Sponsorships remain one of the best ways to fund an event. However, getting sponsors for an event is often challenging, especially if you don’t know where to look or how to create a proposal.
Research shows 53% of organizations spend more money on sponsoring and attending events than hosting events (47%), so sponsorship deals can be arranged – they just take some skills and knowledge to secure.
So how exactly do you get sponsors for an event? If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t worry – we’ve got your back.
To help, we’ve decided to create this detailed guide. It goes through the step-by-step process for how to get sponsors for an event, and also looks at the different types of sponsors you can get, as well as the benefits of getting sponsored.
What is Event Sponsorship?
Sponsorship is when a company or individual agrees to support an event financially or through the provision of products or services. In return, the sponsor typically receives recognition, advertising opportunities, or other benefits that enhance their brand visibility and reputation.
It’s a partnership where both parties benefit — the event gains the necessary resources to succeed, and the sponsor gains exposure to a targeted audience.
A sponsorship is not a donation. A donation is given freely, usually to support a good cause without expecting anything in return. A sponsorship, on the other hand, is a business arrangement.
The Benefits of Getting Sponsors for Your Event
Having a sponsor for your event provides a variety of benefits not only for your organization but also for the sponsor itself.
Benefits for the Organization Hosting the Event
Of course, getting a sponsor to cover some of the costs, or donate things that you don’t need to pay out of pocket for, can significantly reduce the cost of throwing the event.
In addition to direct financial support, having sponsors can also attract more people to your event, which in turn generates more revenue. A big reason for this is that partnering with a well-known or influential sponsor can legitimize your event, and give it a higher profile and more credibility.
This may not only attract more attendees, but also significant media attention in some cases. Certain sponsors may also improve the attendee experience by providing exclusive activities or demonstrations for them to enjoy or participate in.
Benefits for the Organization Sponsoring the Event
A major reason why sponsors support events is to boost their brand awareness. Events can provide significant exposure for a company, especially if its logo and brand are visible throughout the event.
Events also give sponsors a chance to have direct contact with their target audience while the audience is captivated and engaged. Similarly, events are a perfect place for sponsors to network with potential partners, clients, and customers. As a result, many companies may use sponsorships as a way to make important industry connections and foster important relationships.
A company can also improve its image and reputation by sponsoring an event, especially if it’s supporting a good cause. This may also have the added benefit of increasing brand loyalty, as many people love to support (and continue supporting) companies that give back.
Types of Event Sponsors
Before diving into the world of event sponsors, it’s important to know that not all sponsors and sponsorships are the same. In fact, there are multiple types of sponsorships you can secure for your event.
Financial Sponsorship
A financial sponsorship is straightforward, as it simply involves the sponsor providing you with funds to help cover some of the cost of throwing the event, in exchange for promotional benefits. The exact amount a sponsor provides varies, but the more it gives, the more promotion it’ll generally get.
A major example of a financial sponsorship is Apple Music sponsoring the annual halftime show for the Super Bowl, which is one of the most-watched events on TV and crowns the champion of the National Football League (NFL) season. It’s believed that Apple Music pays around $50 million annually to sponsor the event.
The NFL gets these funds to help cover the costs of producing and creating the show, while Apple Music gets its branding in front of hundreds of millions of people in the lead-up to the event, and during the show itself.
Trade Sponsorship
Trade sponsorship (also known as in-kind sponsorship) is a broad term that refers to scenarios when a sponsor contributes some type of good or service as opposed to money. This could be providing the catering for an event, exclusive merchandise, equipment, venue space, entertainment, prize donations, or a variety of other things.
For example, Gatorade has an trade sponsorship with the Little League Urban Initiative program, where it provides each team in associated leagues across the country with hydration packs for children playing baseball.
This gives thousands of children free hydration packs while at the same time boosting Gatorade’s positive reputation.
Another example is benefiting from the services from one of the event providers for free or for discount.
Media Sponsorship
A media sponsorship is when some sort of media outlet provides coverage for your event. This could be advertising the event before it starts, as well as reporting live from it while it’s going on. This type of sponsor helps to increase the awareness and visibility of your event, and may also reduce marketing costs. In return for this coverage, these media sponsors get increased promotion and brand recognition.
For example, Vox Media sponsors the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Texas in hopes of gaining exposure to its large and diverse audience, engaging the public, and showcasing its many podcasts and shows to a captive audience.
In some cases, a media sponsor may also get exclusive rights to cover an event, which may get more eyes on its website, TV channel, or newspaper.
Influencer Sponsorship
Influencer sponsorships are similar to media sponsorships, except they generally refer to partnering with individuals and influencers rather than with companies and organizations. The goal of this type of partnership is the same, which is to increase the awareness and reach of your event, in return for more visibility or promotion for the influencer.
An example of a promotional sponsorship that had huge results is when the video game Fortnite partnered with DJ Marshmello to host a virtual event and concert back in 2019.
Millions of people attended it live, and it brought a ton of people to the game and boosted Marshmello’s popularity on social media and streaming platforms alike.
How to find the right sponsors for your next event: 5 proven Methods
Now that you’re aware of the benefits of sponsorship and the types of sponsorships you can secure, let’s go over the process for how to get sponsors for an event.
Step 1: Understand your event inside out
Securing event sponsorship is essentially about “selling” your event to prospective buyers– the sponsors.
Begin by identifying your Unique Value Proposition (UVP). What makes your event unique from its competitors?
The more accurately you can define your event’s unique selling points and communicate these with potential sponsors, the more likely you’ll be to secure sponsorships. Ask yourself:
- What is the theme of the event?
- What is the vision of the event?
- What goals and objectives are you trying to achieve through the event?
- What are the values of your brand and the event?
Once you’ve answered all these questions, the next step is to identify potential companies (the “prospective buyers”) that may be interested in sponsoring the event.
Step 2: Identify why sponsors may want to sponsor your event
In this step, we focus on understanding why your target sponsors seek sponsorship opportunities.
Remember sponsorship is an investment for these companies. The better you prove your event can provide a great return on their investments, the more likely they’ll sponsor it.
So, in developing your event sponsorship campaign, it’s crucial to understand the different types of event ROI your target sponsors expect. Below are some values you might want to communicate to potential sponsors while “selling” your event:
- Lead generation: Gaining more potential customers remains one of the biggest challenges for many companies, and many are exploring the prospect of getting more leads through event sponsorship.
- Valuable audience demographic: Companies may have difficulty tapping into a certain demographic for one reason or another, and if your event can attract this target audience, this can be a valuable proposition for the target sponsors. Also, many companies will only sponsor events that target similar audiences to theirs.
- Social media exposure: It’s no secret that social media presence is a valuable asset in this digital era, and many companies look at event sponsorships as an opportunity to improve their social media performance. If your event can help companies with social media exposure, you can attract companies looking to promote their social media channels.
There are other values you can offer to companies to make them want to sponsor your event, and those three above are just some of the most common examples. The key is understanding their motivation so you can effectively communicate these values in your event proposal.
Step 3: Identify the criteria of your ideal sponsors
It’s crucial to focus your efforts on the right target sponsors who are most likely to sponsor your events so your time and resources are not wasted.
Here are some examples of factors you can include in your list of criteria:
- Specific brand and company values that align well with yours.
- Companies with a particular mission.
- Companies that have sponsored similar events in the past.
- Companies that just launched a product, and the product’s target market aligns with your market’s target audience.
And so on.
This list of criteria aims to identify target sponsors who align well with your event’s vision and objectives, maximizing the likelihood of securing sponsorship.
The key to ensuring success in this step is to build healthy, long-term partnerships rather than solely focusing on securing funding. What types of companies would be ideal partners for your event? What are the core brand values you’d look for in a partner?
The more specific and comprehensive your criteria for sponsors, the more likely you’ll be to ensure successful sponsorships.
Step 4: Identify and research target companies
Based on the list of criteria you’ve defined above and the previous steps, it’s time to actively search for ideal companies as your target.
Again, the more complete and clear your criteria are, the easier this step will be. Here are a few tips:
- Check for other events similar to yours and check out their sponsors (should be available on their website and social media pages).
- Develop a buyer persona and identify your event’s target audience. Look for companies that share a similar target audience to your event.
- Survey your target attendees (i.e., monitor their social media interactions) and identify brands they often interact with.
- Use online platforms to find potential sponsors, and to help you create personalized sponsorship packages for each target sponsor.
Create a shortlist of potential sponsors and research these companies thoroughly. Here are a few questions to ask yourself when researching potential sponsors:
- What is the target sponsor’s potential reason for sponsoring your event?
- What are the target sponsor’s brand values?
- What benefits will you offer the sponsor?
- Does the company have a sufficient budget to sponsor your event?
- Does the company have a separate marketing or advertising department? (companies with dedicated marketing departments tend to sponsor more events)
And so on.
Remember the better you understand your target sponsors and why they might be interested in sponsoring your event, the higher your likelihood of success.
Step 5: Identify key decision-makers
Securing sponsorships is essentially securing a B2B business deal, and when dealing with other companies, we have to embrace the fact there may be several decision-makers in the company.
Identifying these decision-makers and reaching out to these individuals as soon as possible will be key to securing your sponsorship deals.
You can use platforms like LinkedIn to identify these key individuals and tools like Hunter.io to find their contact information (email address).
How to get sponsors for an event: 4 key steps
Approaching the right sponsors in the right way is the key to increasing the likelihood of success in securing event sponsorships.
Here are some best practices to follow to get sponsors for an event:
Step 1: Prepare your valuable data
Backing up the UVP (Unique Value Proposition) you identified earlier with compelling data is key to securing sponsorships. Your proposal needs to be data-driven if you want it to be effective.
Again, for potential sponsors, sponsoring your event is an investment, and showing relevant data is an effective way to prove to them that your event can provide a good return for their investments.
Here are the types of data to include in your event proposal:
- Primary audience data: include attendance data from previous events if you have it. The more detailed, the better.
- Event survey data from past events.
- Analytics from past events.
- Images and short videos (1-2 minutes long) showcasing past events or your company culture if you are a brand new event organizer.
- Estimation of lead value the sponsoring company can expect.
The more valuable data you can present to potential sponsors, the higher your chance of securing sponsorships.
This is why having a robust event management software solution is crucial. It enables you to keep track of your event’s performance, record the data, and use this captured data in your future proposals.
Step 2: Prepare strong and customized sponsorship proposals
It’s finally time to prepare a sponsorship proposal that includes everything you’ve prepared in the previous steps.
Each proposal should cover these key elements:
Information About the Event
- Dates, location, and size of the event
- The event theme and content topics
- Schedule/agenda
- The mission and objectives of the event
- Past success (if it’s an annual event)
Attendees
- Demographics of target attendees
- The number of attendees who attended previous events (if any) and estimation of attendance for the event
- How will you market your event to new attendees
Value/Benefits
Explain how your event will benefit their company, as discussed in the previous steps. It’s okay to be direct and lay out the benefits.
Sponsorship Packages
As discussed in step 2, include your sponsorship packages here.
Social Proofs and Testimonials
If you’ve hosted successful events in the past, you can showcase the past year’s success in your proposal:
- Previous event’s logo
- Case study of previous sponsorship successes
- Feedback and quotes from attendees/sponsors/exhibitors/speakers/talents
However, if this is your first event, you can still provide social proof, such as your track record of working with other businesses or clients.
How to be a sponsor
Provide a clear call to action and next steps for interested organizations to follow. Be explicit, and mention the call to action several times throughout the proposal.
A subtle way to do this is to include a phone number or an email at the footer of each proposal page.
If you’re looking for some inspiration for your sponsorship proposal, don’t hesitate to check out examples like this SXSW sponsorship deck.
Step 3: Identify and Approach Your Possible Sponsors
Once your proposal is ready, start reaching out. Find the right contact at each company, often someone in marketing, partnerships, or community outreach.
Personalize your message. Reference their brand, why you think they’re a good fit, and what you admire about them. Be clear about what you’re asking for and what they’ll get in return.
Start reaching out 6 to 12 months in advance. Larger companies need time to budget and plan, and even small companies appreciate the lead time.
💡Pro tip: Focus on securing high-profile sponsors early on
“Having well-known or key industry brands on board early will build credibility and act as social proof for your event. These partnerships initiate the momentum and make getting extra sponsorships easier. Mentioning these key sponsors in your proposal will act as further legitimacy in the perception of others, showing confidence in the market for your event.”
- Yaniv Masjedi, Chief Marketing Officer, Nextiva
Step 4: Follow up, Without being Pushy
If the sponsors you reach out to don’t respond after a while, consider following up. With many companies being very busy and getting dozens or hundreds of emails, it’s possible your pitch was missed. Even if it wasn’t, there’s a chance the company had plans to respond, but something else came up.
When you follow up, be sure to keep it brief, mainly highlighting the value you can provide as well as connecting your event to the products or services the company offers.
However, don’t rush the potential sponsor by pestering them the following day after sending in your pitch, as some companies may need multiple days to consider your offer. Being persistent is fine, but don’t cross the line into being annoying or disrespectful.
💡Pro tip: Don’t be afraid to ask and negotiate
Don’t be afraid to be direct and ask your target sponsors what they want and what they expect from your event. Knowing this allows you to customize a sponsorship package to fulfil their requests.
After securing sponsorship for your event: 3 ways to ensure future success
So, you’ve secured event sponsorship. Congratulations!
However, the work doesn’t end here. Nurturing existing relationships with sponsors and sowing the seeds for attracting new sponsors in the future is key to long-term success. Don’t neglect these important steps:
1. Create a timely post-event sponsorship report
To turn first-time sponsors into long-term partners, capture data immediately after your event and report back to sponsors promptly. This is where an event analytics software solution like Eventtia might be useful.
Don’t forget to include a personalized thank you note to express your gratitude for their support, to foster loyalty.
💡Pro tip: “Your best pitching asset for your next sponsor is how well you reported back to your last one. Photos, social metrics, attendee feedback—wrapped up within 10 days of the event. If your post-game is strong, your pre-game proposal writes itself next time.”
- Peter Lewis, Head of Growth, WebStreet
2. Continue to nurture sponsor relationships
Aim to maintain healthy relationships with all sponsors you’ve secured, even if you’re not planning to host another event in the near future (you never know). Alongside sharing a sponsorship report with them, consider inviting your sponsors to a post-event debrief meeting to discuss their experience and get valuable insights into what worked well, and what improvements you can make.
Commit to updating sponsors on future events and involving them in the planning stages to give them a sense of ownership over your next event.
3. Share the success of the event across your marketing channels
Take some time post-event to combine the data from your post-sponsorship report and the feedback from sponsors into a case study that strategically showcases the value your event offered.
Share this widely across your marketing channels and ask your sponsors to do the same to highlight success stories for future potential sponsors to see.
Final Thoughts
Sponsorship is a powerful way to fund and grow your event. It’s about more than money—it’s about partnership, purpose, and mutual benefit.
While securing sponsorships is essential, especially if you don’t plan on funding your event yourself, remember organizing an exceptional event in the first place is far more critical.
If your event isn’t well-organized, you won’t be able to build long-term, lasting relationships with your sponsors. Thus, your job of getting sponsors for your next event will only get harder and harder each time you organize an event.
If you’re looking for an event management platform to make securing sponsors easier, partner with Eventtia.
Our powerful, robust, scalable, and customizable event management software creates outstanding experiences, supporting you with everything from event planning and promotion right through to accurately measuring the impact of your event.
Schedule a demo to learn how Eventtia can help you manage your events.
FAQs: Getting Sponsors for an Event
Here are a few common questions about how to get sponsors for an event, along with their answers.
What do companies get in return from sponsoring an event?
When a company sponsors an event, it usually gets a variety of things in return, such as increased brand visibility, a reputational boost, access to engaged members of its target audience, and more.
What are the keys to creating a strong sponsorship pitch?
Some of the keys to a strong sponsor pitch include adding as much data as possible, conveying value, adding details about your company and the event, and going over the type of sponsorship you want.
How early should I reach out to potential sponsors?
Generally, it’s a good idea to reach out to sponsors somewhere between six months and a year before your event, to ensure you have enough time to work out the logistics of the sponsorship.
