information. One final note - if you use this type of proposal, it's important to make sure you are seeking a sponsorship and not a donation. You should know the difference between sponsorship and donations. If you are seeking donations, you should use a fundraising letter or proposal.