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Sponsorship receipt template for non-profit organizations

i am super excited about this week's video and it's something that i hope to do more of in the future and that's bringing in other non-profit professionals so today we're going to be talking to mariah monique who is the founder of sponsorship catalyst now i am very good at what i do but i don't know everything and it's nice to have somebody working in a specific niche area so today she's going to be talking with us about non-profit sponsorship and she's amazing so i've left all of her contact information in her bio below in the description so with that welcome mariah [Music] um well first of all welcome i am very excited to be doing this but i do not profess to know a lot about sponsorship back when i did it was 20 some odd years ago when it was spray and pray so i'm very very anxious to hear how you approach it because i did creep your website a little bit and see that you do speaking engagements and you do audits and you do courses well i don't do courses anymore um i will probably relaunch it in the future but more so now one-on-one um vip days and audit and alignment sessions so and then i allow people to pick my brain just you know for you know about 45 minutes to ask whatever questions they have regarding so yeah okay well let's start first with what you offer and then that'll set people up to keep watching because they'll be like oh yeah this this girl knows what she's talking about okay awesome so i am a sponsorship strategy coach and i offer non-profit organizations or i teach non-profit organizations how to position as well as package and pitch their um their events to corporate event sponsors and so i have evolved over the year um where i initially started off doing group coaching and really teaching organizations through a series of educational lectures if you will on the process of securing sponsors and what is needed how do you position yourself on the front end making sure that your data is impactful as well as framed in a way that's not boring um and that has evolved more so into my current offers which are vip days for people to really build out their sponsorship deck so it is a day five hour working intensive day it's a done-for-you service where i work with the organization to craft out their messaging page by page in their sponsorship day essentially just helping them understand the different ways they can do things the way they can frame different things so there's a lot of education within that vip day but then we're also like doing heavy work ideally the purpose is for it to be be done so you can actually put it into design for you to have something to present to a sponsor right now some sponsors they have websites where they will require you to put an attachment into the required fields but then some sponsors they're just like email me what you have or let's have a conversation and so the vip day really prepares people but also helps them position and frame their data as well as build those packaging packages out to where they have sellable um brand benefits to a sponsor so there's the vip day and then i also do an audit and alignment now these are for people who have existing sponsorship decks and they just maybe don't have a lot of traction or um they're maybe just not confident in what they put together sometimes people diy these things they're looking on the internet trying to figure out what goes in here what should i what should i do and they're not getting the traction that they want to see or um that they're uh putting out right and so i really help using my funder's eye you know from corporate america right this is this is kind of what i do and so using my funder's eye to really just help people improve their existing sponsorship deck so that it is actually attractive to sponsor most times when i'm doing those audits uh some of the main things i see with those is that people don't have data so they're afraid of the data or they believe that it's too small right it's like we can reframe that to where it still is impactful because any work that you're doing as a non-profit like it is impactful work and then sometimes people just have really low numbers in terms of what they're offering um and at the particular levels in which they're offering so those are some of the two things that i really notice in those existing sponsorship decks that i'm like okay i can see why you're not getting a lot of traction so those are my offerings right now um as well as you know opportunity to pick my brain right these are opportunities for you to come and just ask whatever questions you have regarding how to secure corporate event sponsors maybe even how to shape some of your brand activations so that you know your sponsors are satisfied but also your audience is satisfied so it's a delicate balance that nonprofits have to play as they are serving their audience but also serving the funders that are supporting their events so now i remember back in the day when i first started because i started my career in events and so many times a board of directors would come to me and say we want to do an event and we want to raise twenty thousand dollars but the event is probably only going to have maybe 500 50 people there and the unrealistic expectations and then how i had to use information that just wasn't it wasn't packaged nice it was just their mission vision and values yeah yeah yeah you know i mean even with people even with 50 people i mean i've heard of events where there's only 50 people but again it's how you frame for those 50 people uh just just to go off your example i have a sponsorship colleague that has worked with other brands and she said you know i had 50 high network um net worth women right that were having this event is really to pour into these women that were i believe they were in the tech industry um but verizon paid for everything they paid for the entire event they didn't even want any other sponsors to be able to have access to those women so it really is how you frame it doesn't really matter how small it is because you know that's subjective like people will pay for it if it makes sense for their organization i think the important part is making sure that it does make sense for their organization so not only brand alignment but really understanding that organization's goals because like you said earlier you know back in the day it was that spread and pray method and i believe people are still operating in that way which is why they're not getting the results they want and honestly to to a degree like hey i encourage it right but get a little bit more strategic you know when it comes to really truly understanding what these companies value what their priorities are for the year and they can change from year to year you know never expect that you know one year they're doing one thing and then it's going to be the same next year as we can see 2020 really shifted a lot of that for most corporations which is part of the reasons why i started my business because i realized that a lot of non-profit leaders protect particularly in the bipolar community didn't know sponsorships existed they definitely did not know how to navigate the world of sponsorships and so it's like how do i teach what i know to help better position them and then just really understanding that most people just don't know you know really how to do this thing so you're so right about that yeah so is a non-profit that uh has the capacity to bring you in as a consultant and utilize your services but what about those nonprofits that are so grassroots and ken what would your advice be to them on how they could start yeah that's a really great question i do find myself uh running into a lot of grassroot organizations and honestly you know you really have to be prepared as any organization whether you're new or older whether you have secure dollars or not you have to be prepared for corporate sponsors most people don't really understand that individual sponsor is is different than a corporate sponsor they're not going to care about the same things that a corporate sponsor will care about so there is a difference but for the smaller organizations graduate organizations i really do preach to them of like having some data i find that a lot of orgs whether they're starting for the first year i even had a client that was uh in business for six years but they were not really operating you know in a way that would really be able to um be attractive right to a corporate sponsor so this is really just helping people understand collecting data on the front end so you can frame that not only for sponsorships but also for grants and so you do yourself a disservice if you're not really truly taking a step back to really set foundationally your organization up for success for funding oftentimes i call it good hearts no money um and i love that non-profits you know they nonprofit leaders they have this good heart they see the needs in the community and they just fill in the gap which i can i commend that but the same time you really have to understand in order to be sustainable and make sure you don't have burnout because you're spending your personal dollars trying to serve the community that you love right it's like how do you take a step back to really set things up foundationally so where you can actually sustain your nonprofit organization um and so i really do teach you know some of those smaller organizations to you know plug into me when i'm hosting things that are a little bit more affordable right um that are a little bit more accessible because i'm always going to be teaching pretty much the same thing but maybe not able to go in into a depth about everything in like those smaller master classes or workshops and things of that nature and i do host some free things as well where it's like live q and a's right where you can ask whatever questions you have um and so um for me you know it's just really helping them understand that you've got to have certain things in place another thing that i noticed is that some people you know uh i call it you got to be able to manage your yeses so it's one thing to secure the funding and i find a lot of non-profits that they are able to secure funding but they don't have the back-end systems or back-end strategies to really maintain and cultivate those relationships over time so you got to be able to manage those yeses so it's one thing to get you know a yes it's another thing to manage those brand benefits it's another thing to manage and maintain those relationships like sponsorships is a win-win situation you know you can't just come to me and say hey can you sponsor you can't just come to any sponsor and be like hey can you sponsor but you really haven't built a relationship along the way like we really look at that it's like man like you just really want me when you want something and when you really think about sponsorships i like to parallel it to a relationship right recording or dating right and then you get you know you you get exclusive right that's when you get that yes from a sponsor they're gonna come to your your event they're gonna sponsor your event but then there's this opportunity to get engaged right where they may become a second time and so there's a little bit more loyalty and commitment towards you and then there's a marriage right when we think about marriage i think about like a true partnership where they are pretty much writing you in their budget so every year you know you can count on that money but that doesn't happen if you've not cultivated the relationship most people just kind of stop at the you know coordinated maybe engagement phase but they're not truly building relationships and i think it's also important to for non-profits to build relationships with more than one person in the organization that you're pursuing because roles shift all the time people shift out of rows all the time right so you got to make sure that you are solidifying you know not only the width right so across organizations but you're you're within that one org you are building some depth in the relationships you're building within um within that particular org so if anything happens you always have a contact there and you're not trying to rebuild that so uh yeah hopefully that answered your question but it did it did it yeah no i have um i've done a video specifically on having a stewardship plan because it's so important and what you said about relationships i say that all the time you don't ask someone to marry you on the first date you just don't you have to build that relationship yeah yeah yeah and you mentioned data and i preach a lot about collecting data but what kind of data do you mean in terms of the sponsorship yeah for sure honestly i think there's no difference between you know many industries right you want the qualitative data you want the quantitative data um and for maybe those that are watching that may not know what that is qualitative those are your testimonials those are your you know compelling stories things that you can share that paints a picture that maybe pulls an emotion whereas your quantitative data that's the hard numbers concrete it's very sub it's very objective right and so really making sure you're capturing both i teach people all the time there's three type of funders that you're going to potentially be in front of when you're pitching your events there's the thinkers thinkers they want numbers they want facts they want concrete data there's the fillers fillers are moved by compelling stories they want to know what what type of transformation are your attendees or participants experiencing by being a part of your organization what are your event attendees saying because participants are a little bit different than your event attendees sometimes there's a one offer the program participants are a little bit closer to you so they might have some different experiences as well and then you have your defers now deferrers are not necessarily thinkers or fillers they don't fall into that bucket necessarily but they are really focused on making sure that um their brand reputation is in alignment with what you're what you're pitching um and so sometimes you're talking to one person but they kind of really fall in all three of those buckets like myself right but some people it's like i just want the data and i've got another person here and they are really moved by stories and together we're going to make this decision so when i teach people how to build their sponsorship decks out the the philosophy is really to make sure you're hitting on all of those levels because you just never know who you're going to be talking to um you should always have numerical data within there you should always have um i guess i would say like testimonials embedded within your uh within your sponsorship deck i also teach the difference between demographics as well as psychographics because there is a difference a huge difference i teach it like a iceberg you know a little iceberg picture where you see success up here all the good stuff and then all the stuff underneath the water right where it's like the the crying at night or the long night it's like all those things right so on the surface level demographics are really surface though but you can look at someone and now i say this with caution right because i know we are in a time where you can't necessarily judge right from the outside i can't look at someone and be like oh they're black because they might identify something else or i can't look at someone and say you know they're a woman because they might identify differently but really demographics you really kind of that's easy to capture right you could know income levels by a simple survey you can know their rates their ethnicity you can know their age right those things are easy to capture but the psychographics requires time requires to really get to know your audience and that's really truly understanding what are their their values you know what do they believe what are their perspectives about things i teach people understanding your data on the front end will help you drive your sponsorship outreach for instance if you're looking at psychographics and you know let's say i always use this example let's say you start you serve single mothers um in a metropolitan city area and so let's say for instance you wanted to um like you knew that you're the mothers that you serve really love um really love chevy cars chevy vehicles chevrolet right you would not go to lexis because you love lexus and maybe you own a lexus like no like your people love chevrolet so you would make sure that you're pitching for chevrolet to possibly come to your event because you know that the audience is there for that sponsor right there's a benefit for that sponsor being there and so i do really think that your data really helps you drive who you reach out to um men there's many brands out there that are sponsoring but all of them are not the right fit for you or for your organization or for the people that you serve so i think understanding the data on the front end helps you really position yourself and also helps you pitch better another thing with that example is like you know sometimes let's say those single mothers are you know you did a survey and you knew that within 12 months you knew they would be looking for homes right now you can go to the finance industry right for loans home loans now you can go to the real estate industry right to make sure like hey we want you at this event because we know our audience we know their values we know their goals we know what they're interested in within the next 12 months let's bring you to this experience so again those sponsors benefit because they're they're they're hitting the right target audience and then your audience benefit because they're like we're all we're looking for homes right so it's just a perfect setup to make things convenient um and honestly i think from the non-profit side it just feels anticipation of like man i'm ready to go to the event next year right because you brought to your audience exactly what they wanted and you brought to your sponsors exactly what they need so that is huge i think it's important for sure to have that yeah actually i just wrote a note i think i'm going to do a video next on collecting data because i know so many charities that are scared to do it they don't want to people or they just they feel that it's too too much so i'm going to kill down on that one yeah they have to you know even sometimes you know even as simple as systems as a google sheet you know just counting you know how many people you're serving um if you're distributing something to the um community like what is that what is the cost per per unit right um i had a i had a client who was doing um she was doing uh what were they filtration systems right and it's you got to understand how much are they per unit right how many units do you need how many units have you given out right so you got to be able to capture even those little numbers even down to like you know social media if you're offering social media as a brand benefit and a sponsorship packet you need to know your numbers not just your followers you need to know what's your engagement percentage and all that you know instagram for sure just spells all that out you know and so you need to know what your reach is because that stuff is important even like your newsletter right how many subscribers do you have to your newsletter what's your click rate what's your open rate again if you're gonna offer that as a benefit have that stuff in your sponsorship deck so you know the sponsor doesn't have to necessarily go digging for that if the information is all in there even though they will probably do due diligence to make sure it's verified so there's all sorts of ways to collect data and to frame data you know you have audience data but you also have some of the technical things like you know social media and all that other types of things yeah fantastic is there anything else that you want to add that you think that we've missed that's important for non-profits to know any trends you're seeing i will say some of the trends that i am seeing i mean and really you know it was really from 2020 um you know a lot of organizations shifted to support you know traditionally un re under resourced organizations and so you know companies are still backing their corporate social responsibility goals and really investing money in you know those types of marginalized communities and so i think it's so important to um understand that what might have been happening previously is really shifting and i often times hear people say you know whether small or large organizations you know they don't support you know we can't tap into the corporate world right we can't tap into those dollars but honestly so many things are shifting right now to where if you are positioned right um and you're not letting up off the gas like this is an effort you know because it is based off of building relationships um and it is a mutual benefit for both you as well as your funder and so really just understanding that there are people out there looking for organizations like yourself i definitely encourage people to be on social media i know sometimes non-profit organizations they stray away from you know the social media like parts of you know what they could be doing to increase visibility because sometimes you know sponsors are going to social media to say who could i find for something that i know i need and if you're not on there you know sharing what you're doing or showing that you're active you know and if you're not sharing those things then it's hard for people to really know that you exist um and i'm really i'm really hopeful that you know people can start to understand that you get out of this rat race essentially right where you're just doing doing doing but then you're leaving you're leaving behind the fact that there's funders that want to support that and really be okay to invite them in you know this is not necessarily a donation sponsorships are not donations that's something i do want people to know yeah yeah in the united states because i'm in canada okay i'll have to when we're done spin you around and show you the snow out here oh my gosh but in canada if you if it's a sponsorship there's marketing and value attached to it so you cannot get a tax receipt but if it's a straight donation then you can't do you get a tax receipt but you can't do any marketing around it oh so it's very different yeah yeah it's different yeah so yeah out here you can get a tax receipt um and you can get that mark especially if it's into a non-profit organization typically it's 100 tax deductible for the the corporation um but to to speak to that you know i think it is important to understand that um when they when people are going after these sponsorships to to understand that it's a value add right it's not a donation because there are streams attached and that's those streams are attached are typically in the form of brand benefits or marketing opportunities for that organization to have their brand you know plastered all over your event to whatever capacity um that they pay and so really understand that you know there are some things that you have to do when you receive that funding a lot of times another thing i want to mention that i think a lot of organizations really fall short in is that after they've executed that event and fulfilled those brand benefits you know there's no fulfillment report or wrap report done right and so you lose an opportunity to share with that sponsor one how you fulfill that agreement that sponsorship agreement but two you miss an opportunity to really paint the picture for the sponsor about what their contribution went towards how it impacted the event what the what the audience said maybe about their brand activation or maybe about the event overall experience and then you miss the opportunity to really ask for feedback from your sponsor and to really see hey is this an event you want to come back to for next year and so most people miss that part which is why which is why they're not able to retain a lot of their partners you know people don't come back um and so you want to be able to really close the deal at the end because it really does give you insight but it also helps you to really build some loyal sponsor sponsors along the way and i think that's so important for people to understand that you know you got to close the loop with this thing you know close the loop you got to open it and keep closing and open and keep closing because it's really you reintroducing and reinviting them into opportunities to add to your audience um and then really making sure that you're you're being a good steward right of the the finances that they're giving you um in order to make sure that that event or your audience is supported so that's what i say i would add for that yeah okay perfect well i'm going to put your contact information and on your bio and everything in the notes below and um link up with your instagram as well too because that's where i found you awesome [Music] you