Boost eSignature Legitimateness for Sponsorship Proposal in Australia

How to eSign a document: e-signature legitimateness for Sponsorship Proposal in Australia

hello everybody right this is Ruth and uh I just started the webinar and it's fantastic to see you all here today well um this is a very special webinar that I'm really pleased that you could join us for it's all about sponsorship so I know that if you've signed up today you've got some interest in that subject and it's very obviously a very hot topic because we've had a massive response by so many different organizations from right around Australia and New Zealand so there might be some other people as well look welcome to everybody who's able to join us and we know that there's a wide range of organizations that attending today from agricultural shows to Human Service organizations child uh Protection Services we've got a whole array of organizations plus we've got some I think some councils and some other people as well so welcome to everybody so my name is Ruth Knight and I'm just doing the introduction here um please switch off your phones and close your door because you are going to want to listen very carefully to what our guest speaker Abby Clem has to share with you today and I hope you've got a pen handy so that you can write down lots of ideas on your get it done sheet which I emailed out to you um a few days ago so um you should have got your got it done sheet ready to write down some lots of notes and ideas so just to introduce myself I'm Ruth Knight I'm a coach working with nonprofits and social enterpr prises to help them achieve incredible success in all areas of their organization and if you want to learn more about me just check out my website which is pillars ofest practice.com now I've been getting to know Abby Clemens for a little while now and I just love her enthusiastic and collaborative approach to everything she does she's also extremely knowledgeable about all things sponsorship so when I wanted to get an expert into help my members I looked no further than Abby which was the obvious choice for me and when we chatted about this webinar uh we agreed that maybe we would open it up to not just uh pillars members but we would open it up to anybody else that wanted to come on and so that's why you received the invitation and that's why you're joining us for this webinar so we've only got a little short time today so I'm going to get straight into it and introduce Abby and uh we're going to get going but I just actually wanted to alert you to the little panel if you've never done a webinar before and this is your first time you'll see that there's a panel on your screen and it says the uh little chat box where you can write in some questions at anytime during the webinar now we may not have time for questions or we may we're going to see how the timing goes but I know that Abby's got an awful lot of information that she wants to cover but even if we don't have time today we're going to look at all your questions and somehow we will get those answers back to you uh it'll be either through our Facebook or our newsletters so don't uh hesitate in emailing me your questions and in fact have a little go now if you've got something that you'd really you know you've got a burning question and I'm going to be liaising with Abby throughout the webinar and making sure that she knows um if there's questions coming through that are pertinent otherwise as I said we will answer your questions after today all right so welcome Abby let's get cracking uh we don't have Longs and I know that you've got a lot to share so hello thank you for um presenting this webinar today hello hi Ruth pleasure that is my absolute pleasure and thanks so much for everybody uh coming online today um I hope that you know through the years we might be able to meet uh face to face and uh and get to be able to support you more in your own sponsorship Journey um very kind introduction Ruth I paid you a lot of money to say that so I I'll send a check uh in the mail look uh I am the managing director of infinity sponsorship I have previously worked in the not for-profit sector in uh sponsorship management roles and Business Development roles and so I kind of came to Infinity sponsorship with a real hankering to want to uh support the not for-profit sector and help more sponsorship managers and and Business Development managers marketing managers in the not for-profit sector really understand how to uh approach sponsors or or companies in the best way Poss possible um uh to really kind of try and diversify their income streams and become more sustainable uh in their in their efforts to evolve and and touch more members so you know we do a host of things at Infinity sponsorship we can engage the sponsors for you we can get them with you in a coaching capacity we can teach you to engage sponsors with our sponsorship boot camp and workshops we have or we have a a DIY sponsorship kit which is uh something that you know you can uh have a look at all of that stuff on our website so you know as Ruth pointed out we actually do have a lot to cover today I uh I run generally a full day workshop on the information I will be presenting today so if you uh kind of find J she's really not taking a breath and she's she's forwarding through it it's because I really want to try and offer you as much fantastic information as I can so we still press on now before we get to um you know what the ideal elements of a sponsorship proposal for a not for-profit organization are I really wanted to make sure we're all on a Level Playing Field so sponsor shop sponsor shop sponsorship is not um philanthropic support is it is not about approaching companies for a donation um it is really about helping companies who are aligned with your mission with your core goals to work along alongside you because they want to access your um members they want to build credibility uh for themselves they want to sell more products and services as a result of their alliance with you a philanthropic donation is really more about um supporting a cause and not expecting anything in return so the ideal sponsorship relationship is that you make money as a result of uh a sponsor's investment with you um a sponsor makes money because they have been able to sell more products or Services as a result of their alignment with you um and also something that I haven't written there which is ultimately important is that your members are winning out of this as well because they feel that they are given access to uh more intelligence uh educational material discounts better member services as a result of the sponsors um Allegiance with your organization I think part of the thing that most passionate about in this role uh in supporting the not for-profit sector is really helping not for-profits and Charities and Peak professional associations understand that you are not a charity that needs donation when you are seeking the right company and the right corporate partner you are the gateway to their target market or part of their target market you are the direct access to to um to who they are trying to sell to and that makes you a really valuable marketing partner so if nothing else out of today I'd really love you to try and help help get help you shift from that um you know to the right partner we we have a lot of value and so we are able to ask for a substantial investment because we are going to be delivering a lot of value out of that uh out of that Rel relationship so why do sponsors invest well there's a there's a range of reasons and some of them I've I've jotted up here today you know they're looking to increase their their brand awareness their profile perhaps even their brand protection by um by aligning themselves with you um for for instance apple apple is a good example they are a company globally known uh they are not after brand awareness everybody knows who Apple are what they're after is brand protection so they are really interested in trying to get in front of people and have face-to-face access with people because a lot of people with the iOS 7 and and the new iPhone uh 5S have jumped ship to Samsung and so they have gone into brand protection mode to really try and and and and lure customers back to Apple um you know a not for-profit sponsorship or an alliance with a not for-profit organiz ization is really a warm introduction to a market they're not currently doing business with it is not like uh advertising in the Sydney Morning Herald or doing a television uh campaign to try and access people to purchase a product your members aren't mandated to be with you it is not compulsory for them to be with you they are with you because they see value in uh in their membership and that holds a lot of value to a company uh because it automatically means that when they align with you there is uh a natural TR opportunity for them to build trust quite quickly with your members um they are able to perhaps influence purchasing Behavior U through their uh alliance with you because you will be um allowing them to communicate with your members and you will obviously be doing that uh in an encouraging way to encourage your members to to purchase their products or or um think about them the next time they need a quote uh so there is an opportunity there for for the influencing of purchasing Behavior there's credibility which is a huge one your impeccable brand as a charity and a not for-profit organization you are very very trusted in the community's eyes so by a company aligning themselves with you it's like they kind of get to bask in your reflected Glory they get some credibility out of that and whether or not you use the words endorsement you need to know that there is a perceived endorsement um by a partnership with you so uh you know and part of the thing hopefully we'll get to cover today um and if not I certainly cover in the workshops that I run is that it's just as important for you as a not for-profit to screen a company to screen them as a potential partner what are their missions what are they trying to achieve out of a partnership indeed have they even partnered with a not for profit organization before that in itself can be a big um education for a company because they're not used to dealing with an organization that has members um so you know the perceived endorsement of a partnership with you is a very strong incentive for a company to invest and clearly the opportunity to gain new customers and more customers and you for you to be able to put a company in front of people that they're not currently doing business with okay the reasons then uh sponsors won't invest is that a lot of times um not for-profits are very time poor there's a lot of challenges to seeking sponsorship uh time po resource po money po um not NE you know too many too many hats for for too few heads not enough money to fund all the great ideas that you have as an organization so sometimes the um proposals that can be sent out from not for-profit organizations are misaligned they can uh not be reaching the organizations that are really trying to access their members so those are often opportunities that are missed or lost because uh you know a company will receive a proposal and think I don't you know it can't answer the age-old question of what's in it for me and it'll often end up in the bin the same with a generic approach if it's clear that you've just you know printed off 30 proposals and sent them out willy-nilly and you've made no uh you know take not taken the opportunity to try and tailor the proposal or even speak with the company before you send a proposal out to talk about a potential alignment that will also be a reason that you don't hit the mark when there's no clear objectives for how a company might participate in this sponsorship with if you're not offering uh the benefits you know the the ways that you're currently communicating with your members if it's not detailed in a proposal it it won't hit the mark um sponsorship is about return on investment it's about a company being able to clearly show at the end of the day that there is some return on investment for their investment um so when you're unable to show meas measurability or or at least how many people that you can put them in front of where the alignment is for them that you've done some research on who they're trying to Target um that will be a reason that they they won't come on board as a partner something that I've discovered uh over the years is uh corporate partners and companies are a little more nervous to jump into a situation or an organization that is untested in their eyes so where where there are untried opport unities or techniques or benefits um often you will sometimes have to concede bringing a partner in at a lower level letting them kind of get a taste of who you are and the kind of access that you can offer at them and then Foster that relationship over the years and build that investment up over time another one that is uh you know speaks to the to the time poorness of a of a not for-profit organization is about uh un unmaintained relationships often we will get so excited about the opportunity to speak with a corporate partner and bring them on board in a partnership opportunity the money will hit the bank account and often then we get so busy with our core Mission and our programs and our projects that we forget about um you know all the things that we promis we would do for a for a corporate partner and then when it comes to renewing them we'll find that they they often won't come back on board again so now that we have uh try to cover off if you like on a on a Level Playing Field so we all know where we're coming from there are some key things that are not for-profit um sponsorship proposal should contain there is no template fit I'm sorry to say um I certainly do do have a template sponsorship proposal um but it's not a kind of a cut and paste these words into your own proposal it's more about directing you for what what things should be um should be detailed on on each page the most important thing is detailing what your sponsor wants and you won't know that unless you actually speak to your the company that you're trying to Target first um you know I often talk in my workshops that I'm hope hopefully that people can live vicariously through the my own failures you know I've probably made more mistakes um during my sponsorship Journey over the years than you could ever hope to make and if that helps people kind of fast track their own success then I'm very I'm a very happy camper but you know um you know I've trial the whole do a do a mail out and and then follow up versus call companies first before you do a mail out out and there's no doubt that trying to build a relationship prior to sending out a proposal is absolutely uh the fastest way to a understand more about uh we can hear a bit of a fuzzy noise so have you changed anything or I don't know not a thing okay thing I'm okay well there is still a bit of a fuzzy noise folks and I apologize about that but at least we can hear you now Abby so can you I can hear something it sounds like it's raining but it's sunny Gold Coast up here for me oh it's gone it's G okay so everybody who benefits of live webinars Ah that's it okay well look you're back and you you so can you just step back like 30 seconds and start that that sentence again um so that we just don't lose you and but I'll I'll let you know yes I've got a few people saying clear now so I think everybody's back on track now so sorry we let's fantastic no problem so um I think I will just go back to the most important part is detailing what a sponsor wants I've uh I've made a lot of mistakes in my own sponsorship journey and tried a lot of different ways to um contact organizations and by far the best success rate is contacting a company prior to sending a proposal even if they say to you look do you have something that you can just flick me through so we get a bit of a sense of who you are um that is often better than just sending out a generic proposal that doesn't Target them in any way and so um so that's kind of what I was covering there and and then I wanted to move on to a couple of the um the components if you like or elements of the ideal sponsorship proposal which is the covering page the invitation and positioning statement um the benefit benefits and communication channels that you will offer uh sponsor to to leverage from who the key contacts within your organization are the testimonials that you can provide from uh other partners that may have um may be with you even ones that you've used in the past uh and the investment page so let's get cracking a my screen has locked isn't that interesting next yes there we go okay there we go I'm here there we go a word on images so images are really really important a lot of uh sponsorship proposals that go out to companies are um A4 uh text Laden uh very difficult to read um don't really address for a sponsor why we are approaching you why we feel there's an alignment why you would want to spend money with us part of what I've learned over the years is you know images um speak a thousand words they are highly important they are really good if they are relevant to who you are and who you represent you know please don't put in landscape images if you are the Australian College of midwives you know put in beautiful pregnant bellies and babies and joyful Expressions pictures that evoke emotion and want to create a connection between people um one thing if I could uh if I could make a recommendation and I know that it's tough with uh organizations that don't have a lot of resources is if you do run Workshop series or conferences or or events of any kind um using your own uh images are so much better you know we can all visit I stock we can all visit shutter stock in fact if you've got a pen and paper pixabay.com p ixa a y.com is a is a website that I will sometimes use they have about 50,000 free images um so perhaps you can find something in there but down the track if you can use your own images from a professional photographer uh you know your website will be enhanced your marketing collateral proposals and it really gives the sponsor a great indication of how serious you are about you know about engaging with them it also has the added advantage of making your proposal much easier to read it breaks up the text it creates more white space and when you're using proposal uh sorry images that are relevant to who you are and and what you're talking about it just has this beautiful Synergy throughout the proposal um I Sor every that I was able to um go straight to some images and I'll show you some in a minute I've actually had a few questions already this morning which is excellent about people being really interested about the gold silver and bronze you know what these levels have been around for a long time and uh those kind of generic sponsorship packages are really more about you and making this an easier um an easier process for you than it is about being creative and flexible for your for your sponsor so uh try and be flexible try and be creative and I guess I'm talking about things like um you know uh gold silver and bronze it typically seems to be you know there are 12 dot points or 12 bullet points points of uh benefits as a gold sponsor and then you'll see on the on the silver sponsor there'll be seven bullet points of benefits that you receive and then on the uh bronze there'll be five bullet points it's just really from my conversation with companies um they're over it they're really really over it so the more you can get into the habit of calling a company before you send a proposal the more of an idea you will have about what they're looking to achieve from a part parip with you even if it's an event sponsorship it doesn't have to be an annual uh partnership that that you enter into but it's really good if you can hear um hear from them what the kind of things are that they're interested in because you know 50,000 or 10,000 for the opportunity for them to have their logo on your website no longer cuts it you know I deal with companies who receive upwards of 150 proposals a month and uh it's really Cutthroat now not for-profits are getting smarter there are 700,000 not for-profits and charities in the country so the more um the more you can actually differentiate Yourself by being prepared to pick up the phone and just know that when you do pick up the phone you're not ringing to ask for money you're ringing to create a relationship you're ringing to be curious about you know the research we've done about you as a company tells us that there might be an alignment I'm ringing you to see whether you also feel that way and hopefully that can take some of that call resistance out because I know people get really nervous oh I'm shy I don't like picking up the phone I don't want to ask for money well in the first instance you're actually not um and so you know the more you can understand what your sponsor is looking for and be prepared to maybe allow them to come in at a smaller investment level uh gain their commitment give them a good experience and grow that investment over time I think uh is going to be a much uh you're going to have more success okay Ruth's telling me that when I change slides you can't really hear me so I'm just giving it a moment hopefully we're okay to go so your cover page it's really great if you can have a relevant and striking hero image now this doesn't have to be Spider-Man or Superman or Batman I'm not talking about that kind of hero image I'm talking about an image that if you could encapsulate your mission or or your or your um ultimate member in an image what would that image be make it visually interesting emotionally appealing please write corporate partnership proposal on that cover page because that will instantly identify for that person in the marketing department for for that company what you are um sending them put your logo on the uh on the cover page and also your website because sha is eggs if they don't know much about you the first thing they'll do is get on your website and have a look um you know one thing that I've noticed is becoming more com uh common is uh people also putting the company's logo on their corporate Partnerships proposals please don't do this um you actually don't have permission to do that and companies seem to get really bent out of shape uh by it so I know a lot of companies or organizations say well if we have our logo and their logo we're kind of giving them a feel for what a Synergy and what a partnership might look like you know what just leave it off until you have their permission Don't Go Near their logo I just wanted to give you a bit of an idea of some of the corporate partnership proposals that I've created over over the time I started off with a bit of a landscape um uh design and have moved more to the portrait uh magazine style um which seems to and I've really reduced the length of it as well so you can see there I try to theme my um my corporate partnership proposals so I've been working with AAR now they are the uh management rights industry body and they're in accommodation and so you know the the theme of that proposal was about accommodating Australians and then I talk about our accommodating events and our accommodating Communications so it's kind of you know you know giving the impression if you like that we are accommodating to work with that we're easy to work with sports medicine Australia again was um you know Vision focus and follow through and we we draw synergies between you know our sports medicine and science professionals and also the fact that Business Leaders in today's society need Vision focus and follow through and so we're drawing synergies together um through the theme of that proposal and then when I was working with the Australian College of midwives obviously that beautiful hero image there okay one thing that's really important to have in a proposal is a positioning statement I think uh it's very easy for um not for-profit organizations to really make that first page of the proposal uh a history about their organization and you know it's it's got to it's got to be continually answer answering the what's in it for me question so if you can do away with we were created in 1980 and we've been blah blah blah and we have move away from that and and move into a positioning statement which is a sentence or a paragraph that defines you your organization what your position is in the marketplace what makes you unique and why it's relevant to the company that you are um targeting I like to try and use facts and figures and statistics to justify that uh position I'll uh just read a paragraph from The arama Proposal that I created earlier this year to give you an idea of the positioning statement that I used for them so the Australian resident accommodation Managers Association or aama is the peak body for the management rights industry in Australia and represents more than 2 and a half thousand residents managers across the country our industry manages in excess of $15 billion in property and returns more than 55.5 billion doll in economic benefit back to Australia each year now in that little sentence we've suddenly given the big picture of who we are we've said we're the only one in Australia who does this we've given them a size of our membership we've given them the uh you know the the amount or the size of uh the accommodation and property that we manage each year and also how much we funnel back into the Australian economy as I said I run a a full day workshop on this stuff so it's it's difficult to try and you know I really want to give you as much information as I can but hopefully it can start to uh inform you a little bit more about you know when you write a partnership proposal please try and think about what a corporate partner is wanting to hear and the fact that they may not know you and so what is the shortest punchiest way you can get them to understand who you are and why there's an alignment in the shortest amount of time possible um your positioning statement actually goes on the on that in that page after the cover page so that real that first kind of meaty page if you like of your proposal and that's part of the invitation page so it's the invitation to partner and that's where you you can sell yourself you can tell them what you can offer that nobody else can where you really should try and convey that message that we can help you become more successful through XYZ by putting you in front of people that you're not currently doing business with by getting you uh at our events by helping you to communicate with members across all the ways that we're already communicating with our members um try and make that sponsor excited about working with you give them the big picture of who you are of where you fit in the country or your state or even your local vicinity you know this isn't just about uh you know National organizations looking for National Partners you know I deal with local football teams and local Surf Clubs so it's just as relevant whether you're looking across the country or whether you're looking you know just on the Gold Coast or Bly heads or you know rural um rural New South Wales so try to move away from focusing on the history of who you are they can read that on the about us page on your website try to create more of a story that they can become part of I've just tried to list some of the things that I can think of that you may already be offering um your members it's not about you going back to your organizations now and thinking oh we need to put on a national conference and it's going to cost us $4,000 a year because we need to give sponsors you know access to our members it's really about teasing out all of the ways you're currently speaking with members and offering um Partners the opportunity to leverage from that so you might have direct mail you might send out new member packs and renewing member packs and annual reports perhaps There's an opportunity there to be able to po pop in a flyer on behalf of a corporate partner you might have a quarterly newsletter or a quarterly magazine rather than giving them advertising space it's better to give them editorial space what we're wanting is is to be able to have a company educate our members because that's when our members are going to feel connected to that company and that is what's going to perhaps influence their purchasing decisions when they're feeling that that company is actually giving back to them um telling them about Cutting Edge research or any educational content they have members will be more likely to turn to them for further information you might have events uh there might be speaking opportunities it may be as little as you run an awards ceremony during the lunch break at your conference and you might offer your corporate partner the opportunity to hand out the flowers or to the awards um to the winners and there might be a two-minute opportunity there for um for them to speak on stage uh as you can see there's a whole bunch of information there what other opportunities might there be how else do you communicate with your members it's really um as as the list can be as long as you like and Abby when you're talking about members you actually mean um because not every I just want to um confirm what you mean by members because that might be Don it might be uh your people who come to your event your customers might it so just just because I know some people online might think oh I don't have members you know right great question thanks so much Ruth um look basically if you have a database of people that you are in touch with whether you call them members supporters donors clients uh they are the people that you um communicate with regularly they are the people who support your organization they aren't mandated to do that it's not compulsory for them they are the ones that you have an opportunity to allow companies to communicate with so thank you for highlighting that I guess the you know the the wording I'm using is is members I should have probably uh cleared cleared that off and just to remember about privacy and confidentiality isn't it because I know that sometimes when we give over our name and address to an organization because we've um donated to them we just need to be careful about uh the Privacy um you know contract around there and just not get you don't just want to go out to 100 corporate partners and give them all your names and addresses because you might lose all your donors please please please that is the best point you've just made please never give away your database ever ever ever uh selling your database whether it's on a USB key or you give them a printed out sheet or send them an Excel spreadsheet is is you are handing over the greatest value that you have to a corporate partner because you're basically saying to them here here's a bunch of potential new clients for you you pay us once and you can have access to them the strength in the relationship is actually the fact that you are welcoming this company to the table you are inviting them to get to know your family and that is actually a much more powerful proposition to a company than handing over your database that's a really really good point please don't do it I know that it happens sometimes but um you know the whole premise of a sponsorship or a corporate partnership Arrangement is that when your partners or sponsors communicate to your members they do it through you they do it through channels that you are already using they are not having an opportunity to spam members so it should not contravene any privacy issues that you have you are and they are doing it with your full editing rights you know if somebody submits an advertisement or editorial content to you and you think you know that kind of language isn't going to fly with our members you need to support that company to um communicate in the best way possible and they will generally be grateful to you because they want the biggest bang for their buck as well so that's a really really good point and I hope I've cleared cleared that up okay so moving on key contacts um you know this is part of the um the the partnership proposal that's actually really uh important sponsors like to see who they're dealing with please include photos and once again if you can get professional photos done even better um you know often you know we'll get people to send in a photo of themselves and it will be them at a barbecue that's kind of been cut out and the lighting's really bad and they may have a beer in their hand that is not the photo to put on Your sponsorship proposal if you can get clear lovely professional well-lit photos they're good on your website they're great in your newsletter they can be used in a bunch of areas and they really you know a corporate partnership proposal is your your one and only chance to really create a first impression so it's it's best to be as well-dressed as you can be um include your CEO and Senior staff you know if you are approaching a CEO a general manager a vice president of marketing they are going to want to see their equivalent in title if you like so you know if you're approaching a CEO they're going to want to see an image and a biography of your CEO um funnily enough uh when I work with not for-profit organizations one of the things that I have to do first up is I have to say please send me your biographies um before I even start writing the proposal because I I have learned that people get really triggered about having to supply their photos and their biography so that's often the thing that takes the longest most Senior Management will have a biography especially if they um are lob lobbying government or if they are um you know speaking at conferences and things like that but for people who haven't done a biog graphy before it can be uh a bit of a tricky exercise for them and they won't prioritize it so generally when I create a sponsorship proposal for an organization the first thing I do is I ask for photos and biographies and I know that that's going to take um quite a while you um might also want to in in involve some influential board members please don't put contact details for board members though you do not want a company to contact your board about a potential sponsorship deal you want uh the the people to contact you so just keep the contact details there for team members only testimonials a b blurry but I love that cartoon this is a wonderful testimonial for our product line Ted you just can't buy this kind of Praise enthusiasm and sincerity tell your mom we really appreciate it now please don't put a testimonial from your mom in the uh in the corporate partnership proposal but you know what it is so much more powerful if you can get somebody else to say something good about you um testimonials from the right people are powerful please think carefully about who you approach some organizations come to me and say you know what we are brand new to the sponsorship realm the corporate partnership uh process we've never had we've never had sponsors or Partners before who could we uh get testimonials from so you know uh you may have people uh research Partners you may have suppliers you may have people who have uh worked with you or donated to you previously they uh may be great opportunities to go to them and ask for a testimonial and and what we're wanting is what would we like to work with did you find benefit from from you know your association with us um and if you can get their permission to use their logo that's that's fantastic so it's um I actually have some um uh guides on you know how to write a good testimonial so you know please feel free to you know email me at the end of this presentation I can absolutely send you out that how to guide but um yes never say something good about yourself that you can get somebody else to say uh investment I think this is really really and there's a formula that I use that I do not have time to go into right now but one thing you need to know is sponsorship in a not for-profit sector is often the cheapest form of marketing for a company um you know if you wanted to take out a full page ad in a Sydney Morning Herald on a Saturday you'd be looking at about $100,000 for one campaign now you know when a company does that they don't have the opportunity to ring the Sydney Morning Herald on a Monday and say oh could you let me know how many people would have read our ad on Saturday the benefit of them coming on board as a partner with you is that they will get direct access to a target market that uh they're not currently fully penetrating and you know they they are going to be able to create communication strategies and and communicate with your members and stakeholders and clients and supporters all of the people you're willing to give them access to over the year for a much um more in in a much more highly aligned way but for a much cheaper um investment you know it's the same amount of effort I know it doesn't maybe feel like it but it is the same amount of effort to go after a $50,000 investment as it is 5,000 you know you still have to create proposals you still have to follow up you still have to have meetings it's the same amount of effort so think about what you are offering what is the worth what is the value of your offering to a partner and often you won't understand that until you start having these conversations and building these relationships but a big mistake not for-profits make is that they think well what what are our costs what's it going to cost to run this event or what's it going to cost to put in this advertisement we build build on 10% and then we we we'll maybe charge 10% more than that um that's not the best way to go about it uh there's an 8020 rule in sponsorship uh 80% of an investment should be profit 20% of what they invest with you should go to servicing that sponsor so you know when you looking at government grants you have to acquit every single scent um but in sponsorship you should be able to uh have 80% of that investment being profit and most importantly when you're looking at valuing yourself know that you are the direct rout to market for the right sponsor and I use that as a caveat make sure it is the right sponsor you know if we're the Australian College of midwives we're not going to go after a gardening company you know where's the alignment there um so when you do identify those sponsors that are trying to access or or trying to sell to to your members and constituents remember that there is massive value in that I think I'm done so I hope I've helped you I know that there was a lot of information in there you may have questions you might want more information there's my contact details if you're on Twitter please feel free to um to follow me I nearly said sponsor me no I don't want sponsors uh I post post an article most days about sponsorship and I look at uh guest articles from around around the world and I also send out a monthly uh free monthly newsletter e newsletter which uh has tips and how-tos and templates so you know feel free to email me and uh give me your email address and I can sign you up thanks so much Ruth for todayful thank you so much Abby um look that was a lot of information but I've been writing down note to myself you know you know the oh there's so much that you just gave me some ideas on there um but even you know that mind shift that we need to think of ourselves as valuable partners and un and and sort of sit down with our boards and our team and actually think about how valuable we are and what we can offer to Partners um and also the importance of a really good website because of course people they are going to come and check us out just as much as we need to check them out so you know having a great website that sort of display is who we are and what we're doing and how we can you know build their branding I suppose just as much as ours um you know and and what you've talked about is you know the fact that this is a really uh it's a lot of work but on the other hand it might really pay itself off you know we need to think of this as an investment I suppose in our time to get to know potential sponsors is that's a really good point actually and you know there's not many activities in the not for-profit sector that have the O opportunity to give you the return uh on investment for your efforts that sponsorship does yeah and everybody I mean someone's just said you know how many people should be involved in corporate sponsorship but I mean really do you agree that everybody is is a is a involved in that sponsorship because sponsorship equals partnership and equals relationship doesn't it so really well I guess it's an interesting question and yeah and without knowing more more you know I guess there's two ways to answer that question uh one is it's a little bit like membership you know membership is everybody's business there's often more than one person in an organization who will you know somebody will send out the newsletter perhaps somebody will update the website perhaps we'll have an event coordinator so all of those people need to be across Partnerships and sponsorships absolutely I kind of feel like it's better to have one point of contact in an organization because the easier you can make it for a for a company yes uh knowing that there's just one point of contact the the more comfortable and the better flow that a partnership seems to have yeah now look I'm really sorry I'd love to go on chatting with you for ages Abby but I know that you do hold workshops and if people want to talk to you more they can call you and email you um so we're going to have to wrap up because everybody needs to get on with their day um but thank you again so much for everything that you've been able to give to us today and as Abby said um we're on uh Twitter but I I'm a lot on Facebook um so please come to pillars of best practice where I'll be sharing a lot more about fundraising and sponsorship and lots lots more I I work with all areas of your organization so I hope to uh see you on Facebook and we can continue and you can ask questions obviously on Facebook so we can do that as well and uh look lovely thank you again for everybody for joining us and I hope that you got something out of today but time's up so we're going to have to say goodbye and um look happy we'll talk about you know future webinars and you're probably going to put on some of your own uh webinars and and stuff as well so hopefully everybody will meet us again on