Managing sponsorships is a tough business. There is plenty of work, collaboration, expertise, time, effort, money and measurement involved in making sponsorships work – on both the “buy” side and the “sell” side. By putting themselves in the mindset of the “buy-side”, not-for-profit (NFP) event organizers will have a much higher chance of success. And corporate sponsorship managers are wise to be mindful that a company cannot be all things to all people, and therefore less is often more in sponsorships.

The right community sponsorship commitment can be a powerful marketing communications vehicle that clarifies, proclaims and enhances an organization’s customer care, employee care, and community care priorities. Notwithstanding this high potential, few companies have truly mastered effective measurement of their sponsorship success. Gut-feel, best guessing, and wishful thinking are far too often the responses to the question posed by senior management: “What’s the ROI of our sponsorship investments?”

Before you can measure what you get out of a sponsorship investment – and ideally, before you get involved in such a deal – you need to understand why you want this particular opportunity.

That’s where an organization needs to capture what matters most to the people who matter most to their business success. You really need to invest the time upfront to find out if, and why your key stakeholders care about a given sponsorship investment. Then, you need to craft a sponsorship selection model for choosing not only property rights, but also the right partners with whom to associate your company’s reputation and image, customers, employees and financial commitment.

An outside-in perspective

To help corporations create such a selection model, and to help NFP people put their best foot forward with corporate sponsorship managers, I conducted some research about what matters most to corporate sponsorship decision-makers.

Far too many event organizers approach corporate sponsorship decision-makers at the last minute, looking for a quick-hit financial contribution, and leaving little time for building a relationship. The PBK Community Partnership Effectiveness Checklist, which grew out of my research, helps NFPs evaluate their approach to seeking corporate sponsorships, and helps people on the “buy” side evaluate sponsorship proposals and build clear expectations with potential community partners.

A sponsorship proposal must score at least 75% on the checklist before progressing to serious discussion and negotiations. The key areas of evaluation are: Agreement between the partners; Implementation of the sponsorship, and Measurement of satisfaction and performance. Each section has ten items for consideration:

Agreement

  1. Our organization has a good reputation for attracting and delighting the right sponsors, helping a sponsor connect with community and make a difference through our cause.
  2. We did extensive research to determine preferences of a prospective sponsor.
  3. We had a personal contact plan in place for getting to know a prospect.
  4. We asked key contacts to help us reach the right sponsorship decision maker.
  5. We focused first on friend raising and then embarked on fund raising.
  6. We developed an understanding of our prospect’s business goals and primary audiences.
  7. We allowed ample time for establishing a strong strategic “fit” with a sponsor.
  8. All partners in the sponsorship were clear about objectives, roles and expectations.
  9. A contract was signed with plenty of time to deliver on all promises made.
  10. We focused our efforts on desired outcomes and event audience needs and benefits.

Implementation

  1. We developed an audience-centric sponsorship policy with our sponsor’s input.
  2. We developed an integrated action plan for fulfilling all obligations.
  3. We followed a clearly defined risk management policy, with back-ups to everything.
  4. We encouraged our sponsor to work closely with our event organizing committee.
  5. We organized an advisory council, involving people from our sponsor company.
  6. We secured media sponsors to help raise profile and promotion.
  7. We ensured that sponsor logo recognition was applied to our sponsor’s satisfaction.
  8. We proactively looked for ways to leverage our sponsor’s name and association with us.
  9. We stressed professionalism, and gave our sponsor regular updates against plan.
  10. We spent quality time with our sponsor, making personal introductions to others.

Measurement

  1. We measured what matters most to our sponsor and their key stakeholders.
  2. We explained what our sponsor’s role means to the event and our audience.
  3. We often asked sponsors if they were pleased with the value they were receiving.
  4. We genuinely thanked our sponsor one-to-one and publicly for their contribution.
  5. We optimized promotional investment and publicity efforts, keeping within budget.
  6. We produced a summary report, measuring and evaluating results against plan.
  7. We valued our sponsor’s total contribution (name, expertise and money).
  8. We shared feedback from our audience, volunteers, employees and customers.
  9. We celebrated success, and recognized important personal and team contributions.
  10. Our sponsor was delighted, and plans to continue supporting our work.

(Some other sources of research and insights for developing your own sponsorship decision-making models include: The Conference Board of Canada, Canadian Centre for Philanthropy, The Centre for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College and company Web sites.)

A good sponsorship is worth the time and effort

The PBK checklist is intended to help NFP event organizers understand what matters to corporate people. I also use it to help business people customize a sponsorship decision-making and measurement model for their company. A corporate model, for instance, must place emphasis on aligning sponsorships with corporate vision, values, strategy, business unit objectives, brand promise and corporate reputation and image goals. It should also connect a sponsorship with other strategic areas of corporate citizenship, including philanthropy, and provide for an appropriate promotion-to-fees ratio in all sponsorship programs. There is nothing more disappointing than investing the bulk of your sponsorship budget on the purchase of sponsorships rights, leaving few, if any promotional dollars to tell your sponsorship story to the right stakeholders – employees, customers, investors, suppliers, governments, community partners and citizens.

Sponsorships are simply too expensive and complicated to pass off lightly. The right sponsorship decisions always involve money, time and effort. Community partners on both sides need to be sure they can derive, within a specified time frame, a reasonable ROI (Return on Investment) and ROE (Return on Effort). While choosing the right partner is a great start, you’ll need follow-through, imagination, creativity, accountability and, importantly, trusting friendships to hit those ROI and ROE targets. The lack of attention to these key variables is a major reason why many companies walk away from sponsorship commitments wondering if they got their money’s worth.

Community sponsor relationships are not always made in heaven, and a deal is only as good as the ability of both partners to do what they said they were going to do.

Managed properly, there is nothing better than a fully integrated corporate sponsorship program to excite your key stakeholders. Managed poorly, there is no better way to excite your competitors.

This article by Pat Kahnert originally appeared in PR Canada. Pat is a fee-for-service corporate marketing and communications consultant, helping business, not-for-profit and government organizations to add clarity, credibility and impact to their work. He is an accomplished community coach, guest columnist and popular speaker – covering topics like corporate social responsibility, community relationship building, effective team building and corporate communications effectiveness. Pat can be reached at pbk@cogeco.ca, or 905-337-7933.