The nonprofit’s guide to pitching to corporate sponsors

The right corporate sponsorship can have a massive impact on your organization. In addition to providing another source of income, a company participating in your fundraising campaigns and events connects your work to their employees and customers, gaining you incredible exposure and powerful brand association.

Corporations may be the ones contributing to a nonprofit organization, but sponsorships work both ways. Just as any healthy relationship requires clear expectations and mutual participation, corporate sponsorships also require effort from both partners.

In this guide, we’ve compiled everything you need to know to understand the most appropriate type of sponsorships for your organization. You’ll also find out what it takes to find and secure an effective relationship, no matter the size of your team.

Step 1: Grow self-awareness

Corporate sponsorships come in all shapes and sizes, including event sponsorships, cause marketing campaigns, employee giving programs, and more. Once you’ve decided which types of partnerships you’d like to pursue, the first step is to have a deep understanding of your organization, its capacity, and its mission. A strong sense of your goals and assets are necessary to:

• Choose a compatible partner.
• Prepare a clear value proposition for them.

You’ll want to identify and articulate the following things:

Your core values, culture, and brand

Successful partnerships hinge on an alignment of organizational core values, culture, and brand image. To find businesses that will be a good match, you first need to articulate these details about your organization.

From there, consider similar organizations in your space and answer the following questions:

• What makes your organization stand out?
• Is your operational approach different in any way?
• What’s at stake? What would happen if your organization didn’t exist? 

When you can communicate your values and what makes your organization unique, you strengthen your offering as a potential partner.

Your target demographic and reach

Companies care about your audience because it provides business value for their sponsorship agreements. The more you know about this group, the easier it will be to explain their worth to potential sponsors.

Be prepared to discuss the:

• Size of your reach via email, social media, and direct mail
• Average attendance/participation rate of your previous campaigns
• Projected attendance/participation with sponsorship
• Social demographics of your audience

Demonstrating alignment between your existing audience and a company’s target consumer articulates the business value of the partnership, making it a no-brainer for organizations seeking sponsors. 

Step 2: Find like-minded organizations

To secure a sponsorship that resonates with your audience and fosters a lasting relationship, consider corporations that share similar values and missions. By taking the time to find a good fit, you not only make your pitch more attractive to the corporation but also safeguard your organization’s reputation.

Do your research

In addition to exploring your connections and fostering existing relationships with corporations, keep a pulse on industry news and trends. By staying up to date with the for-profit world, you’ll be more prepared to approach them in a well-informed manner.

Recently, Charina Lumley from the Movemeant Foundation shared how she researches potential corporate sponsors. After learning that Under Armour had recently launched a commercial featuring women’s gymnastics, she pitched a sponsorship of Movemeant’s gymnastics programs, rather than suggesting soccer or lacrosse.

Look locally

Another tip is to keep an eye on organizations in your geographic vicinity. A study from Fidelity Charitable Foundation reported that on average, 4 out of every 5 donors recommended at least one grant to a nonprofit located in their metro area. This demonstrates that donor support of local nonprofits is a powerful driving force behind giving. 

Apart from simple online research, you can also identify corporations that might be interested in sponsoring your organization through LinkedIn’s advanced search options. Narrow your scope by identifying fields like location and industry.

Use the right tools

Finding the right corporate sponsors for your nonprofit becomes a more manageable task with the right tools. For example, Double the Donation’s corporate giving database simplifies the process by providing comprehensive, up-to-date information on companies actively involved in matching gifts, volunteer grants, in-kind donations, and more.

The Double the Donation platform also taps into companies already represented in your supporter base. By analyzing your existing audience, you can uncover which companies are most likely to offer support based on employee engagement, helping to create sponsorship opportunities.

Connect with the right person

The process of securing a sponsorship can span several months. That means, the sooner you identify the sponsorship decision-maker at a corporation, the sooner you can move the process forward and secure the funding you need.

This might include reaching out to:

• Corporate social responsibility or philanthropy managers
• Marketing or brand managers
• Human resource leaders
• Community relations or public affairs staff
• Executive directors or senior leadership

One effective technique for reaching the decision-maker is to reach out to as many people as possible. Charina refers to this tactic as “the hustle:”

“I sent the same deck, the same email with slight variation, to six people in the company—one in finance, one in marketing, one in product, etc. Eventually, it landed on the decision-maker’s desk about four times, and they’re like, ‘Okay, I have to call them back because it’s landed on my desk so many different times.’ You have to talk about everything all the time to everybody.”

Step 3: Prepare your proposal

When you initiate your sponsorship outreach, prepare to make your pitch in case it leads to a conversation. The more prepared you are during the dialogue, the better impression you’ll leave. 

Create your slide deck

Create a brief, general slide deck you can use to pitch to corporations when you first reach out. This deck will tell your organization’s story and mission. It should also convey an overall sense of how sponsoring your organization will benefit the business and what the partnership could look like.

“The goal of any pitch deck is to make it look super polished with very few words.” – Charina, COO of Movemeant

Dig deeper⁠: Establish the corporation’s priorities

To articulate how you can solve a company’s goals, you’ll first want to complete a discovery conversation that explores what they’re looking for. Ask questions like:

• What do they want from the relationship? What goals and objectives would this sponsorship support?
• How would they measure the success of the sponsorship?
• What can your organization provide that would create a positive return on investment for them?

After you have a clear sense of what’s essential to the corporation, you can create a personalized presentation and report specific to their goals.

Charina cites this business approach as what sets them apart from other organizations also seeking sponsorships:

“I think what gives us a little bit of an edge is that [corporations] understand that we’re very business-minded ourselves. We do talk a lot about [our] mission, but we also talk a lot about [their] return.”

Draft a catered presentation/report materials

When you advance beyond a discovery call and reach this stage in the process, it’s essential to keep the focus on the corporation’s goals and key results. Include the following in your proposal:

Sponsorship value proposition

A unique value proposition clearly communicates what makes your organization an attractive investment. It should answer the following questions:

• Who are you? What does your organization do?
• Why should a corporation sponsor you?
• Why should this matter to them?

How you answer questions three and four, in particular, is key, as it conveys what the potential return will be on the corporation’s investment.

Marketing initiatives

Convey a clear picture of how a partnership could boost the company’s visibility by providing specific, co-branded examples. You can even create mock-ups (or provide prior examples) of email appeals, social media posts, videos, testimonials, and more, where their name or logo would appear. 

Campaign pages

Let’s say the corporation agrees to circulate your fundraising page or participate in an employee giving program. In that case, you’ll want to provide a predesigned campaign page with the company’s logo, along with any broader marketing assets. 

When you build these assets ahead of time, you make a smooth transition and avoid extra work on the part of the corporation. Through GoFundMe Pro’s software, this transfer is quick to complete by adding others as campaign administrators.

Success measures

To set clear expectations and determine if the sponsorship is successful, include details on what metrics or key performance indicators you’ll monitor. Consider the following questions:

• What are the key results you’ll monitor throughout your campaign?
• How do you plan to assess if the relationship has proven fruitful for both parties?  

 A call to action

The final component of your pitch should be a clear call to action. By this point, the corporation should have a thorough understanding of your organization’s ask and have sufficient information to decide how to move forward. 

Step 4: Deliver the pitch spectacularly

Once you meet a prospective partner in person, consider the following to ensure that what you have to say and deliver will be meaningful to the corporation.

Establish a strong presence

While your materials are essential, your presence and delivery matter equally as much. Here are a few recommendations to consider as you complete your sponsorship presentation:

• Sit and stand tall: Good posture conveys professionalism and confidence, reassuring potential sponsors that your organization is capable and reliable.
• Control your breathing: Pausing and speaking clearly ensures your audience has time to absorb your mission and the impact of the partnership.
• Occupy space: Gestures, movement, and eye contact help convey enthusiasm and keep sponsors engaged in your story.
• Don’t let a mistake make you lose focus: If you lose your place, reset with confident body language and refocus on your nonprofit’s impact.

Prepare, don’t memorize

The other key to a successful pitch? Knowing more about your topic than anyone else in the room.

Actual preparedness doesn’t come from memorization or your ability to stick to a script and recite the perfect string of thoughts. It comes from a deep understanding of the subject matter. To deliver the pitch spectacularly, focus less on your exact wording and more on the concepts and ideas.

Landing high-value partnerships to achieve your campaign goals

Dedication to a strategic corporate sponsorship approach will ensure a higher success rate as your nonprofit pursues these high-value partnerships. By nurturing your relationships with organizations aligned with your goals and values, you’ll identify partners that have the potential to grow beyond a single campaign or event while working toward your mission.

Copy Editor: Ayanna Julien