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in today's video we're gonna talk about the sponsorship agreement how to create a sponsorship agreement and the five things to include in every sponsorship contract check it out everyone Chris Bale is here from the sponsorship collective before we dive into talk about sponsorship agreements make sure you hit the subscribe button and click the bell icon to get updates every time we release a new video before I go into what you should include in the sponsorship agreement or a sponsorship contract I want to say very clearly that you should in fact you must talk to your lawyer before creating an agreement or a contract with your sponsors you should probably talk to a lawyer anytime you're making a legally binding contract or agreement but in the case of sponsorship agreements it's critical that you involve your legal team or your outside counsel but you must talk to a lawyer I've talked at length about the fact that sponsorship is a marketing discipline and when you engage a new sponsor you're entering into a legally binding contract that you're going to deliver them value for their money if you agree to 25 individual assets and you don't deliver there is a chance in fact a good chance that your sponsor is going to ask for a refund which is why it's incredibly important to define very clearly what you're selling your sponsors and what your sponsors expect in return having a verbal agreement is not recommended as the only contract in my opinion a verbal agreement is not enough you want to make sure that you've got a signed contract describing what both parties should expect it's entirely possible your contact will move on within a company and so the agreement will protect you and also outline what you've agreed to do even if the person of a verbal agreement with moves on so at its heart a sponsorship agreement defines how much money your sponsors are going to give you when they're going to give it to you and what you're going to do in return for that money I think people can run into trouble when they say we're going to promote you on social media without actually defining what that means how many posts how many people how many interactions what exactly are you agreeing is defined by promotion within the agreement that's why it's important to define these items put them in a contract and have both parties agree and sign so again it's between you and your lawyer what exactly you're going to put in your contract in your agreement but some common things that find their way into agreement are the date that you're entering into the agreement how long the agreement is for in other words when it will terminate the names and address and contact information of both parties you may want to include information around right of first refusal or multi-year agreements obviously you're going to include the fees and in granular detail exactly what you're going to deliver the sponsor you also want to include information around trademarks and intellectual property and use of logo what's appropriate and what's not you may want to include key dates of delivery benchmarks that you should be reporting against you should also include how you'll settle disputes if you and your sponsor disagree on something what's the process to come to a new agreement or to renegotiate the contract I also think it's prudent to include in a contract a clause that states any verbal agreements you have outside of the written contract do not in fact constitute a contract in other words if you and your sponsor agree to changes that you will produce an amendment or a new contract to capture those items this isn't a way of tricking your sponsors it's a way of making sure that no matter what both parties are on the same page everything is in writing and there is no room for misunderstanding you most certainly do not want to find yourself in a position of having to give a refund because you missed something that was important to your sponsor but you didn't realize it was important to your sponsor once you've agreed verbally once you've had your sales pitch and both parties say yes we want to move forward a an agreement a contract is the way that both parties protect themselves protect their brands and ensure that both people are on the same page so broadly speaking your contract your sponsorship agreement should include first of all everything your lawyer thinks it should include which is why you must consult them before you create a contract now talk to your lawyer about creating a template that you can use again and again in which parts of the contract you should change an update so that it's applicable to each new sponsor if saving money is your goal and you don't want to have to engage a lawyer every time and create a new contract there may be a way around that but not including a lawyer in this process is definitely not the way to save money in your sponsorship program you do want to make sure that you cover things like exclusivity and what that means if your sponsor is expecting you not to have any competitive brands at your event your opportunity involved with your organization you need to define that and you need to define what level of sponsorship you can't be working with other perhaps competing brands you really want to get detailed about what exclusivity means to your sponsor so that you don't accidentally violate those terms at least in the eyes of your prospect you most certainly want to include payments when you should be receiving them what you have to do in terms of reporting to trigger the next payment if anything and all of the benefits you are promising your sponsor when you're going to deliver them and how you're going to deliver them if termination is an option then you want to define that and if termination is not an option then you want to make sure that's in the contract as well but you want to provide guidance around terminating the contract for each party what constitutes a breach of contract and how you'll handle disputes if one party wants to terminate the contract and of course you want to be really clear about your logos your marks your intellectual property and so too will your sponsor want to be clear about those things how can you use their logos when can you use their logos way and so on so the idea of an agreement of a contract is not add more bureaucracy to your sponsorship program it is in fact to protect both parties and make sure that both parties get value for their investment for those watching this video who are from the nonprofit space this is an important reminder that if you're calling sponsorship corporate philanthropy and your companies yours your sponsors your prospects are just giving you money to do good in this world to accomplish your mission this assumption this belief could be a real problem for you from a sponsorship perspective it could be a big problem for you from a sponsor relations perspective how happy your sponsors will be with you but also it can create perhaps some exposure some risks from a legal perspective if you believe that a company is just giving you money to promote your mission but you fail to deliver on the marketing benefits within your sponsorship pitch deck now this is true of everyone not just nonprofits but it's easy for nonprofits to slip into the belief that sponsorship is really just major gifts for companies it most certainly is not it is a marketing investment the onus is on the property you to provide value to your sponsor in a way that that your sponsors expect so be sure to create a contract be sure to create an agreement every time you bring on a new sponsor to make sure that you're both on the same page have your lawyer write it seek legal counsel before you sign anything from your sponsors or before you ask your sponsors to sign anything be ready to negotiate at this point your sponsors will ask you to make changes probably and don't be afraid to request request changes yourself and remember the sponsorship proposal does not make the sale you do good luck out there [Music]